Void Moon (1999)

by Michael Connelly

  "Each night he takes his winnings in cash and keeps it all in a briefcase. If he leaves the building he takes the case with him. Locked to his wrist. The only time he doesn't have it with him is when he's down in the casino playing. What he does is take it to the front desk and have them hold it in the vault for him while he's playing, then he picks it up when he goes up to bed. Whenever he's carrying the case he's got a security escort. He doesn't take chances."

  "So what you are saying is that the only time to get it is to go in while he's asleep."

  "Exactly."

  Leo came over to the table and put down two plates with two sandwiches each on them. He then went to the refrigerator and came back with two bottles of Dr Pepper. He sat down and opened the bottles as he talked.

  "In the room he probably transfers the cash from the case to the closet safe as an added precaution. That's not for sure but we have to expect it. You want a glass with that?"

  "No. What is the safe? I don't remember from before."

  Leo looked down and studied his notes.

  "It's a Halsey Executive five-button. Sits on the floor in the closet beneath the clothes rack. Bolted to the floor from the inside. You can't move it. You have to go in and open it - while the guy is right there in the room."

  Cassie nodded and picked up half a sandwich. Leo had cut them into triangles. He always did it that way and she remembered he once got annoyed when she had made a sandwich and cut it lengthwise. She took a bite and immediately smiled.

  "Gawd," she said, her mouth full of peanut butter and moving slowly. "I forgot how good these are, Leo. I remember you makin' them for Max and me after we drove all night to get back here after jobs."

  "Made these sandwiches for him since he was six years old. Always his favorite. It always hits the spot."

  Mentioning Max robbed her of the smile. Cassie turned back to the business at hand.

  "The Halsey has a front-mounted keypad. I can do it with one camera - two to be safe if there's time. I'll have to know if the mark's right- or left-handed. I'll get that when I see him on the floor."

  She was primarily talking to herself. Seeing the job in her mind. Then a question for Leo came up.

  "You ask your man about the paint?"

  Leo nodded.

  "Swiss Coffee. The room was painted two months ago but it's a smoking room. Our guy smokes cigars."

  "That'll help with the smell."

  She committed the paint color to memory. She decided she'd pick up a pint and a pump bottle at Laurel Hardware in the morning before leaving.

  "I'm also told he's a fat fuck," Leo said. "A snorer. Makes it a little easier."

  "Nothing's easy, Leo. Not in Las Vegas."

  That made her think about going back to the Cleopatra again and a foreboding came over her.

  "If he's leaving Thursday, why don't we wait and see where he goes and hit him at the new place? Why does it have to be the Cleo?"

  "Because we don't know if he's going anywhere else. He might be going back to Texas, for all we know. His briefcase might be full and he's going home. Besides, we have the inside man at the Cleo. Who knows if we'll get lucky like that if he moves on."

  Cassie nodded. She knew Leo had thought about all of this and had decided that hitting the mark at the Cleopatra was the only way.

  "I read that the Cleo's for sale," she said, just to be saying something that would take them away from her thoughts.

  "Yeah, three thousand rooms and half of them empty on any given night. Big white elephant is what it is. Seven years old and already for sale. I heard Steve Wynn took a look at it but then took a pass. You know something must be fucked up there if he didn't see a way to turn it around. He touches something, it's gold."

  "Maybe the place never got over the bad publicity - you know, with Max."

  Leo shook his head.

  "Old news. The problem is they made that place as cheap as Mother Hubbard's flophouse and now it's falling apart and nobody wants to stay there. Too many other nice places on the Strip for the same dough. You got the Bellagio now, the Venetian. The Mandalay Bay down at the end."

  He was naming places that hadn't even existed the last time Cassie had been to Las Vegas. She finished her first sandwich and immediately moved on to the next after taking a swig of cold soda from the bottle. She went back to laying out the plan, talking with her mouth full.

  "Unless things have changed, the Cleo is on magno-cards. That means I have to get over there early tomorrow to work on the maid. I finesse my way into the room, set things up and come back at night through the air-return vent - just like last time."

  She gulped down a mouthful and felt it hit her stomach with a thud.

  "I don't know, Leo. They might have changed the design of those ducts after me and Max used them."

  She looked over at him. He was looking over his glasses at her and smiling.

  "What?"

  "You're not listening to me," he said. "I told you the spotter is an inside man. Forget the ducts. And the maid, too. No soshing on this one. You'll have a complete package waiting for you at the VIP desk."

  He looked down at the notes.

  "Under the name Turcello. You'll have everything you - "

  "Why Turcello? Who's that?"

