bathroom and you are a professional thief. Your specialty is planning the details of large-scale robberies.”
That was all true. Parker said nothing.
Number one waited, looking at Parker, asking for a response. Finally he said, “You don’t deny it? Don’t admit it? Nothing?”
“Get to the point,” Parker said.
“That isthe point,” he said. “You have been approached on a certain project. There’s no need to go into details, for God’s sake.” He was suddenly nettled, as though Parker were delaying him in some important series of events.
“Go into details,” Parker said.
“No. How do I know how much or how little they’ve told you?”
“Who?”
“This is very foolish.”
Number three said, “The point is, are you going in with them?”
Parker turned his head and looked at him. “Going in with who?”
Number three smiled sardonically at number one. “I think he is,” he said. “That’s why he’s carrying on like this; he’s already committed himself to the other side.”
“Perhaps,” said number one. “Or perhaps he’s merely undecided.” He looked at Parker. “I’m going to assume that’s the case,” he said. “And I’m going to suggest to you that you not get involved.”
Parker said, “In what?”
“Don’t waste my time!”
Number two, at the door behind Parker, said, “Two or three lost teeth would be the best convincer.”
Number one shook his head. “Only if it’s absolutely necessary,” he said. To Parker he said, “Ostensibly, you and your lady friend are here from Miami on a shopping trip. Content yourself with that. Makeit a shopping trip. And bring it soon to a conclusion, and return to Miami. Do not get involved. If you don’t already know the caliber of the people who’ve approached you, allow me to tell you they are useless. Worse than useless. Liabilities. You know the kind they are, you seem to be a sensible man. You aren’t simply bucking the Colonel’s stooges, you’re bucking us. I don’t think you’ll want to do that.”
Parker said, “If I ever find out what you’re talking about, I’ll bear what you said in mind.”
“Cautious to the end, eh?” He smiled and got to his feet, flicking cigarette ash on the rug. “Very well, then,” he said. “We’ll leave it at that. For the moment.”
They trooped to the door. Parker turned and looked at them, the three of them standing together, looking like cousins, threads of similarity among them, that touch of the farmer in all three of them.
Number one paused, his hand on the knob. “I hope,” he said, “for your sake, we never have to meet again.”
Parker said nothing.
Number one waited, expecting a response, then shrugged and opened the door and went out. The other two followed.
2
Claire was sitting on the closed toilet lid, knees together, arms hugging herself. She was a good-looking woman, a stylish woman, but fear had made her angular and jagged and old.
Parker stayed in the doorway, his hand on the knob. “They’re gone,” he said.
She thawed slowly, straightening, her arms losing their tension, her face relaxing back toward something he recognized. She said, “Who” and stopped because her voice was rusty. She coughed and cleared her throat, ducking her head in a gesture he knew, and looked up at him to say, “Who were they? What did they want?”
“They didn’t say.”
“You can tell me,” she said. “This time, you can tell me.”
He knew she meant the agreement they had that he wouldn’t ever talk to her about the life he had when he was being Parker. He shook his head. “They didn’t say. They were full of something I don’t know about, and they wouldn’t believe I wasn’t in on it.”
She stood up, moving slowly as though she were stiff, holding on to the sink for support. “What did they want?”
“To tell me not to get involved.”
“In what?”
“They didn’t say.”
She frowned at him, frustrated, then suddenly grinned as though something unexpected had struck her funny. “Really?” she said.
He nodded. “Really.”
“They came in and acted tough and told you not to get involved and they wouldn’t say in what?” She was grinning broadly now.
“Don’t get hysterical,” he said.
“I’m not going to get hysterical. I was afraid of them, really afraid of them, and they’re just
