"Can't be anything illegal." "Well, he said he'd gone straight, just like me." "So we shook on it, went in the men's room, and he gave me $30,000 in a brown paper bag." "When this con is in the hands of a master, it's a joy to watch." "Why kill us both?" "Look, just kill one of us." "We're in a lot of trouble because you put $30,000 of hot money in the door of my car." "If I hadn't gone back for you, you'd be dead now." "You only got two ways out, dead and feet first." "You deserve this frame." "It was built for a dummy and it looks good on you." "This is Jim Rockford." "At the tone, leave your name and message." "I'll get back to you." "Jim, it's Beth." "You have the vet's number, the flea collar and extra litter." "One thing I forgot." "Keep him away from other cats." "He's not very discriminating." "Hi." "You sure you want to do that?" "What's happening?" "There's nothing wrong with that move." "That's checkmate." "Bluffing, huh?" "Jimmy, can I talk to you for a minute?" "Just shut up, will you, Angel?" "This here game's over, man." "You got to move your boss, or Rocky's gonna lay a subpoena on him." "Then his torpedo, he's gonna smoke your old lady and all your heavies would be doing time." "Except for maybe your mouthpiece, and Rocky's sheriff got him put in the corner." "You got nothing left but punks and junkies." "You're through, Jimmy." "You are." "I brought your car back." "No dings, no tickets." "You want a safe driving medal?" "I want to talk to you." "You're all through, sonny." "There ain't a move you can make." "I'm through when I say I'm through, and not before." "Now I'm through." "Jimmy, can I talk to you?" "I got a business proposition." "Don't let this fella involve you in nothing like sticking up no gas stations." "I'm not gonna stick up any gas stations, Dad." "Of course, a supermarket close to a freeway wouldn't be too bad." "Okay, Angel, what is it?" "You remember Tom Little?" "No." "Come on, you remember him." "He came in about a month before you got sprung." "Little tiny guy in C block." "Worked in the laundry." "Used to throw spinach on the guards from the catwalk above the rec room." "Oh, Chicken Little?" "Right." "Yeah." "No, I never met him." "I heard about him." "Wasn't he a pen and ink man or something?" "Yeah, well, his main beef was forgery, but his specialty was big, big swindles." "Municipal bonds." "Had a beautiful hand." "Well, what about him?" "Well, anyway, he's missing and he owes me $2,000." "Oh, some big swindler." "What did he do?" "Carry it away in a lunch pail?" "What if it was yours?" "I don't mean the whole $2,000, but I mean, you know, a percentage of it if you were to find him." "Two hot dogs, please." "No onions." "How would we split it?" "Look, all I'm asking you to do is scare old Tom up." "You know what I mean." "He couldn't even be very lost." "Probably wouldn't take you more than a couple hours." "Look, I'm not saying I'm gonna go along with this, but, just how much were you figuring on letting me in on?" "I'd be willing to give you a yard." "A hundred?" "Wouldn't even get my heart started." "How much you want, Jimmy?" "Half." "Half?" "What?" "Did you say half?" "Hey, come on, man." "Half?" "Hell, yeah." "Half." "What about all those times you was in trouble and you called on me?" "All those times Angel just dropped everything, you know what I mean?" "Just jumped right in the middle, make sure his friend Jimmy didn't get run up the river in the sheriff's bus." "What about all them times?" "Well, those were different." "Well, how's that?" "Well, because I was about to get stuffed in a cell." "That's different." "Look, one ex-con owes it to another to keep him out of the cooler." "But this is just a gambling disagreement, a petty wager." "Can you imagine me coming to you and saying," ""Angel, Rocky owes me $100 and he won't pay"?" "It's the same thing." "All right, all right." "Half." "Here." "I got his address." "Did you go out there and check?" "Yeah." "He wasn't there." "Then I called him down at his work." "He works down in the shipping department at Shafer's Department Store." "He wasn't there, either." "His car is gone." "All right." "I'll go and take a look for old times' sake." "Look, where you gonna be?" "I'll be right here." "I'll just hang around here." "Give me the keys to the car." "Oh, yeah." "All right." "I'll see you." "I got you." "Oh, hey, Jimmy, it may need a little gas." "What's new?" "Hi." "Are you Tom Little?" "Yes." "I'm a friend of Angel Martin's." "Well, what's he want?" "Well, he was under the impression that you'd left town." "He says you owe him $2,000." "I was just