Parker turned and looked at Grofield. Grofield laughed and said, ‘He’s a lyrical type, don’t worry about it. He comes very highly recommended.’
‘By who?’
‘Wymerpaugh.’
‘Yeah?’ Parker turned back. ‘I’m Parker,’ he said.
‘I presumed as much. The name’s Heenan.’
‘What were you sent up for?’
Heenan blinked, and his mouth dropped open. ‘What’s that?’
‘You haven’t been out a week,’ Parker told him.
‘How in God’s name did you know that?’
‘Boatmen are out in the sun a lot. They burn, they peel, they tan. Especially their foreheads. You’re as white as a fish.’
Heenan touched his hand to his forehead. ‘I’ll burn,’ he said. ‘You’re right, man, I’ll burn like the condemned in Hell.’
Parker said, ‘What were you up for?’
Heenan gestured with his hands, brushing things away. ‘A little problem,’ he said. ‘A minor peccadillo. I’m no longer afflicted.’
‘What was it?’
‘It had nothing to do with this sort of operation,’ Heenan said. ‘I assure you, nothing at all.’
Parker shook his head. ‘What was it?’
Heenan looked pained. He glanced at Grofield, at Salsa, back at Parker. He made a gesture as though to make unimportant what he was about to say, and he said, ‘It was what they call a sex offence.’
‘A sex offence.’
‘There was this girl they said wasn’t eighteen, and in truth’
‘A sex offence,’ said Parker. ‘How old was she?’
Heenan cleared his throat. ‘Uhh, eleven.’
Parker said, ‘How long were you in?’
‘Five years, three months.’
‘Out of how much?’
‘Fourteen years the judge gave me.’
‘So you’re on parole. You reporting where you are, like they want?’
‘Not me. Them big doors opened, I left.’
Parker said, ‘Wait in the kitchen. I want to talk to these two guys.’
Heenan said, ‘I’m cured of all that, I really am. There was a doctor at the prison, he’
‘I’m not looking for a baby-sitter,’ Parker told him. ‘You don’t have to convince me.’
‘Oh. Yeah, sure. I’ll, uh, I’ll just go
‘
Heenan trailed away towards the kitchen, and when he was gone Parker said, ‘That’s the kind of guy blows a whole job wide open.’
Salsa said, ‘I think we need somebody else.’ He had a quiet, polite, gentle voice and a manner to match.
Parker said to Grofield, ‘What did Wymerpaugh say about him?’
‘I just asked for a boatman, Wymerpaugh says try Heenan. He didn’t say anything about all this.’ Grofield seemed not only surprised but also insulted.
Salsa said, ‘He knows things now.’
Parker frowned. ‘How much?’
Salsa checked it off: ‘Our names. That we’re setting up a local operation and it needs a boat.’
‘That’s all?’
Salsa looked a question at Grofield, and Grofield nodded. ‘That’s all,’ he said. ‘We were leaving the orientation lecture up to you.’
Parker said, ‘Then we can dust him with no trouble. Grofield, that’s you.’
‘Because I brought him.’ Grofield sighed and shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘Right you are, as ever.’ He went on into the kitchen.
Salsa said, ‘Your woman got a telephone call, she had to go out. She said she’d be back early this evening.’
Parker nodded. He wasn’t thinking about Crystal, he was thinking about the job; they still had to find a
