Collar Robber Read Online Free

zero-cost concession for you anyway. Let’s just split the difference.”
    Again with the head-shake. Again with the certainty.
    â€œFive thousand. Last, best, and final offer. Take it or leave it.”
    â€œWe’ll take it,” Willy said.
    Willy can be a pain in the butt, but he is a self-confident pain in the butt.

Chapter Six
    Jay Davidovich
    â€œI have some things to discuss with Mr. Rand.” Proxy said this to me as everyone was standing up and she was stowing her mobile phone in her attaché case. “Why don’t you go to the hotel and get started on our trip report? I’ll give you a call around six to talk about dinner plans.”
    I took this as Proxyspeak for see if you can figure out whether Szulz is really being followed . Especially since she unobtrusively slipped the rental car fob into the left pocket of my windbreaker. That’s why I left at the same time as Jakubek and Szulz. Figuring Jakubek had spotted the fob-pass, I decided to put it on the table as soon as our tight little group hit the sidewalk.
    â€œIf I can remember where we parked the Buick Avis rented to us, I’ll be happy to give you a ride back to the Omni.”
    â€œI wouldn’t have a GM car, personally,” Szulz said. “After the way Comrade Obama shafted the bond-holders when he was ‘saving’ General Motors, I’d feel like I was trafficking in stolen goods.”
    â€œThanks, but it’s only a few blocks.” Jakubek said. “If we don’t see you again, it’s been real.”
    If you don’t see me again it’ll be because I’m doing my job right.
    I found the dark blue Ford Escape right where Proxy had parked it, just down a side-street called Stanwick that intersects on the diagonal with Liberty Avenue near the Museum’s main entrance. I’d made the “Buick” crack so that I’d be the farthest thing from Szulz’s mind if he happened to notice a Ford SUV making the same turns he was when he drove from the Omni to his next destination. I was betting they wouldn’t take me up on my ride offer. If they had I would’ve come up with something to explain the Buick thing away, but I’m not sure what—so it’s a good thing they didn’t.
    When it comes to following someone, I prefer heading to tailing. People associate being followed with having someone behind them, so the smoothest way to bring it off is to start from the front. You slip to the back if you have to along the way, then get in front again when you can.
    The Escape’s GPS wanted to route me along Liberty, but that’s where Jakubek and Szulz were strolling toward Fifth at the moment, so I took a quick right on Fourth instead. That made the GPS scold but its illuminated map still worked fine. I managed a left on Smithfield after two blocks east on Fourth, and rode that to something called Oliver Avenue, between Fifth and Sixth. A right on Oliver and our hotel was almost staring me in the face.
    Time to wait. I’d noticed by this time that downtown Pittsburgh is very hilly. No, let me rephrase that: hill-wise, Pittsburgh makes San Francisco look like Des Moines. That meant I’d have to wait closer to the intersection of Oliver and William Penn Place than I would have liked. The pale March sun would be in their eyes if Jakubek or Szulz happened to glance in my direction, though, so I figured I was probably okay.
    I finally spotted them trooping by on the opposite side of William Penn Place maybe seven minutes later. I sat tight until they actually reached the hotel entrance. Then I eased into a right turn and found an almost-legal parking space that let me get a decent view of the hotel’s front door in my side-view mirror. I was betting that Szulz would drive back in the direction of the Museum, which was the most direct route to his condo if the address in Proxy’s cyber-packet and the Escape’s sulky GPS were right.