“Why should he?”
Mainzer looked at him in surprise, and then laughed. “Still the same,” he said. “The same bloodless bastard you always were. What about her? She belong to anybody?”
“Me.”
“Come off it, Parker.”
Parker shrugged, and walked off toward the other end of the room. After a second Mainzer followed. Claire had already joined the group at the other end.
Mainzer and Carlow knew each other, and Lempke made the necessary introductions to Billy and Claire. Then they all sat down, here and there around the living room, and Parker told them the setup.
When he was done, Mainzer said, “What’s the shares?”
Parker said, “Lebatard takes fifty per cent. The second fifty. We get ours out of the first stuff he sells.”
“What happens to our half?”
“We split it four ways. You, Carlow, Lempke, me.”
“What about the little lady here?”
“She gets hers out of Lebatard’s half.”
Claire looked faintly amused at that, and Billy looked—for just a second—beside himself with pleasure.
Mainzer glanced at Claire, then at Billy, then back at Parker. He grinned and shook his head. “Nothing stays simple,” he said. “Not even my old buddy Parker.”
Carlow said, “What do we do afterward?”
“Hole up at Lebatard’s. In the cellar for a day or two.”
Billy said, “Why in the cellar? I have room upstairs, you can—”
Parker said to him, “If I was a cop, and a coin convention was knocked over, I might come around to a local coin dealer for a little chat.”
Billy looked startled. “You think they will?”
Lempke said, “Billy, didn’t you already figure that?”
“Why should they come to me?”
Lempke said, “For background information, number one. And just in case you were in on it, number two.”
Parker said, “You better think about it some, start getting used to the idea. So you don’t start signing confessions the minute they walk through the door.”
Billy chewed his lower lip. He gave Claire a look of helplessness and fright, but she was facing the other way.
Carlow said, “One problem.”
Parker looked at him. “What’s that?”
“This looks like a job we can’t case ahead of time.”
“We look it over Friday night,” Parker said. “The Pinkerton people should use the same setup both nights.”
“Doesn’t give us much time.”
“It should be enough,” Parker said. “You want in?”
Carlow drank beer, stalling a bit, and then said, “What I do, I bring the truck in place, I set it up, I front for it. You people bring the boodle down, we stow it, I drive away. There shouldn’t be any law on my tail, right?”
“Right.”
“I mean, I don’t outrace anybody.”
“Not with the truck I got us, no.”
Carlow nodded. “Good. I see law, I leave the truck and light a shuck on my feet.”
“Naturally.”
“Then I’m in,” Carlow said.
“Good.” Parker turned to Mainzer. “What about you, Otto?”
“I’m the mule,” Mainzer said. “I carry a ton of coins downstairs.”
“Right.”
Mainzer flexed an arm and looked at it. “I always get the brainwork,” he said.
“I’ve got brainwork for you,” Parker told him.
“What’s that?”
“You in?”
“Sure I’m in. I come here, didn’t I? I listened, didn’t I? I stayed here, didn’t I? What’s the brainwork?”
Parker said, “We’ve got to go through the Diablo Tours wall tomorrow night.”
