Parker shook his head. ‘Not till I look it over. If I don’t think I can do it, there’s no deal.’
Karris spread his hands. ‘Then look it over,’ he said. ‘By all means look it over.’
Now Parker had looked it over, and the job seemed possible, and he had made his first contact to build the string for the operation. He was working again.
TWO
1
GROFIELD came in saying, ‘I’ll take the job only if the place we knock over is air conditioned. Have you felt that heatout there? How are you, Parker?’
They shook hands. Parker said, ‘I haven’t been out today.’
‘Nor would I be,’ said Grofield, catching sight of Crystal. ‘Darling,’ he told her, ‘you are everything my heart desires. Fly with me.’
‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘High altitudes give me nosebleeds.’
‘My nosebleeds come from my wife,’ Grofield said, and grinned ruefully. To Parker he said, ‘Did you know I married that darling little telephone girl? A natural actress, natural actress. You should see her in Hedda Gabler.’
Grofield had picked up the telephone girl in the course of the last job he’d worked with Parker, in a place called Copper Canyon. Parker said, ‘Good. Now she can’t testify against you.’
‘A romantic,’ Grofield said. ‘Parker, you are a true romantic, Robin Hood in the age of mechanization.’
Parker said, ‘Sit down. Let’s talk about the job.’
‘Is honeypot here in the know?’
‘Don’t worry about her,’ Parker said.
‘I’ll go to the supermarket,’ Crystal said. She smiled at Grofield. ‘Nice to have met you.’
‘Polygamy,’ Grofield told her, ‘is the only answer.’
Grofield watched Crystal leave the room, and then he settled with a grateful sigh on the sofa, spreading his legs out in front of him. He was a tall man, lean and sleek, with carefully tended wavy black hair, urbane good looks, an air of easy competence about him. He was a sometime actor, sometime roadshow producer, and he financed his theatrical career with the money he made in his other line of work, taking jobs with men like Parker.
He said, ‘Tell me the story,’ and he meant he was finished clowning around. It was his saving grace, as far as Parker was concerned; he knew when to get down to business.
Parker told him the situation in brief, explaining as quickly and basically as he could, and Grofield’s questions were few and to the point. When the Karns connection with the job was explained, Parker showed him the map of the island and the photos Crystal had taken.
Grofield said, ‘Good-looking layout. I think it’ll be tough to take.’
‘Maybe not.’
Grofield said, ‘Show me.’
‘I don’t have a plan cold yet. But I figure we come in two ways. A couple of guys come in like regular customers, down to the main pier. When they get a chance they move over to the boathouses, clean out anybody on guard there, and the others come in that way with the boat we use for the getaway. Karns wants the place burned down, and that’s good, we make a lot of confusion, a lot of panic, we get away clean underneath it.’
Grofield said, ‘How many men you figure?’
‘Four or five, maybe more.’
‘So it’s probably around forty thousand apiece.’
‘Around that.’
‘How much can you count on this guy Karns?’
‘You mean, will he welsh on the guarantee?’
Grofield nodded. ‘Or pull a doublecross and try to heist the heisters.’
‘No. Karns knows me from before, he won’t try anything.’
‘I’ll take your word for it.’ Grofield glanced at some of the pictures again. ‘I guess you figure me one of the guys coming in the front way.’
‘Right.’
‘And you the other one?’
‘Yes.’
Grofield shook his head. ‘You run the boathouse brigade,’ he said. ‘I can look sensible going to a place like that alone, but you can’t. Without a woman on your arm, you’d look like forty kinds of trouble.’
He was right and Parker knew it. He said, ‘Who, then?’
‘How about Salsa?’
Salsa had also worked with them on the Copper Canyon job. He had a gigolo’s looks and a gigolo’s background. Grofield was right; Salsa would be perfect for the front way. Parker said, ‘You want to contact him?’
‘Sure. What else do we need?’
‘A peterman and somebody knows boats.’