trying to help him locate you." "Okay, so you found me." "Tell Angel I'm good for it and get your foot out of the door." "Now wait a minute, wait a minute." "I got an idea." "Why don't..." "Why don't you come with me and we go see Angel and you can tell him yourself?" "I gotta pick up my brother downtown." "He ain't got a car." "Oh, he can get another lift." "Mind if I call him?" "No, go ahead." "Yeah." "Let me speak to Sid." "Hey, Sid." "Look, can you get Sharon to bring you back?" "I gotta go see Angel." "Ah, he's sweating the $2,000." "He sent some knuckle-crusher over." "No." "No, I can't." "Well, why can't you get..." "Okay, just a minute." "Where are we going?" "To the beach." "You gonna bring me back?" "Okay." "Listen, Sid." "We'll come and pick you up, but then we gotta go see Angel." "This guy will bring us home later." "Okay, let's go." "You guys don't look very much like brothers." "Half brothers." "Oh." "No, Jimmy!" "Hey, wait a minute, what's going on?" "Hey, now, pal." "Wait a minute." "It's probably a little low on gas, pal." "What's going on here?" "I don't know." "Who are those guys?" "I don't know." "What do you know?" "Nothing." "Somebody stole your car, huh?" "Yeah." "Get a good look at them?" "Yeah." "Why don't you go get a form?" "I'll give you a description." "You got a quarter?" "I don't need a form, Jimbo." "I can carry it all here." "No quarters." "So I owe them one." "What time did you say they boosted it?" "About 2:00 this afternoon." "What do you want?" "Beef stew." "2:00, huh?" "And it's 5:00 now." "That's three hours." "How come you waited till now to report it?" "I thought maybe they'd bring it back." "Get a spoon." "I don't know why they don't keep a coin changer in there." "Jimmy." "Angel, where've you been?" "Jimmy, can I talk to you for a second?" "I know you're mad at me." "I know that." "But this thing can be explained." "I swear it can." "Where's my car?" "Your car." "Right." "Well, it's fine." "It's fine." "There's no need to report it stolen, Jimmy." "I filled it up with gas." "I even got it washed." "Hi, Captain." "You got jailbird written all over you." "Where'd you do time, sport?" "Time?" "Time." "Wait a minute, I..." "It's 5:00." "Come on, Jimmy." "Let's go." "Can I just talk..." "San Quentin." "Four years." "But I got out in three for good behavior." "I even sang in the choir." "Didn't I, Jimmy?" "Who is this guy?" "Oh, Angel Martin, Dennis Becker." "Angel Martin." "Angel." "You're in the known associates file." "Right." "Right." "Probably with Jimmy." "We were both in San Quentin together." "I guess you could say that we both owned a piece of the rock." "No." "You're in Tom Little's known associates file." "I just pulled it." "Tom Little, Little, Little..." "Boy, that don't ring a bell." "You say that I knew him?" "Yeah, he's dead." "We're working on the homicide." "We fished his body out of the LA River early this morning." "Went wading in cement sneakers, got in over his head." "Listen, Captain..." "Sergeant." "I have some appointments." "I'm really jammed up for time." "So maybe we could talk about this later." "Later just won't do." "This won't take long." "Little." "Tom Little." "Boy, I don't know." "Hey, Jimmy." "How are you?" "I got a few questions." "Yeah, I can imagine." "Who's Tom Little?" "He's exactly who I told you he was." "He's an ex-con, and I think he was pulling some kind of swindle." "Now he's growing frost on his nose." "But who did him and why they did it, I don't know that." "Where's my car, and who were the guys that stole it?" "Now, that's a little tougher question." "But I can answer them." "Yeah." "Well, I'm waiting." "Jimmy, let's just get out of here and I'll answer them a lot better." "Come on." "Angel, where is my car?" "It's in the LA area." "Angel!" "Listen, Jimmy." "You was about to make a giant mistake in there." "You were gonna tell that flatfoot to go looking for your car and I couldn't let you do that." "For your own good." "I couldn't..." "Why?" "Because there's $30,000 cash hidden in the left front door panel." "Where'd it come from?" "I put it there." "Listen, Jimmy, I can't tell you how bad this police station is affecting me." "I'm getting a bad case of the Fifth Amendment." "Now let's get out of here and I'll tell it so much better." "A whole lot better." "Whew!" "Well, it all started yesterday morning." "I was down at the Red Shamrock, you know, down on Fifth." "I was having that red Irish health food breakfast." "That's a bar." "They don't serve breakfast." "Well, what it is, is tomato juice and Irish whiskey, and we all sit around watching Jack LaLanne on