Big Easy Bonanza

asked.
    “Most of it. You know we could have done this at the office, or your house or mine.”
    “This is the way they wanted it, Tubby. I’m just doing as I’m instructed.”
    “What’s your interest?”
    “That’s a little complicated, Tubby.”
    “Are you just the money handler, Reggie?”
    “You could put it that way. Sometimes you get messed up in things that won’t let go of you.”
    “And that’s when you need a lawyer.”
    “I need a priest, not a lawyer, Tubby. When the DEA boys show up as planned but the treasure chest is completely empty, and suspicious people think it’s your fault, you need more than a lawyer. Let’s see what’s in the bag.”
    Tubby turned around and got it out of the backseat.
    “You sure got me this time,” he said to Reggie and handed over the prize. Reggie settled it on his lap and unzipped it. He took a quick look inside.
    “That’s a lot of cash,” he said to himself. He didn’t dig around; he just rubbed his chin and looked at Tubby. He took off his glasses.
    “Would you do me a favor?” he asked.
    “What’s that?”
    “Drive up Napoleon Avenue until I tell you to stop. I’ve got to turn this over to somebody else.”
    “I’m not leaving here, Reggie. I’ve gone as far with this as I want to go.”
    “It’s not like anything is going to happen to you. I mean, what worse could happen? I’m sorry about your chair and the painting. Honestly, Tubby, I only just found out a little while ago about your trouble in the French Quarter. I had nothing to do with that. I think they were kind of afraid to send another stranger to see you. They thought maybe you’d go off your rocker.”
    “So they sent someone I trusted?”
    “That’s basically it. But they really don’t trust me too much, and I’ve got to take them seriously. I’m scared as shit myself. They told me to get you to drop me off at a particular place on Napoleon, and then you drive away. That’s how I’m supposed to take the money to them. I’m the one taking the risk. It’s not like I get to make the rules. I’m under a little stress here, too.”
    “Shit,” Tubby said. He started the car.
    “Thanks, Tubby,” Reggie said. He zipped up the bag and put it between them on the seat. “Just drive up Napoleon toward the Lake.”
    Tubby rolled out of the lot. A block from the drugstore the wide street turned residential, and a ceiling of live oaks absorbed the streetlights and urban sounds and restored the tropical night. There wasn’t much traffic.
    “Where to?”
    “Right up to the end, by all that construction.”
    He was talking about an area where two boulevards intersected, and where the city had kept the streets torn up forever for a drainage-improvement project. No one could say when it would be finished.
    “Give me a little background here, Reggie. How did you get into this?”
    “Just doing what I do best,” Reggie sighed. “Putting Larry, Curly, and Moe together. You know me—slide in, slide out. Only this time I haven’t been able to slide out yet.”
    “It looks like you’ve got more hands-on involvement than is your usual style, Reggie.”
    “Yeah, Tubby. I made a mistake there. What I did wrong was I tipped off our esteemed Sheriff to the transaction. He has such a twisted mind, much more so than mine. He immediately liked the idea of ripping off the whole gang of thieves. Several of them were his friends, of course, but they hadn’t cut him in, so taking their money appealed to the Sheriff’s sense of justice. It was only a game to him, though. He didn’t have to put up anything to play. He just donated some dim-bulb muscle men who transformed a profitable investment venture into a murder case.”
    “What were you going to get out of it, Reggie?”
    “Money. Half of what’s in this bag. As you know, I love money. Now I’ll be lucky to get out of this with my good name and reputation intact. Nobody better find out about my side deal with the Sheriff.” He looked soberly at Tubby, who stared straight ahead, driving carefully.
    “You were going to screw your clients,” Tubby mused.
    “That I was.”
    “Well, you fooled me, Reggie. You turned out to be an asshole after all.” Now what is he going to do about me? Tubby wondered.
    “Right over there. That’s the spot.” Reggie directed Tubby into a sort of cul de sac where the road was supposed to go but was now blocked by a steep pile of dirt. Traffic had been routed away onto a long crescent