”He’ll keep his head.”
“How do you know?”
Fusco made vague hand movements. “Because I know the kid. You’ll know it yourself, when you see him.”
“It doesn’t necessarily kill the job if we have to do it the other way,” Parker reminded him.
Fusco was too far inside his own ideas to get what Parker meant. He said, “What other way?”
“If we have to lose the kid when the job’s over.”
“You mean, bump him?” Fusco seemed really shocked. “Christ, Parker, I told you he’s okay.”
“Any record?”
“I don’t think so. He’s only a kid.”
“Kids can have records.”
“You’ll have to ask him, I don’t know.”
Parker shrugged, said, “All right, let it go. What about this ex-woman of yours?”
“Ellen? What about her?”
“She’s in on it, isn’t she?”
“Sure,” said Fusco, throwing it away, as though he didn’t know why Parker would bring it up at all. “She knows about it, if that’s what you mean.”
“Does she sit in, or just kibitz?”
“Oh, no,” Fusco said, “Ellen wouldn’t want to work. But it’s okay her knowing. What the hell, she used to be with me, she knew all about everything I worked. She’s reliable, guaranteed.”
“What’s the set-up between you and her?”
Fusco shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. “Ellen don’t want me back, so that’s the way it is. She’s seeing some headshrinker, she’s got it all doped out, we shouldn’t of got married in the first place, it’s nobody’s fault, nobody should get mad at nobody.”
“And between you and Devers?”
“I got no jealousy, Parker. You know me better than that.”
“That’s you. How does he act, you, the ex-husband, hanging around?”
Fusco shrugged. “He’s cool. What the hell, he knows the score, he knows I’m not trying to freeze him out.”
“All right. Tell me about this base. You say it’s Air Force.”
“Yeah.” Fusco leaned forward, elbows on knees, expression earnest and intent. “It’s some kind of training base, it’s all schools. They get a big turnover of people, most of them only stay two or three months.”
“What kind of planes do they have there?”
Fusco seemed surprised at the question. “I don’t know,” he said. “You want to go in by plane?”
“How do I know? I’m not sure I want to go in at all. Do you know anything about this base or don’t you?”
“Stan would be the one to tell you about that,” Fusco said. “I don’t know this military stuff, Parker.”
“You never cased it?”
“Sure I did.” Fusco’s professional pride was hurt. “I been on the base a couple times, Stan fixed me up with a fake ID.”
“How far’s the finance office from the gate?”
“Well, there’s three gates. It’s a hell of a distance from the main gate, but there’s this other one, the South Gate, it’s only like two blocks from there. It’s like a back entrance.”
“How many guards on each gate?”
“Two. Just kids, you know?”
“And the payroll’s four hundred grand?”
“Around that. Sometimes a little more, a little less.”
“How’s it come in?”
“They fly it in, the day before.”
Parker said, “Give me the sequence.”
Fusco said, “The plane comes in the day before, in the morning. The payroll’s in two metal boxes. They put it on this truck, drive it to the finance office. Then they—”
“What kind of truck?”
“Regular armored car. A tough nut, Parker.”
“All right. What next?”
“They split it up,” Fusco said, “into the payrolls for all the outfits on the base. The money and a payroll sheet