TV." "Anyway, Tom Little came in, said he was looking for me." "Said he had a job for me." "Said he had a way I could make a quick $2,000." "Well, I don't need to tell you, I'm a little short on money." "You know that and..." "Anyway, I been, you know, giving half what I make down at the paper to my mother." "She hadn't been feeling well." "Sounds to me like she's doing a little better." "What do you mean?" "She died when we were in prison." "Yeah." "Well, anyway, I told him, "I'm your man," you know, but I said, "Can't be anything illegal."" "Well, he said he'd gone straight just like me." "So we shook on it, went in the men's room, and he gave me $30,000 in a brown paper bag." "Sure sounds like a clean deal to me." "Look, all he wanted me to do was go down to the stock market, buy $30,000 worth of preferred stocks, sell them an hour later, bring the money back to his apartment." "Ain't nothing illegal about that." "And it never occurred to you that, that money might be hot?" "Well, yeah, it did kind of flick through my mind." "As a matter of fact, I asked Tom about that just to keep it on the safe side." "I'm dying to hear what he had to say." "He said it wasn't hot." "Oh, if Tom Little, the great creamed spinach flinger, gave you his word, that ought to be good enough." "Hey, listen, we're in a lot of trouble here." "So why don't you just cut out the sarcastic remarks?" "We're in a lot of trouble because you put $30,000 of hot money in the door of my car." "It wasn't hot money." "I laundered it." "I did what he told me to do." "Then in the afternoon I went by his apartment," "I knocked on the door, and those two guys that stoled your car, they was there." "Tom Little, he wasn't there." "Well, the big guy pulls a piece on me." "I ran." "I was cawing like a turkey through the corn, man." "I ditched them, I got your car, and I stuck the dough in the door." "You sent me back there knowing those two guys were waiting?" "Well, I didn't know that." "How was I gonna know that?" "You could have guessed it." "Well, listen, you didn't have to bring them down on top of me, either." "I wouldn't have if you'd have leveled with me." "Leveled with you." "When did you ever level with me?" "I always level with you." "Oh, I guess you leveled with me that time you got set up on the jewel heist and I ended up playing catch with the two coffin salesmen from Detroit." "Oh, that's different." "Out." "There, you see?" "Isn't my fault." "Is, too." "Is not." "Is, too." "Out." "Put your hands on top of the seats." "Okay." "Let's go." "Don't worry, Jimmy." "I can square it." "I really can." "It ain't got near enough anchovies." "Tell them next time." "I told them this time." "The guy don't know how to make pizzas, that's all." "Ain't no other explanation." "Sit down." "The crust ain't bad." "Yeah." "I guess." "Hey, Angel, what do you think?" "The crust is delicious." "Maybe a few more anchovies." "Go down and call and get Angel a pizza." "And tell that bum to put some more anchovies on them, huh?" "Hey, Jim, get some for you?" "Oh, no." "No." "I'm not hungry, thanks." "Well, you must want something." "Yeah." "Give me a car and a two-block head start." "I... hear you guys made a score." "Score?" "Yeah." "Guy said to me yesterday," ""I hear your friends, Angel Martin and Jim Rockford" ""are running a scam, and it's on your turf."" "And I say, "This can't be."" "'Cause Angel and Jim are my friends." "We done time together." "Though, I admit, I'm a little concerned." "So I send Don down there to watch you." "And sure enough, there you are down in the stock market scrubbing your money." "So I figure I'll just invite you guys over here for a little dinner and blow you clean." "See, someone makes a score in my end of town," "I want my share." "But you don't have any share of this." "I mean, this isn't like that little thing we were working on last March." "It wasn't nothing, Jimmy." "Just fooling around with something." "That was different." "We were partners on that one." "But..." "But this one you're not in on." "I mean, you're not in the picture on this one." "Let me tell you something very basic, Angel." "I am always in the picture." "I am what is known as an urban horticulturist." "See, I have this garden, see, and it runs from Fourth to the freeway and from Manchester right up to the ocean." "Now, this garden was given me to watch over by Lou Guspoda while he's out of the country cooling off." "But before he leaves he says to me," ""Chester, don't you never let nobody plant nothing in your garden" ""without you getting something of what grows."" "And you may ask how come