dressed to the nines, busy unwrapping one of his long cigars. He said, ‘You know better than this, Parker. It isn’t time for us to contact each other. What if you brought the law here?’
‘I didn’t bring the law.’
Negli shrugged. ‘Still,’ he said, ‘this had better be worth it.’
Parker studied him sourly. Negli had the little man’s courage, the knowledge he could get away with things a bigger man would be called on in a minute. It gave him a nasty disposition, and made Parker itch to tromp him.
Feccio was the other half of the team, the apologizer.
‘Parker knows what he’s doing,’ he said. ‘If he’s here, he’s got a good reason.’
‘Good enough,’ Parker said. ‘I was hijacked. The money’s gone.’
Feccio just stared. Negli looked up from his cigar, and paused, and said, ‘Stole it from you, Parker?’ He said it like he didn’t believe it.
Parker went over and picked him up and threw him into the corner. When Negli rolled over with his hand going inside his coat, Parker put his right hand in his topcoat pocket.
Feccio said, ‘Cut it! Bob, don’t you move!’
Negli stayed where he was, half up from the floor, right hand still inside the coat.
Feccio said, ‘Parker, you know Bob’s way. He didn’t mean it like it sounded.’
Parker said, ‘Let Negli talk.’
Negli said, ‘I believe you, Parker. You had the dough and you let somebody glom it from you. I believe it.’
Feccio walked over in front of Negli and said, ‘Cut it out, Bob, or I’ll take care of you myself.’
‘The hell, Arnie. What does he want, a medal? We put a lot of work in and he comes around and says he lost the money, somebody took it from him.’
‘Let’s listen to him, what do you say?’
Negli got to his feet, and brushed himself off. ‘I’ll listen to anybody,’ he said.
Feccio turned to Parker. ‘We start all over,’ he said. ‘You just tell the story and we’ll listen.’
Parker told them the story. Feccio listened and Negli stood around trying to look insulting. Parker had control of himself now, and he ignored Negli. The little bastard wasn’t worth the sweat.
When he was done, Feccio said, ‘I like the outsider. Somebody wanted your girl dead and he found the cash by accident.’
Negli said, ‘I haven’t said word one to anybody outside the group about what we were doing. Neither has Arnie. What about you, talking to the girl? Or Dan and his bimbo?’
Parker shook his head. ‘Neither one of us told our women anything to worry about.’
‘Yours knew you had all that cash, didn’t she?’
‘She never left the apartment from the time I brought the suitcases in. She wasn’t out of my sight for three days, not until I went out last night.’
Feccio said, ‘All right, never mind that now. What do you want from us, that’s the question.’
‘If we work together, we can get our cash back.’
Feccio nodded. ‘If we work together,’ he said, ‘and if we’re lucky. And if the law doesn’t get him first.’
‘They’ll be looking for me,’ Parker said. ‘They won’t think about anybody else when I’m so handy.’
Negli said, ‘That makes you a liability, doesn’t it, Parker?’
Before Parker could say anything, Feccio said, ‘Bob, keep your mouth shut. We don’t have time to put up with you now.’
Parker said, ‘Do you know where any of the others are holed up?’
‘I know where Shelly is,’ Feccio said. ‘I think he knows where to find Clinger and Rudd.’
Negli said, ‘What we ought to do, Arnie, we ought to clear out of here. That dough’s gone.’
Parker said, ‘Maybe not.’
Negli shook his head. ‘You’re a dreamer. If I had that cash, I’d be a thousand miles from here by now.’
‘You’re a pro. You wouldn’t have hung around last night to ambush me.’
Feccio said, ‘This is wasting time. Bob and I’ll go talk to Shelly. You want us all to meet someplace?’
‘At Dan’s. I’ll get there as soon as I can.’
‘Fine.’
Parker went to the door, then looked back at Negli. ‘You don’t have to waste time with the rest of us,’ he said. ‘You want to take off, go ahead. We’ll find something to do with your cut.’
Negli made a crooked grin around his cigar. ‘Forget it, Parker,’ he said. ‘I own a seventh of that pie. As long as there’s one chance left at it, I’ll stick around.’ Parker said, ‘That’s what I thought.’
Three
