Charlie, Gene, and Vinny were polishing off their steaks in Fort Lauderdale. “So here’s the deal,” Charlie said. “The target is a betting parlor, a rich one, but they got raided last night—somebody didn’t get paid off—and they’re moving it to another location. We need to let it get established there before we take it. The raid will put a dent in their take for a week or so, until word of their new address gets around.”

“So we came down here for nothing?” Ryan asked.

“No, I’ve got something else we can do right away. It’s a little bank west of here that’s flush with cash on certain days, and I got word that Tuesday is one of them.”

“Banks are tough, Charlie,” Ryan said.

“This one’s a pushover. I know because I knocked it over a while back.”

“What did you get?”

“Over three hundred grand. There might even be more there Tuesday.”

“Tell us the plan,” Ryan said.

“We go in the front with shotguns—masks and coveralls—and go straight for the vault, don’t even bother with the tellers. We go out the back door, where I’ll have a van waiting, and we’re outta there. We change cars and meet at your motel.”

“It can’t be that simple,” Ryan said.

“You know how burglars work?”

“I’ve caught a lot of them in my time,” Ryan said, “when I was on the force.”

“They hit a place, then they give the owners a little while to replace everything with their insurance money, then they hit it again.”

“Yeah, that happens a lot.”

“Same thing here. I’ve got word from inside that after I hit the place, they installed two more cameras and added one guard.”

“How many guards did they have before?”

“One.”

“And you don’t care about the cameras?”

“They had cameras before. Everybody was covered from the head down.”

“What’s the split?”

“My backer gets half, I get a quarter, you two split the rest.”

“That’s not a lot for us.”

“This is just a stopgap—it’ll put some money in your pocket while we’re waiting for the horse parlor to get cranked up again. And you get some extra time on the beach. I pick up the motel rooms.”

“Vinny, what do you think?”

“I’m in, if you are.”

“Okay, Charlie, we’re in.”

Charlie ordered another bottle of wine.

—

Frank Riggs, né Russo, received Charlie in his office. “I heard what happened with the betting parlor,” he said.

“Don’t worry, Frank, we’ll wait a week, then we’ll take it. Meantime, we’ll do the bank again. I hear it’s ripe for the picking, and I’ll give you a quarter of the take, even though you don’t have to do anything for it this time.”

“When are you going to do it?”

“Tomorrow afternoon, one o’clock.”