Chester Sierra gets to look over this garden and not some other guy, and this is a fair question." "It is because I am a good gardener and what I plant grows, and I'm picking up lots of fruit and Lou Guspoda is happy." "Now, along come a couple of guys, they jump over the fence with a gunny sack, they start messing around in my garden," "I ask them what they're doing, they tell me I'm not in the picture!" "Let me give you a piece of news." "You are going to be out of the picture." "We got a special place in the garden for guys what don't cooperate." "It's called the East LA River." "And nothing grows there but stiffs." "You remember Tom Little?" "Well, he came to me yesterday and he offered me $2,000 to go launder $30,000 down at the stock market." "I don't know where the money came from, but things haven't been going too good, Chet, you know." "I don't wanna bore you with the details, but, well, I've been having a rough year." "Tell him about your mother." "I..." "Well," "Mama hadn't been feeling well, you know, and I been..." "I been giving her half of what I make down at the paper." "But any..." "I don't want to talk about that." "The thing is," "I took the money back to this guy's apartment and there were two guys there, and I ran for it, and they chased me, but I got away." "And what happened to the $30,000?" "You wanna tell him that part, Jimmy?" "No, no." "You go right ahead." "It sounds so flaky I'm beginning to believe it myself." "Well, this part, it gets hard to believe, Chet, and I hope you're gonna hang with me." "I really do, because what I did is I took the money and I put it in the left front door panel of Rockford's car." "Then these guys started chasing me again, you know, and they stole Rockford's car." "Well, I got away again." "They ditched Rockford's car." "I don't know where the car is." "But the money is there." "You want me to believe this?" "Well, I know that..." "I've been very patient with you guys." "I brought you over here," "I invite you to dinner so we can sit down and discuss everything, and instead of a little honor and decency, you feed me an ice cream sandwich!" "Drop these guys in the river." "And make an example." "I don't want no one else to think they can screw with me." "You did it, Jimmy." "I did it?" "I never said a word." "And after you finish with them, I wanna see Tom." "Right here." "Right now." "Look, why kill us both?" "Look, just kill one of us." "That would be even better, see." "You could do Jimmy now and then I'd go around and I'd tell people," ""Well, you don't cheat Chester Sierra."" "And then later on, if you wanted to scare more people, why, I'd be available for the engagement." "Get him out of here." "Right." "My brother-in-law is a paper employee." "You don't mess with the press, the relatives of the press." "You get in trouble." "How about money?" "Money?" "Money?" "$50,000?" "We'll have a paper drive." "We'll raise it." "We'll raise it for sure." "Drop it." "Lay down!" "Now!" "Angel!" ""Look, why kill us both?" "Why don't you just do Jimmy?" ""I'll go on the lecture circuit." "We'll start a paper drive."" "If I hadn't gone back for you, you'd be dead now." "Gone back for me?" "I had to chase you for two blocks." "We're gonna have to run for it, Jimmy." "We're hot." "I tell you, we're gonna have to get out of town." "I mean, them guys are tough." "But if you think they're tough, wait till you see Frishette's guys." "Frishette?" "Marty Frishette?" "What's he got to do with this?" "That's one little thing I forgot to tell you." "You know, you're pushing it, Angel." "You know that?" "Look, Jimmy, I would have told you." "It's just that..." "Well, you know those two guys that were in Tom Little's apartment, the guys that chased me and stole your car, well, I know one of them and he works for Frishette." "His turf's over on the East side." "What's he doing over here?" "We're up to our butt in gardeners, ain't we?" "Sierra doesn't know that Tom Little is dead, 'cause he told Eric to go out and bring him in for a pizza dinner." "Then Frishette's two thugs were waiting for Tom Little, and now he's dead." "You got an answer for that?" "Do you have any idea who Tom Little was swindling?" "The department store he worked at." "Well, I mean, it makes sense, don't it?" "That way, he could case the joint while he worked there." "That's the way I figure it." "If I wanna get in touch with you, where'll you be?" "I don't know." "I may have to run for it, Jimmy." "I may need a little money." "Couple hundred dollars." "Let me have your watch, Jimmy." "Come on." "I'm good for it." "I'm bunking at Beth's tonight." "She's out of town." "I gotta feed her cat." "You call me there in the morning." "You know the number?