“Nope.” She shook her head, being totally positive.
“Maybe somebody you haven’t thought of?”
“I don’t think so,” she said. “I’m pretty sure not.”
Parker gave it up. He said, “If he was in trouble, do you think he’d come to you?”
“Oh, I wish he would,” she said savagely.
“Yeah, but would he?”
“I don’t know. He’s so damn arrogant, I suppose he might. If he didn’t have anybody else to turn to, maybe he would. Think he could just walk back in and take over again.” The whine was as sharp as vinegar now, the lines in her forehead looking like pencil strokes, crayon stokes, in the candlelight. Then she leaned forward and said, “You’re really mad at him, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“You’d really beat him up, wouldn’t you?”
It was what she wanted to hear, so he said, “Yes.”
“I tell you what,” she said, her voice dropping, becoming more confidential. “If I hear from George at all, I’ll call you. Okay?”
Parker considered the offer. Was there anything else under it? No, he didn’t thing so. He said, “All right. That’d be good.”
“And if I think of anybody else, anything else that might help you, I’ll call. Like Officer Dumek’s first name, or anything like that.”
“Good. You can reach me at the Rilington Hotel, in midtown. You know of it?”
“Rilington Hotel. I can look it up in the phone book.”
“Right. I’m in and out of there, so if I’m not registered when you call, just tell them to hold the message for me.”
She nodded. “You’re from out of town, then, is that it?”
“I’m in New York a lot of the time,” he told her to keep her interest alive.
It did. “Then maybe we can get to know each other a little,” she said. “I could show you around the city some, if you don’t know it very well.”
“After I find George,” he said.
“A one-track mind,” she said, smiling. “I told you that’s what you had.”
“That’s what I have.”
She looked off toward the fishnets on the wall. “I wonder where George is,” she said.
THREE
One
A second too late, George Uhl realized he’d shot the wrong man first. Weiss was falling, Andrews was lunging for a gun he was never going to be able to reach, but Parker was going out the window. It was Parker he should have taken out first, and then Andrews, with the old man last. Old men are slower.
Later on, thinking about it, he finally came to the conclusion that he’d shot Weiss first because he knew Weiss. Stupid subconscious thinking — deal with friends before you deal with strangers. But that was the only explanation, and it screwed things up all around.
If it hadn’t been for Andrews, Uhl would have gotten Parker anyway, even though he’d gone for the wrong man first. But if he’d spent those extra few seconds getting Parker, Andrews would have had that gun in his hand and it might have gone the wrong way. So he had to take care of Andrews and let Parker go on out the window.
He was rattled for a while after that, and who wouldn’t have been? The tension of the robbery, driving back, waiting for the right moment to throw down on the other three — he’d been wound up like a watch, and of course as soon as something went wrong in the plans he got hopelessly strung up for a couple of minutes.
Until he saw Parker’s gun lying outside the window in the dust, and that was such a good break it almost made up for the stupidity. Anyway, it got him back on the track, and even though Parker got away into the woods Uhl was all right again, ready to go on with his plans. He was too smart to go crashing around in the woods after Parker. He’d have to let the bastard go.
But it wasn’t all that bad. Parker and Uhl didn’t know each other, so how could Parker make trouble for him later on even if he wanted to? And besides, since Uhl was going to leave him unarmed and on foot out here, he was more than likely to be picked up by the cops. Let Parker do twenty years in a federal pen somewhere and then come looking for Uhl.
So he went on with his original plan, ignoring Parker’s unscheduled existence. He went back and arranged for the fire, piling all the flammable stuff in the middle of the house, and then stacked the bodies on top so they’d burn thoroughly, first kicking their teeth loose. These bodies weren’t going to be identified by fingerprints or dental records. These bodies weren’t going to be identified.
In the barn he splashed gasoline around, led a trail of gasoline-soaked rags to Andrews’ Mercury. Then he set the two fires and got out of there. Good-bye, Parker. Good-bye, Weiss and Andrews.
Number six. This was job number six, and from the first one he’d wanted to do this. Every time the job would be done, he’d drive the car to the hideout, the money would be split up, and he’d look at the piles of cash, he’d look at the fraction he was given, and he’d want it all. But every time there’d been something wrong. Too many men, or men he knew too well who had friends who knew him and would come after him. It took till job number six before the situation was right. Only three others in the heist, and he really didn’t know any of them. Only Benny Weiss, and that not very much, just through organizing a job that didn’t come off one time.