  "That's you. Who cares why? It's just the name the spotter gave me. In the package will be everything you'll need. You'll go in through the front door to the room because you'll have a pass key. And you'll also have a room nearby. So you can set up and watch. Also there'll be a pager. You put it on and you'll get a buzz the minute the mark starts cashing out for the night."

  "A pass key only gets me halfway there. I'll need to change out the deadbolt. It's been so long I can't remember the make. Did you get - "

  "Got it right here. Relax. I told you, I've got everything. This isn't amateur hour."

  He referred to his notes.

  "The deadbolt is a Smithson Commercial. Same as last time. That a problem?"

  "I won't know until I get there. Like you said, when they built that place they went cheap in the places you can't see. They used half gears in all the deadbolts. I guess using halves instead of wholes in three thousand locks saved a nice piece of bread. The question is, did they go back and change them all out after that night with Max?"

  "What if they did?"

  "Then it's trouble. It means I'll have to take out the whole and cut it in half. "

  "In the room?"

  "No. I'll have to leave and come back. I'll bring a cutting torch with me and leave it in the trunk. But if I have to go down to use it, I'll have to find a place out of sight. Meantime, the guy could go up to the room and end of story."

  "What about the other room? You could take the gear out of that lock, cut it and then take it into the mark's room."

  Before Cassie could say he was right, Leo shook off the possibility that the locks had been changed.

  "I tell you, don't worry about it. That place has been losing money since the day it opened its doors. They wouldn't have gone out and changed three thousand deadbolts because one guy - who wasn't going to be doing it again - finessed a lock. Forget about it."

  "Easy for you to say. You're staying here."

  Leo let that go and reached into the file. He pulled out the stack of money and put it down next to Cassie's plate.

  "Our partners are serious people. They know there are equipment costs. That's ten grand there. For camera shopping and whatever else you need."

  "I've already spent close to nine hundred on the basics."

  "Let me ask you something, how up to date are you on all of the cameras and stuff? You know what you want?"

  "I'll go see my guy at Hooten's. If he's still there. It's been a long time."

  "Sure has."

  "If he's not, I'll go to Radio Shack. I've kept up. I'll make it work, Leo. Don't worry about that part."

  Leo studied her over his eyeglasses again.

  "So what happened, Cass? Why'd you wait so long to ca
ll me? I had given up hope of you ever turning up again."

  "I don't know, Leo. I guess at first I just thought I was going to make a run at it, you know?"

  Leo nodded.

  "The straight and narrow," he said. "But it wasn't there for you."

  "One day everything changed."

  "Well, welcome back. We could use you on our side."

  He smiled. Cassie shook her head.

  "Leo, this is a one-shot deal. I mean it. I'm not on your team. I'm going to disappear after this."

  She knew the money wouldn't be enough. It would only be a start. But that was all she wanted, the promise of a new start.

  Leo nodded and looked down at the yellow page of notes.

  "Well, this little caper should get you to wherever it is you want to go."

  "Did you make that call on the passports?"

  Leo raised his eyes to hers without raising his face.

  "I did. I'm told they're on the way. I'll check the drop later. I like going late, after the counter's closed."

  "Good. Thanks for doing that."

  "No problem. I want you to get to where you want to go, Cassie."

  She picked up the money and stood up.

  "I guess I better get it in gear if it's going to be tomorrow. I have to - "

  "Wait. One more thing. This is important."

  He pushed his plate aside although his second sandwich was uneaten. From the rear pocket of his pants he pulled an appointment book. It was the size of a checkbook but thicker. He took a rubber band off it and opened it to a page marked with a pink Post-it sticker. Cassie could see it was the current month's calendar. Many of the blocks denoting the days were filled with Leo's printing. Leo ran his finger along the blocks until he found what he was looking for. He spoke without taking his eyes off the page.

  "I want you to humor me on something when you're over there."

  "Fine. What?"

  "Promise me."

  "I'm not going to promise you anything until I know what you're talking about. What is it, Leo?"

  "Okay, this is it. Whatever you do, no matter what happens, don't be in that guy's room between three twenty-two and three thirty-eight in the morning. Okay? That's Wednesday night going into Thursday morning. Write it down if you think you'll forget."

  Cassie felt a bemused, questioning smile come across her face.

  "What are you talking about?"

  "It's a void moon."

  "A void moon . . ."

  "This is my astrological calendar, okay? I work with those books I showed you in the office and I chart things, including the moon."

  "Okay, so you chart the moon. What's a void moon?"

  "It's an astrological situation, okay? See, when the moon is moving from one house to another up there in the constellations, it sometimes is in no house at all. When that happens it means it is 'void of course' until it finally gets into a house. It's a void moon. And like I said, on Wednesday night going into Thursday morning there's a void moon for those, what, sixteen minutes. It's hanging out there between Cancer and Leo. It's void of course from three twenty-two until three thirty-eight. I worked it all out here."