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "You know what gets to me?" "What?" "I was in the prison choir with Chet." "I mean, we used to practice hymns together." "First it's stolen, then it's not." "Then it is." "You ought to put a return address on it." "It's always been stolen." "Angel was mistaken." "It's been stolen since 2:00 this afternoon." "Angel." "Now, there's a strange guy." "Is he really a lay preacher?" "Angel?" "Why..." "Dennis, what are we talking about?" "Are you gonna report my car stolen or what?" "I mean, what's the sweat?" "All you gotta do is get that information on the hot sheet." "Okay, okay." "But you better be clean." "If you're ripping something else or you're not playing square with me," "I'm gonna nail you." "One thing I don't go for, it's dishonesty." "Come on, that can't be." "Nobody in this division is stealing from those vending machines." "Your count must be off." "These men are police officers." "Now, get me a new count." "Well, I don't know Dennis." "I kind of like you for it, you know." "But, then, I've done time and my character is flawed." "Yeah." "Jimmy, I gotta see you." "Yeah, just a minute." "I'll feed you later." "I can't eat, man." "I'm too scared to eat." "I got stomach cramps, I'm so scared." "Hey, Angel?" "Where are you?" "I'm down at the paper." "What are you doing down there?" "Those guys will be looking for you." "You gotta get down here, Jimmy." "Now, there's a way in that nobody knows about." "It's an entrance on Vancouver Street." "There's a stationery store." "It backs up to the paper." "You go in there and you tell the chick with the big teeth that you know me." "And I'll meet you in the men's locker room on the second floor." "Angel, what's going on?" "You name it." "I'll get something to eat." "Okay." "Hey, Angel?" "Okay, what is it?" "What's going on?" "Place may be bugged." "My brother-in-law is a weirdo." "It kills the mikes." "I found out who Tom Little was swindling." "Hey, good." "No, it ain't good." "It's terrible." "It was this paper." "He hit this rag for $30,000." "Check swindle, phony accounts..." "Hey!" "Hey, Angel, how you doing?" "Say, did you hear about the big swindle?" "Your brother-in-law's chewing his nails off." "Yeah." "I heard something about it." "Hey, what's with the water?" "Angel, are you sure..." "Can't be too cautious." "Will you just try and relax a little?" "Relax?" "That little chicken tried to frame me." "First he scams this paper, then he has me go buy the stocks." "It looks like I did it." "And what's worse, my brother-in-law, Aaron, he believes that I did it." "I dropped by his office today to borrow a couple of bucks, he pulls me in and he accuses me." "Now if he finds out I bought $30,000 worth of stock, not even my sister is gonna be able to save me." "If he's trying to set up a check swindle, somebody sure told him a hell of a lot about how this paper's run." "I may have let one or two things slip." "All right?" "Will you shut this thing off?" "I can't hear myself think." "I never did learn how to work this thing." "Come on." "Let's get out of here." "1984 already." "Yeah." "Well, nepotism has reached a new low." "I was lucky to get it." "Even though I got a good newspaper background." "I was on the Quentin Courier." "You remember that." "Oh, right, right." "Slipped my mind for a moment." "That's all over with now, man." "Aaron's just been waiting for a chance." "Now he's gonna feed me to the D.A." "I'm gonna have to blow the country." "Take it easy." "Take it easy." "Now, what did you tell Tom Little about the paper?" "I think he must have had some accomplices." "If he did, we can find them and try to pin it on them." "Hey, that's a good idea." "That's a good idea." "Let's see." "I told him that we had our checks printed by the Stewart Brothers and I told him that we got our raw stock from the Portland Paper Supply Company." "You told a convicted swindler stuff like that?" "I didn't tell it to him all at one time." "Some of this stuff I told him over a year ago." "Get some paper." "Let's write it all down." "The Portland Paper Supply Company?" "The whole scam's in here." "The whole scam's in my drawer." "Yeah, the receipt for the bank accounts, plates, everything." "So long, Angel." "Good luck." "Wait a minute." "You're in this, Jimmy." "Them guys'll never let you walk away from this." "You only got two ways out of this, dead and feet first." "I am through, Angel." "Now, it's one thing to try to get myself out of this, but try to get you