The bottom was a square pit, a concrete hole spotted with dented garbage cans. A black metal door led into the basement of the building, through blundering darkness in which Parker cursed and kicked and hurried, and then to a flight of stairs, and up, and through another metal door to the first floor hallway.
He stopped running at the front door. The pistol went back into his pocket, he closed his overcoat, took a deep breath, and walked calmly out the front door. He turned to the right, and a block away heard sirens coming from the other way. But he was clear now.
And so was the quarry. No matter how stupid he was, he had to be clear now.
Ready for refolding.
Six
Janey was a disappointment with her clothes on; still pretty, but young and dull. She was wearing a pink sweater that made her breasts look like hard and youthful buds and a green skirt that gave no hint of the round rump underneath. She wore neither stockings nor socks, and on her feet were rumpled loafers.
She opened the door to Parker’s knock, saw Parker standing there in the hall, and said, ‘Oh, it’s you. You might as well come in. We’ve got a whole convention going here.’
‘Think you’ll need help?’
‘Don’t talk dirty.’
Parker heard sounds of talking from the kitchen and went over there first. Negli and Rudd and Shelly were sitting around the kitchen table drinking beer and playing knock poker. They looked up when Parker came in, and Negli said, ‘You must have it by now. You couldn’t of been gone this long and come back without it. They didn’t swipe it from you again, did they, Parker?’
‘In a little while, Negli,’ Parker said, ‘I’m going to use you for toilet paper.’
Shelly said, ‘What’s the score, Parker?’
‘Tied, nothing-nothing at the half.’
Negli said, ‘Where’ve you been all this time?’
‘Hiding from you.’ To Shelly and Rudd he said, ‘I’ve got to talk to Dan, I’ll be back in a minute.’
Negli had the last word, but Parker didn’t listen to it.
Kifka, still holding his own with the virus, was sitting up in bed with two large yellow bath towels draped over his shoulders and torso to keep him warm. Clinger was sitting hunched in a chair like a bankrupt laundromat owner in his lawyer’s outer office. Feccio, over at the window, was studying the world with an eye that reserved judgment.
Kifka looked up when Parker came in, and said, ‘Where’ve you been?’
‘Getting started.’
Clinger roused himself a little bit, and said, ‘I would never have expected it from you, Parker. Not you.’ He said it like it was Parker’s fault the laundromat was bankrupt.
And it was; Clinger was right. Parker said, ‘I’ll get it back myself, you want that. You want to help, fine.’
Feccio, coming over from the window, said, ‘Parker, don’t lose your logic. It could have happened to any of us. Some things you can’t account for, you can’t plan in advance.’
Parker walked around the room with his arms swinging at his sides, his hands opening and closing. ‘The bastard can find me,’ he said. ‘He’s got no brains, no sensible plan, he’s a lousy shot, he’s an amateur, but he can find me like that. And I can’t find him at all.’
Feccio said, ‘Dan told us. He’s the one ambushed you last night.’
‘Twice,’ Parker told him. ‘Just this afternoon.’
From the doorway, Negli said, ‘You keep up like that, Parker, you’ll turn into a figure of fun.’
Parker looked carefully at Feccio. ‘Turn your angelino off,’ he said.
Feccio’s face darkened. ‘Don’t start on me, Parker.’
Kifka said, ‘Negli, what’s your little problem?’
‘My seventh,’ Negli told him. ‘Where’s my seventh, that’s my problem.’
Kifka said, ‘We’ll find it for you, okay?’
From his gloomy corner, Clinger said, ‘Squabble, that’s what we need now. A nice long squabble.’ Rudd and Shelly had come in now and were just standing around.
Feccio said to the room in general, ‘Bob won’t say anything more, you got my guarantee.’ He looked at Negli. ‘My guarantee,’ he said.
Negli looked insulted, and walked over into a corner.
Kifka said, ‘What’s the story so far, Parker?’
Parker told them of his afternoon: Detective Dougherty and Ellie’s apartment and the madman on the roof. ‘I had to unload the Buick,’ he said. ‘And sooner or later that cop’s going to get your name, Dan; you knew Ellie, and he’ll come around here to ask questions, so we’ve got to find a different place to meet.’
Feccio said, ‘Vimorama. We’ve got the run of the place. Dan could move right on out there now.’
‘Fine. All right with you, Dan?’
‘As long as I got my Janey with me,’ Kifka said, ‘I don’t care where I am.’
