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When they were past, Letty checked the camera’s screen, and found five frames that caught the pair with good resolution and from slightly different angles.
“Find a parking spot,” she said. “We got what we need.”
They lucked into a car vacating a space just around the corner from Balls’. Baxter hurriedly parked, and they were out and down the sidewalk, Letty clomping along with the cane and the limp.
“I’ll do the talking, you answer the computer questions,” she said. “Remember, you’re nervous about this.”
“Iamnervous, won’t have to fake that,” Baxter said. “You got your gun?”
“I do.”
“Ah, man, I don’t want this. I’m a lover, not a fighter.”
“That has been my understanding,” Letty said.
As they approachedthe café, the redheaded woman saw them coming and said something to the blond man, whose back was to them. A waiter had just walked up to the couple, and as Letty and Baxter stepped onto the stone patio, the redhead said, brightly, “Here they are. Could we get a couple more menus?”
The waiter went away, and Letty and Baxter scraped back two of the metal chairs and sat down, and the woman said to them, “I’m Sue, and this is Bob. Who are you?”
Letty: “That’s really funny. We’re a Bob and Sue, too.”
The woman smiled. “Thatisa funny coincidence. Our mutual friend...”
“You mean Professor Harp? He’s not a friend of ours.”
The waiter came with two more menus, and they ordered lemonades and Cokes, and he went away again.
The blond Bob said, “You’re not cops? You have to say if you are.”
“Well, Bob, that’s complete bullshit,” Baxter said, to Letty’s surprise. She was supposed to do the talking. “You should look it up sometime. There’s this thing called Google. They don’t have to admit anything. There have been undercover cops who went so deep they had children with their targets. Anyway, we’re not cops and we’re only here to ask you for advice. How do you get Bitcoin out of a wallet that you have an address for... but that somebody else might be interested in? We’re told that you would know.”
“Couldn’t you look that up?” Bob asked.
“We tried, and it all sounded like thirdhand bullshit.” Baxter leaned across the table. “If you can help, we’ll give you a taste.”
“How big?” Sue asked.
“Twenty-five K?”
“No way,” Bob said. “I’m not risking federal prison for twenty-five K.”
“So don’t take anything,” Baxter said. “Tell us what to do and we’ll go away...”
“We’d take half,” Sue said.
Now Letty jumped in. “Fuck that.” To Baxter: “C’mon, Bob. These nitwits got nothing for us.”
She started to stand up when Sue said, “Bet there’s a reward out for you. Professor Harp told us about the hospital thing. We could probably get fifty thousand for turning you in.”
Letty sat back down and said, “You know what else you couldget, bitch?” She tilted the menu down to cover the move, pulled her hand out of her jeans pocket and pointed the 938 at Sue’s chest. “You could get a nine-millimeter right between your tits.”
They all sat frozen for a couple of beats, then Bob put up two hands and said, “Hey! Hey!”
Baxter growled at Letty: “Put the piece away, Charlie. They’re fuckin’ harmless.” Letty slipped the gun back in her pocket, and Baxter said to Bob and Sue, “Call Harp and tell him if he resigns today, the university probably couldn’t touch him.”
Letty and Baxter pushed back in their chairs. Sue said, “Okay. Okay. We can tell you a couple of things.”
Letty and Baxter settled again and Letty said, “Like what?”