out too, that's impossible." "Every time I look around," "I stumble over one of your mistakes." "I keep getting this terrible picture of you sitting in a bar somewhere explaining to a convicted swindler what kind of checks your brother-in-law's paper uses, and what the major accounts were." "You deserve this frame." "It was built for a dummy and it looks good on you." "Slow up, will you?" "Get lost." "Come on, Jimmy." "Wait a minute." "Jimmy, please." "Come on." "I can't do this alone." "I'll be in white satin by sundown." "You gotta help me." "Why?" "Because..." "Because you put $30,000 in my car without telling me and dragged two underworld syndicates down on top of me?" "Because you forgot a half a dozen little details, any one of which could've gotten me killed?" "And because you're crazy enough to confide in Tom Little?" "Did I forget anything?" "Yeah, you forgot something." "What?" "Because you're my friend." "Look, Angel..." "You gotta help me, Jimmy." "Listen, from now on I'll be going straight-arrow." "That's a promise." "Get in the truck." "Now, look, if I go through with this, you gotta do everything I say and I mean everything." "No weaseling, no arguments." "No nothing." "Everything." "That's a promise." "First time you balk, I am through." "Anything you want me to do, you just tell me." "Can we get into the paper late at night?" "Yeah, yeah." "That's not a problem." "Well, then, it might work." "You got a plan?" "Maybe." "What do I do?" "You just tell me." "You name it." "Well, to make the plan work, you gotta die." "I'm not balking." "I'm not balking." "Just give me a minute to get used to it." "What's your name?" "Angel Martin." "No, no, that's a moniker." "What's your real name?" "Come on, Angel." "They're gonna put this sheet to bed in 15 minutes." "We don't have time for all this." "What's your name?" "Evelyn." "What?" "Evelyn." "Is that Y-N-N-E or L-Y-N?" "I don't care." "Either way." "All right." "The headline is," ""Small Time Grifter Slain."" "I don't like that." "Tough. "Evelyn Martin, also known as Angel Martin," ""was found dead in his mid-town apartment late yesterday," ""the result of what police feel is a gangland execution."" "Wait a minute, Jimmy." "Let's not say "execution." Let's say something like," ""He slipped in the tub and was accidentally drowned."" "Because if you say execution, it sounds like I'm not popular." "But if it was like an accident, I'd like it better." "It stands." ""Police speculate Martin may have been involved" ""in the recently discovered swindle of this paper," ""which is published by Aaron Kiel," ""brother-in-law of the deceased."" "Now, wait a minute." "Are you balking, Angel?" "Have a heart, man." "A million people are gonna read that thing." "I'm only interested in two." "Now let me finish." ""Martin, an ex-convict, was well-known by police as a grifter," ""confidence man and petty thief." ""He served time in San Quentin" ""and the Federal penitentiary at Railworth." ""He was also convicted in 1953 for desertion under fire in Korea" ""and served two years at Leavenworth, Kansas." ""Services will be held at House of Our Father Mortuary" ""at 2:00 this afternoon."" "I think that sounds pretty real." "How would you feel if your mother was to read that?" "Let's bury your mother, Angel." "All right?" "What are you?" "You can't change a line, Joseph Pulitzer?" "All you gotta do is get this in tomorrow's paper and then keep your head down till it's over." "How come I gotta die?" "Two reasons." "One, if they think you're already dead, they won't be trying to kill you." "And two, I think a funeral is a perfect place to work the shell game." "Yeah, that's another question." "Shell game." "That didn't make any sense to me." "Look, just get this made up, huh?" "I'll buy you a drink and explain it." "To Angel Martin." "May he possess the same life-after-death qualities as his sainted mother." "Funny." "Explain to me how all of this is going to work." "Well, we'll have three people and two briefcases." "Now, Frishette will have the money from the swindle in his and I'll have the evidence that we found in your desk in mine." "Frishette is gonna try to lay the evidence off on Sierra by making him think he's giving him the money back." "You with me?" "I don't know." "Yeah." "In order to double-cross Chester Sierra," "Frishette is going to have to bring along an extra identical briefcase, which will be empty." "So now we have three attaché cases, and like the three shells in the carnival, we've set the stage for the old shell game." "Which shell has the pea?" "You got it so far?" "Of course." "Yeah." "Now, when