“Oh,” O’Hara said. “That’s okay, I guess.”
Dunstan had come around, and stood silent and awkward beside them. He was making it obvious how uncomfortable he was to be here.
Caliato said, “The point is, they don’t know about us being on shares. They think we’re turning it all over to Mr. Lozini.”
Dunstan said, “We aren’t, are we?”
Caliato smiled. “Don’t worry, it’s all ours. But we don’t want to tell the other boys that, it could make them jealous.”
“I’ve got you,” said O’Hara.
“Good. You’ve got a loud-hailer, haven’t you?”
“Sure.”
“Bring it along,” Caliato said.
“Right.”
O’Hara turned toward the car, but Dunstan said, “I’ll get it.” As though trying to make up for his poor attitude.
They waited while Dunstan got out the loud-hailer, and then all three went across the street and through the open gate into the park. One of Caliato’s new troops was standing there, a heavy-set thug O’Hara didn’t recognize. He grinned and nodded at O’Hara and Dunstan, and shut the gate after them O’Hara found it uncomfortable to have somebody like that grin and nod at him that way, as though they were in cahoots, partners, members of the same club. Even though they were “What we’ll try first,” Caliato was saying, “is you and Dunstan go up the main drag here, to about the middle of the park, where we’ll be sure he can see you. Then you announce the place is surrounded, we know he’s there, the jig is up, he better surrender, all that stuff. Then we’ll see what happens.”
O’Hara nodded. “Right,” he said.
Dunstan said, “What about the site of the robbery? It’s just the other side of that fence, down a ways. Is anybody still there?”
Caliato shook his head. “No,” he said, “they all cleared out. The armored car’s gone, everything’s gone. I just had one of the boys go around and check five minutes ago.”
“That’s good,” O’Hara said. He was sorry he hadn’t thought about asking that question himself, and surprised Dunstan had come up with it. But he supposed it just showed he was full of excitement and anticipation and Dunstan was full of apprehension. Still, it was a good thing somebody had thought to check. It wouldn’t have been pleasant if they’d started yelling through a loud-hailer in here with people from the force just the other side of the board fence.
Caliato said, “Any time you’re ready, O’Hara.”
“Then let’s get it over with,” O’Hara said.
“We’ll stay back here out of sight,” Caliato said.
“Right.”
O’Hara and Dunstan both carried flashlights. They lit them and walked forward into the park along the main blacktop path toward the center, where in the summer a fountain was lit by colored lights. On the way, they passed the Desert Island on their left and Island Earth on their right. A snack bar on their left, amusement rides on their right. A small footbridge — they crossed over the little stream that meandered through the grounds. On their right, a black-light ride called Voyage Through the Galaxy.
On their left, the fun house, dominated by a huge round laughing face with open gaping mouth.
They stopped short of the concrete fountain, and looked at one another. O’Hara could see his own nervousness reflected in Dunstan’s eyes, and he hesitated just a second, as though he could mill change his mind, do things differently. But of course he couldn’t. It was way too late to change now, even if he wanted to.
He lifted the loud-hailer to his lips, depressed the trigger.’
‘We know you ‘re in there, “his amplified voice suddenly roared. “You were seen climbing over the gates with the suitcase full of money. Come nut now, throw down your weapons, give yourself up. This is the police. The park is surrounded. “
The silence echoed for a while when he was done. He lowered the loud-hailer, shone his flashlight this way and that, waited for some indication that he’d been heard.
Nothing.
He raised the loud-hailer to his mouth again, and suddenly light, noise, laughter poured down on him from behind, flooded over him like a shock wave. He yelped and dropped the loud-hailer and jumped forward, stumbling, almost falling into the empty concrete pool where in summer the fountain played. He turned around and stared.
The fun house. In the middle of the silent, empty, dark, frozen park, the fun house had suddenly surged into life. All the lights were shining, yellow and white and orange and red, cartwheels of light spinning around the entrance, flashers revolving on the roof, light everywhere, flickering like a huge fire in a Roman-candle factory.
And noise. The huge laughing face on the front of the fun house was moving in its slow mechanical circle, and from behind it came the boom of recorded laughter, huge maniacal rolling laughter. Plus music, recorded calliope music blaring from loudspeakers at the corners of the building.
“My God!” O’Hara screamed, and turned wild-eyed to see Dunstan running like a crazy man for the darkness by the front gate.
Eleven
