Lemons Never Lie

'Never heard of him.'

'He drives, too.'

'Organizer and driver? Unusual.'

Grofield said, 'He says we'll probably buy the truck we'll need from a fellow named Purgy.'

Myers smiled with recognition. 'Up in Arkansas? So where does that put the job? Memphis? Nashville?'

Harry suddenly lifted his arms and brought his hands together. Squeezing his right fist with his left, he made all the knuckles crack. At the same time, he said, 'We're doing all the talking. This bird don't talk at all.'

'He'll talk. Alan is intelligent, he knows it's best to avoid violence. Don't you, Alan?'

Grofield was thinking, He got to me through Mary, but she's been calling so he must have left her alive. There may be all kinds of mess up there at the theater, but he did leave her alive.

'Alan?'

Grofield said, 'What?'

'It's time for you to join the conversation,' Myers said, and his smile was suddenly wearing thin.

Grofield glanced at Harry, who wasn't smiling at all. It was time to allow himself to be cowed a little. 'I can tell you it's in Little Rock,' he said.

'Little Rock. And what are you going to do in Little Rock?'

'You know,' Grofield said, 'you two can give me a bad time tonight if I don't talk, but what if I do talk? Then the other guys give me a bad time tomorrow.'

'Well, tonight is here,' Myers said. 'And tomorrow's a long way off. Maybe you ought to just, worry about one thing at a time.'

Grofield looked over at Harry again, and shook his head. 'I don't like this,' he said.

'Then get it over with fast,' Myers suggested. 'Like taking off adhesive tape. One yank and it's done with. What's the thing you're going to do in Little Rock?'

'A bank,' Grofield said, reluctantly.

'A bank. Which bank?'

'First National,' Grofield said. He didn't know if Little Rock had a First National Bank or not, but most places did, and with any luck Myers wouldn't know Little Rock well enough to be able to catch him in a lie.

'First National,' Myers echoed. 'Come on, Alan, why do I have to keep asking questions?'

'Well, we don't have the whole operation worked out yet,' Grofield said. He was thinking about the guns he'd helped throw in the Mississippi just an hour ago. He never carried a gun or any other weapon except during a job, and this was one of the very few times in his life he was regretting that. A pistol would be a very nice thing to have right now.

Myers was saying, 'I'm not asking about the operation, I'm asking about the bank. Is it the main office? A branch?'

'A branch.'

'Where?'

'I don't know, in a suburb someplace. In a shopping center.'

'What's the shopping center called?'

'I don't know.'

'Well, what's the suburb called?'

Grofield had no idea of the names of Little Rock suburbs. He had to say again, 'I don't know.'

'He's crapping on us,' Harry said. His voice rumbled in his chest. He sounded very irritated.

'It is taking you a long time, Alan,' Myers said. 'Now, tell me which Little Rock suburb.'

'I don't know. I never paid attention, it didn't matter to me.'

'We'll let that pass for a minute. But we'll come back to it, Alan. What's your job in it?'

'Crowd control,' Grofield said. 'That's what I'm good at. I talk to the customers, keep them cooled out, watch them while the others clean out the cages.'

'This is a daytime job?'

'Yes.'

'In a-'