all this is over," "I'm going to end up with the money instead of Frishette, and Frishette is gonna end up with the one with the evidence in it." "Only the cops are gonna nab him on the way out of the chapel, and Sierra is gonna come up dry, which is gonna make him very angry at Frishette, and Frishette's gonna be angry at Sierra" "for laying the evidence on him." "And we will end up out of the middle with the $30,000." "Nice, huh?" "I don't understand it." "Do it again." "Come on, Angel." "I have worked this con at least ten times in different ways." "The whole idea is to keep your eye on the pea, as they say." "Or in this case, keep your eye on the right briefcase." "And to set it up so you have an accomplice who will make the switch at the right moment." "And that'll be Rocky." "Is he coming to the funeral?" "Hey, that's nice." "He said he wouldn't miss it." "You know, Jimmy, I think this is really, really confusing." "Angel, when this con is in the hands of a master, it's a joy to watch." "Now all I gotta do is get these jokers to play." "And we're gonna start with Marty Frishette." "Got their stuff up." "Jockey's standing on that nag." "Okay, I'm convinced they're trying to get the odds up." "Find out when that filly is going for more than just exercise, and put a big bundle on him." "Wanna see me?" "I ain't got too much time." "I gotta go and see the doctor." "My arm itches very bad." "Let's hear it." "You know, I had a broken foot once." "Sometimes if you take a coat hanger and you bend it..." "Shut up." "But then, sometimes not." "All right." "Let's cut through the small talk." "You had something to do with the swindle in the newspaper." "You wanna talk to me." "I ain't involved in that." "Fell off my horse playing polo." "Been in the hospital." "Guys are getting killed right and left." "I ain't got nothing to do with that." "So what is it you want?" "You heard about Angel Martin?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Read about it in the paper." "So what?" "Too bad." "Well, I know that Tom Little came to you to get you to finance the job." "I know you put up the front money and the operating capital." "I also know that the swindle didn't take place on your turf, which is gonna give you a big problem with Chester Sierra." "Maybe even open warfare." "Get rid of this yo-yo." "I also know where the money is." "Cancel it." "Can't say I care about this, but let's hear it." "Would you get rid of the two bongo players first?" "Go ahead." "Hey, what do you feed those two guys?" "It ain't the food costs, it's the rabies shots." "You were talking about the $30,000 that was missing." "Yeah." "Right." "Well, you see," "I have the evidence of the swindle." "I've got the forged plates and a bunch of checks that Tom Little never got a chance to send through." "They were in Angel Martin's desk." "Yeah?" "How'd they get there?" "Tom Little was framing him." "Sit down." "You were talking about the $30,000." "Where is it?" "Well, you got it." "You just don't know where it is." "I'll tell you." "I want you to go pick it up, give it to me and I'll give you the evidence of the swindle." "First of all," "I got no idea where that money is." "Secondly, I ain't interested in the residue of that swindle." "Third," "I think you're some kind of dipso, and I ain't got time for dipsos." "Well, I was thinking a way for you to get rid of Chester Sierra for good would be to plant that evidence on him." "I don't like guys doing my thinking for me." "Not a bad idea, though." "Set him up for the swindle, plus it gives him a motive for killing Little and Angel." "Yeah." "That's not bad." "And you end up with the $30,000 that I'm supposed to have." "Right." "You tell me we got a deal," "I'll tell you where it is." "Then we can work out the exchange." "Okay." "We got a deal." "The exchange'll take place at Angel Martin's funeral." "That's 2:00 this afternoon, the House of Our Father Chapel." "And you gotta be there in person or the deal is off." "I don't go to funerals." "All that hocus-pocus gives me the creeps." "That's where it's gonna be, Marty." "It's either there or you can forget it." "Okay." "We'll both have identical briefcases." "I've got them." "I'll leave one off this afternoon." "Why a funeral?" "I figure even a dipso like you wouldn't be dumb enough to try and shoot up a funeral." "I don't like it." "Then don't come." "Where's the money?" "A big dude who stole my car yesterday?" "He ditched it someplace." "It's in the left-hand door panel." "Hey, one of you guys go up to the house and get me a coat hanger." "Okay, Marty." "Okay." "Oh, yeah." "Thanks