“Right the first time.”
“That’s a hell of a bite.” The doctor frowned, and stared at papers on his desk as though one of them had written on it the answer to a question that had been bothering him for months. “How long?” he asked.
“Couple of weeks. Maybe a month.”
“Anyone else I know in on it?”
“I don’t think so. Just me and Parker.”
“But there’s others in.”
“Oh, sure.”
The doctor considered again, then looked at Parker. “You’re in it?”
Parker nodded. He knew Ormont wasn’t very bright; the only thing to do was wait till he got everything straightened out inside his head.
Ormont said, “When do you need it by?”
Grofield shrugged. “Now. As soon as possible.”
“Tomorrow afternoon, the earliest. The absolute earliest.”
“All right, fine. I’ll come in and get it.”
Ormont nodded heavily. “Tomorrow afternoon. Two o’clock. I won’t be having office hours then, just ring the bell.”
“Will do.”
They all got to their feet. Ormont said, “Good to see you again, Parker. The face is a very good job.”
Parker nodded again. There wasn’t anything to say; he’d never been any good at small talk.
Ormont said, “Sorry to keep you waiting the way I did. But we’ve got to keep up appearances. My nurse isn’t in on it.”
“That’s all right.”
They went out. When they were back in the car, Grofield started laughing again. “This office isn’t bugged! Parker, if you had a sense of humor you’d bust a gut right now. This office isn’t bugged! I wouldn’t take a million dollars for that man.”
Parker lit a cigarette and waited for Grofield to get over it.
2
Twelve men made the dining-room uncomfortably full. Edgars had set up folding-chairs for the extras and had distributed beer. Then he and Parker and Paulus had taken turns filling the new men in on the operation. Edgars had run his slides, showing them the map, and also the photos of Raymond Avenue and the banks and the two gates to the plant and the police station and everything else. The room had filled with smoke, even with both windows open.
Handy McKay was the only one selected who hadn’t chosen to come in at least to listen. The rest were all there. Wiss and Kerwin, the other two safe and vault experts, both small, narrow men with an intense and concentrated look. Wiss had brought, to work with him, a rangy fortyish man named Elkins, with whom Parker had worked in the past. Chambers was there, a big awkward-looking hillbilly with a brother in jail for statutory rape. And Pop Phillips, an old guy who looked like Hollywood’s idea of a night watchman. And Littlefield, a stocky man in his fifties who looked as though he made his living selling gold-mine stock. And Salsa, in his late thirties, tall and slender, who looked like a gigolo and used to be one.
When the talk and the slide show was finished, and when Edgars had distributed more beer, Paulus asked if there were any questions. Wiss said, “One. What’s the split?”
“Even,” Paulus told him. “Every man a twelfth.”
“That’s not the regular way.”
Parker said, “This isn’t the regular job. It’s more men than usual, and more things to do.”
Wiss shrugged. “It don’t matter to me. What’s a twelfth of two hundred fifty grand?”
“That’s minimum,” said Edgars, “just a minimum.”
Paulus said, “A little over twenty thousand.”
Wiss said, “Twenty thousand’s all right.”
Littlefield, looking like a man at a board meeting, said, “You got financing yet?”
“Picked it up yesterday,” Grofield told him.
“How much?”
“Four G’s.”
“That’s eight thousand off the top. You couldn’t cut it any closer than that?”
Parker said, “You heard the setup. You got any way to shave it?”
Littlefield shook his head. “I guess not. But eight thousand’s a big bite.”
“Less than seven hundred a man,” Paulus told him.
Elkins, the man Wiss had brought with him, said, “How long you figure to stay out at this mine?”
