Free Smoked Out (Digger) by Warren Murphy Page A

But you and me, we left. Some people don’t leave, particularly if there’s a million-dollar reward for staying."
    "Why do you keep banging your head against a simple accident?" Breslin asked.
    "Because it just doesn’t wash for me yet," Digger said.
    "You’ve got a hunch," Breslin said.
    "Something like that."
    "I don’t trust hunch-players," Breslin said.
    "You should if they win."
    Both men finished their drinks at the same time. Breslin waved to Michelle who was standing at the end of the bar near a cardboard container that held a bottle of cheap wine. It was supposed to look like a cardboard wine barrel. Digger wondered who would possibly drink a wine that was packaged inside a cardboard wine barrel. Breslin held up two more fingers.
    "Mine this time," Digger said. He put a twenty-dollar bill on the bar.
    "What do you want from me?" Breslin asked.
    "I came to offer you a deal."
    "I’m listening."
    "Wait a minute."
    The barmaid refilled the drinks, took Digger’s twenty and put sixteen dollars on the bar. She hovered a moment, waiting to see if anyone would invite her into the conversation, then walked away.
    "I need the file reports," Digger said. "Autopsy. The interviews. Who’d you talk to?"
    "Welles and the housekeeper."
    "Okay. I need those. Copies of them and everything else."
    "You’re asking me to violate department regulations," Breslin said.
    "Exactly."
    "What do I get out of it?"
    "If I can nail him, I’ll give it all to you. Your arrest. Your glory. I don’t want credit. When they write a book about it, you can star in the movie."
    "I’m too short, I told you. You must be pretty well connected in your company that you can do without praise," Breslin said.
    "I am truly loved by one and all," Digger said. "I won’t lie to you. The company will know I had something to do with it. But they don’t want public credit. It’s not good for the insurance company image to have the public think that old BSLI hires gumshoes to go around and help them avoid paying people their claims. My people don’t care who gets credit as long as they don’t have to pay the million."
    "I don’t know," Breslin said.
    "It could be worth your while in other ways, too," Digger said.
    "What ways?"
    "You could come to Las Vegas. Be my guest for a while. My company can be very generous."
    "That’s a bribe offer," Breslin said.
    "Exactly."
    "You’re sure you’re not from the commissioner’s internal security squad?"
    "They wouldn’t have me. I’m too honest."
    "I ought to arrest you now for trying to bribe an officer."
    "And when they make the movie of that, I’ll play both roles ’cause I’m tall. You get shit," Digger said.
    "I don’t know," Breslin said. "There’s a risk. Suppose you hand me up?"
    "First of all, I won’t hand you up. What do I get out of that? Second, look at the risk-reward ratio. Do you risk a lot to win a little? No. That’s stupid. But I’m asking you to risk a little to get a lot. It’s like believing in God."
    "What is?"
    "Risk-reward. Everybody ought to believe in God. The risk is kind of little, going to church once in a while, maybe saying a prayer when there’s nothing good on television. Probably there isn’t any God. But if there is, the reward is pretty damn enormous when you’re dead, sitting up there on a cloud, watching all those atheists skulking along with pitchforks stuck up their asses. Risk and reward. The ratio is what’s important."
    "I don’t know."
    "Shut up and drink for a while," Digger said. "I get more persuasive if the guy I’m talking to is all slammed up."
    "Do you have until Sunday? It takes me that long to get drunk."
    "Save me from the fucking Irish," Digger said.
    "What are you?"
    "An Irish Jew," Digger said.
    "Poor bastard."
    Four drinks later, Breslin said, "I don’t know."
    Digger took a card from his wallet and handed it to Breslin, who read it aloud.
    "Frank Stevens. President, Brokers Surety Life Insurance Company. So?"
    Digger took the card back