Cash Landing Read Online Free PDF Page B

offense, but it’s the FBI’s job to catch the crooks. Braxton’s primary interest here is the return of the money.”
    â€œYou’re asking someone to risk his life by coming forward and fingering the guys who did this. Arrest and conviction is enough. Don’t be a prick who says, ‘Sorry, we only recovered nine million of the nine-point-six million, so no reward.’ That makes you no better than those car ads that offer a top-of-the-line luxury sedan for ninety-nine dollars a month, but the fine print requires you put twenty-nine thousand down on signing.”
    â€œI disagree. Thankfully, no one was injured here. All we’re talking about is money, so the reward is conditioned on its return.”
    â€œYou’re not seeing the big picture,” said Littleford.
    â€œI assure you, a lot of careful thought and consideration goes into the formulation of our rewards.”
    Littleford nodded, as if to acknowledge the party line. “Let me give you and your company a little different perspective. Everyone remembers the big Lufthansa heist at JFK in December 1978 because Martin Scorcese made a movie out of it.”
    â€œGoodfellas . I know. It’s practically required viewing in our line of work.”
    â€œSee, that’s the problem. People forget all the other heists, all the other robberies in New York. But I remember because my old man was with NYPD when I was a kid. A big hit puts ideas in crooks’ heads. A few months after JFK, New York hadeighteen bank robberies— eighteen in three days . Five on Monday, ten on Tuesday, and three more on Wednesday. Two of them were big hits over a million dollars, like JFK. Mayor Koch went nuts, warning these guys in the newspapers and on TV to remember what happened to Dillinger.”
    â€œThat’s a nice history lesson, but we have an excellent safety record.”
    â€œHistory repeats itself. You have a lot of armored trucks out on the streets of Miami every day. Hundreds of gangbangers and small-time crooks with big ideas saw the news reports of this multimillion-dollar job at the airport. A quick tip is the fastest way to solve this case. It’s your best shot at recovering your money. And catching these crooks is the best way to make sure we don’t see eighteen armored truck heists in the next week.”
    The lawyer thought about it for a moment. “I see your point. I’ll recommend to headquarters that we go with arrest and conviction in the reward. No condition that the money be returned.”
    â€œGood call,” said Littleford. “Follow up with Andie on this. She’ll be taking a major role in this investigation.”
    â€œWill do.”
    â€œI’ll be in touch,” said Andie.
    The agents left the building and walked to their car. “Nice work in there,” said Andie.
    â€œThanks.”
    They got inside and closed the doors. The sun was blazing, and the temperature had climbed at least ten degrees since their arrival, well into the eighties. It was legitimately beach weather. Littleford cranked the A/C. “Ah, November in Miami,” he said. “Not like Seattle, is it?”
    â€œNo. It sure isn’t.”
    He put the car in gear, but kept his foot on the brake. “Hey, I know you didn’t transfer here to be assigned to my unit, but we do good work here.”
    â€œI see that.”
    â€œA lot of young agents think they want the undercover assignments, the stuff movies are made of. I’m just saying: I like what I see in you. Keep an open mind.”
    She smiled a little. Strokes were hard to come by in the Bureau. Especially for the Andie-come-lately. “Thanks. I will.”
    Littleford pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. They passed a long line of armored trucks that were parked on the other side of the chain-link fence. Dozens of trucks. Maybe a hundred. As they passed, Andie was thinking of Littleford’s history