Read Online Big Mango (9786167611037) by Jake Needham - Free Book Online

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that the whereabouts of $400,000,000 is a hell of an
incentive.”
    “Then how would you get somebody to give up
something like that?”
    “You’d have to get into some serious torture
to have any chance at all. Metal pins under the fingernails,
lighted cigarettes on the nuts, that kind of thing.”
    Winnebago broke out in a fit of coughing as
he exhaled.
    “Then why send those photographs to put me on
guard? Why not just drag me away somewhere and get on with it?”
    “Because they’re not going to torture
you.”
    “I’m glad you’re sure of that.”
    “I am.”
    “Then what are they going to do?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Nothing?”
    Wuntz nodded solemnly. “Nothing.”
    “For Christ’s sakes, Wuntz, stop with the
goddamned riddles. Just spell it out for me.”
    “They’re trying to spook you.”
    “Then they’re doing a hell of a good job so
far.”
    “I’m not joking, Eddie.”
    Eddie raised his eyebrows skeptically. “You
mean they think the pictures will scare me so badly that when they
come around and ask where the money is I’ll just tell them?”
    “I thought you didn’t know where it is.”
    “I don’t.”
    Wuntz smiled one of those cop smiles that
said he knew a liar when he heard one.
    “But they won’t just go away quietly when I
tell them I don’t know anything, will they, Wuntz?”
    “Probably not, but I wouldn’t worry about it.
I don’t think anyone’s planning to show up and ask you
anything.”
    Eddie just waited for the rest of it this
time and let Wuntz preen a little before he went on, spinning out
his theory.
    “They’re trying to make you run.”
    Eddie obviously still didn’t get it, so Wuntz
spelled it out, slowly. “Look, if you thought that after all these
years somebody had finally put you together with the missing money
and they were coming to put enough hurt on to make you give it up,
what would you do?”
    “You mean, what would I do if I actually knew
where the $400,000,000 was?”
    Wuntz shrugged. “Okay, we’ll play it your
way.”
    “I’d grab as much as I could carry and find a
nice warm beach in a country without any extradition treaties.”
    “Exactly.” Wuntz steepled his fingers, pursed
his lips and tried to look professorial. “You’d run, Eddie. You’d
run straight to the money.”
    “Give me a break, Wuntz. Even if I did know
where the money was, it sure as hell wouldn’t be buried in a box in
my backyard. We’re talking about maybe ten tons of gold and
currency. It’d be in bank accounts, invested in stocks, bonds, and
real estate. Stuff like that.”
    Wuntz looked unimpressed. “Doesn’t make any
difference. The principle’s the same.”
    He held up his open hand when Eddie started
to interrupt.
    “If you feel threatened enough, you’ll check
the money to be sure it’s safe, whatever form it’s in. That’s human
nature.”
    “And of course if I did that—”
    “You got it now,” Wuntz nodded vigorously.
“Whoever is sending you these photographs would be right behind
you. He’s probably got people watching you.”
    Winnebago glanced around quickly and rubbed
at the side of his face. “Oh, Jesus.”
    “Maybe he even has a way of checking your
bank accounts, seeing if you move money from one account to
another, shit like that,” Wuntz went on. “He’s probably all over
your ass right now and you don’t even know it.”
    “You think that’s it, huh? You think that’s
what the pictures are all about?” Eddie mused.
    Wuntz clicked his tongue against the roof of
his mouth a couple of times. “That’s sure as shit the way I’d get
to you. More effective than torture. Neater, too.”
    The more Eddie thought about Wuntz’s theory,
the more sense it made; and the more sense it made, the better he
felt.
    If Wuntz was right, all he really had to do
was sit tight and this would all eventually go away. When he didn’t
do anything out of the ordinary, whoever was behind the pictures
would get sick of watching a