Silken Prey

the cash. The good thing is, it’s all cold, in case we had to make some payoffs. Then there are two hundred gold Eagles, no serial numbers or anything else. Right now gold is selling for seventeen hundred an ounce, which is another three hundred and forty grand. That’s close to six hundred thousand that we can get our hands on tonight. The diamonds . . . She won’t give up the diamonds. They’ve all got sentimental value for her. She says that as soon as we get clear of the campaign, she’ll put another four hundred thousand on you, in Panama. You might have to make some arrangements—”
    “Like what kind of arrangements?” Carver asked, but he’d brightened considerably.
    “You might have to get a piece of land down there with your own money. Like, pay a hundred grand for a piece of oceanfront, or whatever, under a different name. She pays you half a million for it. That keeps things straight with the tax people. It’ll all be handled through front companies.”
    “Well, shit, we can do that,” Carver said.
    “Sure. It’s not rocket science,” Dannon said.
    “When do I get it?” Carver asked.
    “When do you want it?”
    “Tonight, if we can do it,” Carver said. “I can be on a six o’clock plane for New York.”
    “There are going to be people around the house, people coming back with Taryn,” Dannon said. “I’ve got the numbers for the safe. We could do it right now—take your truck, you can drop it at Hertz on your way out of town. We were going to turn it back in tomorrow anyway.”
    “Good. Good. Can we go now?”
    “Let me talk to Schiffer.”
    •   •   •
    L UCAS AND D EL were still sitting in the street. Everything was running behind schedule; Taryn had been expected to speak at 11:30, but that got pushed to 11:45. She was supposed to talk for ten or fifteen minutes, but the thank-yous went on and on. Finally, at 12:30, Stack called Lucas and said, “It’s winding down. She won’t be here long after she finishes speaking.”
    “When was the last time you saw Carver and Dannon?”
    “They’ve been going in and out of the back,” Bradley said. “But Dannon’s here right now, he’s talking to Schiffer.”
    “Carver’s right at the edge of the stage,” Stack said. “He’s talking to some guy in a suit. . . . Wait, he’s going into the back again.”
    “I’m coming in,” Lucas said.
    Lucas took the stairs to the ballroom where the party was; people were going out through multiple folding doors, most of them with yellow credential tags around their necks that said, “Taryn VIP”—party invitees. There were guards at the door doing perfunctory credential checks, but there were more people leaving than arriving. A TV guy carrying a light stand hustled by, and a guard put a finger out to Lucas, a gesture asking for a credential, and Lucas showed him his BCA identification. The guard’s eyebrows went up and he waved Lucas through.
    Inside, a few hundred balloons, red, white, and blue, were scattered around the floor and floating around the ceiling, and a drunk young man was popping them with what looked like an Italian switchblade while his friends laughed at him. The carpet smelled like spilled champagne.
    Taryn seemed to be getting ready to leave the stage, waving fairly randomly at the crowd, laughing; strobes popped in her face and her teeth flashed in the brilliant white pops.
    Four sixty-inch TV screens were sitting on high stands at the edges of the ballroom, and Lucas paused to check the numbers: Taryn was up more than sixty thousand votes and the Iron Range was still coming in large; there were a few Republican counties yet to report out west, but they’d make little difference. It wasn’t a huge victory, but a clear one: Smalls was toast.
    •   •   •
    C ARVER AND D ANNON took the back stairs to the parking ramp. Carver said, “Man, I wasn’t sure she’d go for it. You gotta get in on this, dude. She’s not gonna fuck you forever, and money is definitely better than pussy.”
    “Shut up,” Dannon said.
    “True love, huh?” Carver said, and he laughed.
    Dannon was checking the garage. An older couple was getting into a Prius a hundred feet away, and a Chevy Tahoe was rolling toward the exit. He could see a man standing in the elevator lobby, apparently waiting to go up. They got to Carver’s truck and Carver went to the driver’s side, got inside, and Dannon took the pistol from his waistband and held it in his