  He closed the calendar and held it up to her as if it were something sacred.

  "And so?"

  "And so it's a bad luck time, Cass. Anything can happen under a void moon. Anything wrong. Just don't make your move during that time."

  Cassie studied him for a moment and registered his look as completely sincere. Leo had always been a true believer in whatever it was he chose to believe in.

  "It's going to be tough," she said. "It all depends on when the guy goes down. I need to go two hours into the sleep pattern. At least two hours to be sure."

  "Then go in after the void. I'm not fucking around here, Cass. You know Lincoln, McKinley and Kennedy were all inaugurated during a void moon? All three of them and look what happened to them. Clinton, too, and he might as well've been shot, what happened with him."

  He nodded very somberly and held the calendar up again as if it were proof of something itself. To Cassie there was something endearing about his fervent belief. Maybe it was because she wasn't sure she believed in anything anymore.

  "I mean it," Leo said. "You can look this stuff up going back as far as you want."

  Cassie took a step toward the table and reached for the book. But as Leo offered it, she pulled her hand back. She wanted to ask something but wasn't sure she wanted the answer.

  Leo read her. He somberly nodded.

  "Yeah," he said. "I looked it up. That night six years ago with Max, he had a void moon, too."

  She just looked at him.

  "Remember what you said before about there being a jinx? It was the void moon, Cass. That was the jinx."

  At the door Leo wished her good luck and said he would see her after the job was completed. Cassie hesitated on the front steps. The discussion of the void moon and Max had put a somber veneer over everything now. She rolled her shoulders as if catching a chill.

  "What is it?" Leo asked.

  She shook her head as if to dismiss the question and then asked her own.

  "Leo, do you think about Max?"

  Leo didn't answer at first. He stepped through the open door and looked up at the night sky. The moon was pale and hung like an egg in the sky.

  "It will be full in a couple days. Nice and bright."

  He continued to stare for a moment and then looked down at Cassie.

  "Not a single day goes by that I don't think about him," he said. "Not a day."

  Cassie nodded.

  "I still miss him a lot, Leo."

  "Me, too, Cass. So you be careful over there. I don't want to lose you that way, too."

  9

  BY noon on Wednesday, after making a few last stops for paint and supplies, Cassie Black was crossing the desert, the sun gleaming off the silver skin of the Porsche and heat waves rising off the pavement in front of her. Though the highway was reasonably clear and she was driving a car capable of cruising smoothly at 110 mph or better, she kept the Porsche at a steady two miles under the limit. It was tantamount to holding a thoroughbred race horse at a canter but she had good reason. The moment she had left Los Angeles County she was in violation of her parole. Drawing a traffic stop from the highway patrol could result in her immediate incarceration.

  As soon as she crossed the county line she knew that the stakes were high and her life was now at risk. Any interaction with law enforcement would probably result in her returning to lockdown. She had been paroled five years into a seven-to-twelve-year sentence for manslaughter. If she got hooked up she'd be returned to prison for a minimum two years but probably even longer.

  She put a Lucinda Williams compact disc in the car stereo and listened to it over and over during the drive. The music rarely skipped badly on the smooth freeways. She liked the outlaw spirit of the songs, the sense of yearning and searching for something the singer put in every song. One of them made Cassie cry each time it came up on the disc. It was about a lost lover who had gone back to Lake Charles to die.

  Did an angel whisper in your ear hold you close and take away all your fear in those long, last moments For Cassie the question posed in the song was a ghost that haunted her all the time. She hoped an angel had come to Max.

  The sharp-edged outlines of the casino resorts were visible ahead by three and she felt an unmistakable mix of excitement and trepidation. For many years she had believed she would never again see the place where she had grown up, where she had met and lived with Max. She had comfortably reconciled that and put Las Vegas behind her. Returning now made her think of pain and regrets and ghosts. But she also couldn't help but marvel at the genius of the place. If ever something had been made out of nothing, Las Vegas no doubt was it.

  As she cruised the Strip she found the changes made in her absence to be remarkable. On every block there rose a new resort, a new testament to greed and excess. She drove by a faux New York skyline, the colossal M
GM Grand and the new Bellagio. She saw re-creations of the Eiffel Tower and Venice's Piazza San Marco. They were places and things she had never seen. But now here they were on the Las Vegas Strip. She remembered something Max had once said. "Everything and everybody will eventually come to Las Vegas. It will take away any reason to go anywhere else."

  Then they went to islands and they knew there was at least one place that couldn't be counterfeited or corrupted.