Nobody Runs Forever

jackets closing the pool, disassembling the ladders and the board while the clear water glinted a goodbye at the sunless white sky. When they came back, a little before three in the afternoon, a gray cover like a trampoline, its segments stitched together with thick seams, spread across the rectangle of the pool inside its low chain-link fence, and around back a Honda Accord, the same shade of gray as the pool cover, stood just beyond the rented Dodge.

Dalesia drove past it, toward his own room, and Parker saw that there was someone seated at the wheel of the Honda: Wendy Beckham. “Something,” he said.

Dalesia looked at his rearview mirror. “Something?”

“Jake’s sister. I’ll see what it is.”

Dalesia parked, and they got out, McWhitney saying, “I don’t want any more problems.”

“I’ll tell her,” Parker said.

Dalesia said, “We’ll still be ready to go in ten minutes, right?”

“If not, I’ll call your room.”

McWhitney said, “I’m starting to wipe my room down now, and when I’m done, I want to go. I don’t want to stand around with my hands in my pockets, afraid to leave a print somewhere.”

“I’ll see what she wants,” Parker said, and went away from them, over to where Wendy Beckham had gotten out of her car and stood now on the concrete walk in front of it. She was looking past him at the other two, now going into their rooms, and she looked worried.

Parker said, “A message from Jake?”

“A message from me,” she said, and now instead of worried she looked angry. “Jake finally told me what’s going on.”

“That was stupid,” Parker said. “What did he do that for?”

“Because he noticed, very late in the day,” she said, “that he’s the one gonna be left holding the bag.”

He said, “You want to talk out here, or in the room?”

“Out here,” she said.

“Because . . .”

“Because I’m here to tell you, the deal’s off.”

He frowned at her. “What deal’s off?”

“The robbery,” she said. “The armored car with all the cash from the bank. The bank, God help us, that Jake used to work for. You aren’t going to rob it. You aren’t going to take it.”

He said, “Why not?”

“Because you’re all staying here, at Jake’s motel.” She was really very angry. “He’s still the same irresponsible clown he always was,” she told him. “You people will go, you’ll get away with it or you’ll be killed by the guards in the armored car, but whatever happens to you people, he’s in trouble again.”

“I don’t see that,” Parker said. “We aren’t registered here, under any names at all.”

“Don’t you think the maids will talk?” she demanded. “Don’t you think the people that work here already know there’s something funny going on? Three guys staying here without management knowing about it, three guys disappear, all of a sudden three guys rob an armored car. No, they won’t catch up with you, but how long will it take them to get here?”

“Doesn’t mean anything,” Parker said. “They might even think Jake had something to do with it, because he’s an ex-con, but every ex-con in this part of the state will be under suspicion and so what? Jake’s in the hospital, legitimately in the hospital. He doesn’t know anything about anything. They can suspect whatever they want, but how are they gonna prove anything?”

“You’re here, in his motel.”

“He doesn’t know a thing about it. Somebody pulled a fast one while he was away in the hospital. Besides, it isn’t his motel, he’s on staff here, he’s an assistant manager.”

She shook her head. “The minute the police start leaning on people here,” she said, “the truth will come out, and Jake will go back to jail, and the worst thing is, you know that.”

No, the fact was, Parker didn’t care. Jake would find his own way out of the jam, or not. He said, “It’s too late to stop it. It’s going to happen, so you better tell Jake it’s time to start practicing his poker face.”

“I’ll stop you,” she said. She was wide-eyed, body clenched with determination.

He studied her. “How do you figure to do that?”

“I’ll go to the police! I’ll tell them everything, I’ll tell them what you plan to do.”

Parker shook his head. “I wouldn’t have believed it,” he said. “You’re dumber than your brother.”

She was offended, but also involved. “What do you mean?”

“There’s one guy in this group,” Parker told her, “that doesn’t spend a lot of his time thinking things through. I could walk you down there to his room, knock on the door, have you tell him what you just told me, and he’d kill you right then. Wouldn’t even think about it, just drop you.”

She blinked, but remained defiant. “Well, I’m not telling him,” she said, taking a step backward, away from him and toward her car. “I’m telling you, you’re the one I know, and you’re the only one I have to tell.”

Parker said, “The reason it’s better to tell me than this other guy is, I take a minute to think about it. I take a minute and I think, what is she gonna tell the cops? Does she know when or where or