for calling." "Oh, I'll be there." "How do you like that?" "He says he's sorry." "He says he was wrong financing Little." "He says he's exchanging the evidence of the swindle for the $30,000." "He's willing to give the money to us." "Now, the money's clean." "So this can't be no problem with the exchange, right?" "That don't sound like Frishette." "He's scared." "He thinks we killed Angel Martin." "I think it's on the level." "He wants to make the exchange at the funeral today." "I've been asked by the bereaved relatives of the late Angel Martin to say a few words about the beloved deceased." "When I spoke with his dear mother, she told me of Mr. Martin's great work in charity." "He was involved with several large state institutions, Pass it back." "...many of which still bear the improvements of his great mind." "His brother-in-law, Mr. Kiel, has told me that the newspaper where Mr. Martin was employed as a Survey and Sanitation expert, will sorely miss his journalistic talents." "I see as I look out over this vast congregation" "Pass it back." "...there are many of the deceased's closest friends who were with him in the Thoroughbred Racing Association." "When it came to being a soldier," "Mr. Martin was among the bravest, serving with great distinction in Korea, and finally being discharged after several military hearings which included the top Generals in our nation's forces." "There are several legal precedents that were established during these hearings, and one point of landmark law, dealing with the refusal to bear arms, a statute which has moved forward the great tide of military justice." "It is with deep grief that we mourn the loss of our dear friend Angel Martin." "Hey man, what's going on with these things?" "Just mind your own business." "And now, let us pray." "Hold it right there." "I'll explain later." "Don't worry." "Hold it." "Just hold it." "Now, this is his briefcase and this one is mine." "Listen, I want to see my lawyer." "Oblige him." "You got here just in time, Dennis." "This better be good." "I've received some crazy calls from you, but this is the craziest." "How would you feel if the briefcase that Chester Sierra has over there contained the evidence from the Courier Telegraph swindle and also ties him into Tom Little's murder?" "And this briefcase has the $30,000 that is missing which Angel and I have recovered." "The money's in here?" "Yeah." "This looks like counterfeit plates to me." "No, now, wait a minute, wait a minute." "Something's wrong." "I can explain." "You don't have to." "You're under arrest with the rest of these goons." "Get rid of this guy." "I don't understand, Rocky." "How did it get messed up?" "Well, all that matters, Jimmy, is that everything is gonna turn out okay in the end." "You just may be in here one or two days." "Why is it gonna be one or two days?" "Hey, don't get angry at me." "I mean, if I hadn't been telling Becker what a square guy you are, you may never get out." "I been vouching for you." "You been vouching for me?" "Hey, listen, that little shell game..." "Well, I mean it wasn't a complete bust." "Well, you screwed it up so bad you ended up pinning the swindle on yourself." "Temporarily, that is." "But the important part is you got Sierra mad enough at Frishette to start copping out on him." "Then Frishette started talking, and all them guys are gonna be doing heavy time." "And Frishette..." "I don't care about any of that." "I just wanna get out of this jail." "Let's change the subject, huh?" "After all, I helped you out of trouble more than once." "Oh, when did you end up in the slammer when I asked you to help me?" "What's that got to do with what we're talking about?" "I'm in here because I tried to help you, but you never leveled with me." "Let's change the subject." "We ended up in so deep we're lucky we didn't get killed." "And all because you didn't come clean with me." "As far as I'm concerned, Angel, we're through." "That's it." "You and I are quits." "Let's change the subject." "Oh, okay, okay." "How'd you like your funeral?" "Did it please you?" "Well, we'll do it better next time." "And more permanently." "Now listen, Jimmy, I'm not gonna let you make me mad." "I come out smelling like a rose, but you'll be out in a couple of days." "You James Rockford?" "Yep, right there, that's him." "Stuff it, Angel." "You gonna let me out of here?" "No, they gotta take you down to County now." "That's right." "Can't stay in here more than 12 hours." "That's the rule." "Come on, let's go." "Hey Angel, what about my car?" "I want my car." "We're gonna find it any day now, Jimmy."