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of thing. And the son of a bitch always leaves a little something behind to help the police along. Old Hatch hasn’t changed a bit. He used the same technique hitting the Russian embassy for me in London.’
    Stenhauser looked up sharply, staring at Sloan as they walked.
    ‘Also the Iranian embassy in Washington, before the hostage thing. Always leaves something. One of the sensitizers, the wire, something. It’s magician stuff — misdirection, because he always ju m ps the alarm system but he never leaves the jumper behind, you know why?’
    Stenhauser’s pace began to quicken.
    ‘Because to jump the system requires inside knowledge. In both my cases, Hatcher had an inside man, but he didn’t want to blow their cover, so he leaves a little something behind. Now, here he is pulling the same old stunt. Hell, I was on to him from the first job, the thing in Paris. What a score!’ Sloan laughed appreciatively.
    Stenhauser stopped. He jabbed a finger at Sloan.
    ‘You’re crazy, you know that? I don’t know who you are or what your game is, but you’re stuffed full of shit.’
    ‘I haven’t gotten to the good sniff yet. See, here’s the way I figure it works. Let’s say somebody lifts a Picasso from a museum. The museum doesn’t want a million bucks’ insurance money, they want the work. They want it before it winds up on some Arab’s yacht over in the Mediterranean. So they make a deal. The insurance company pays fifteen percent, no questions asked. It costs the insurance company a hundred fifty grand on a million- dollar policy, the museum gets its goods back, and the thief walks with a clean bill of health.’
    Stenhauser was not a brave man. All he did was provide information and make deals. It had never occurred to him that he and the Bird would be caught. Now fear began to nibble at his insides.
    ‘There’s nothing illegal about what I do, Sloan,’ he said defensively. ‘I make deals, sure. 1ut it’s perfectly legitimate. It saves the taxpayers money because the police aren’t involved. It saves the insurance company money. The victims get their things back. Everybody ends up happy.’
    Bluffing, and not very well, Sloan. thought, chuckling to himself. Still smiling, he shook his head. ‘I couldn’t care less,’ he said with a shrug. ‘But let me give you a new scenario. A thief hits the Louvre and walks off with twelve million dollars’ worth of goods. The fixer steps in, quietly gets the word around, makes a deal. The insurance company gets stiffed for one point eight mill, but saves ten point two mill in the long haul, an d the museum gets its paintings back. Now, just supposing we had a real smart man working for the insurance co m pany. And supposing he approaches this flier and says, “Look, pal, I can give you advance information on where art’s gonna be, when it’s vulnerable, the security systems , I’ll set up the buy, and we just split the pie up two w ays.” Sloan paused. ‘Neat, isn’t it?’
    ‘I know where you’re heading with this, and I’m telling you right here and now you’re nuts,’ said Stenhauser vehemently.
    Sloan kept talking, slowly, quietly, as if Stenhauser bad never uttered a word. ‘I figure the t w o of you have split almost four million dollars over the last two years, Stenhauser. You’re not only going to have cops all over the world crawling up your ass, you’re gonna have the IRS sitting in your lap every time you take a load off. All I have to do is tell them what you’ve been up to. Whether they can prove it or not, they’ll make life so miserable for you —,
    Who is this man? Stenhauser wondered. He had never before entertained even the remotest thought of murder — of any form of bodily harm to anyone else — but now, walking up Madison Avenue, he found the blackest kind of ideas buzzing in his head.
    ‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Sloan said, as if reading Stenhauser’s mind. ‘Forget it. You don’t have the guts or talent for