“Bite your tongue,” Mackey said.
Brenda turned to Parker. “What do you think?”
Parker thought three in a row would be too many. He said, “We should be able to work something out. First we’ll find out what he’s got in mind.”
“I want to get this thing off the ground,” Mackey said. “It’s been a long while between drinks.”
They drove the rest of the way back to the motel in silence. Parker left them and went off to his own room and called Handy McKay again. If something else had come along, he’d leave this right now. If nothing was happening, he’d stay here and hope for the best.
Handy came on the line and said, “Got a call for you.”
“Good.”
“Guy in San Francisco. Named Beaghler.”
Parker shook his head. “Forget it,” he said.
“Well, what Beaghler said was, he had information for you on a friend of yours. Somebody you wanted to look up.”
“Ah.”
“He said to call him at home.”
Parker did, but it was Sharon’s voice that answered, full of strangled sexuality. Parker said, “Bob there?”
“No, he’s out now.” The sentence was so loaded with veiled invitation that it sounded as though it had to be a parody; except it wasn’t.
“When will he be back?”
”Around five.” The voice had throttled back, become more matter-of-fact. “You want me to have him call you?”
Five. There was a two-hour time difference from here to California, so that would be seven this evening here. “No,” Parker said, “I’ll call him.”
“Who should I say?”
“I’ll tell him when I call back,” Parker said, and hung up, and phoned again at quarter after seven.
This time Beaghler himself answered, all of his belligerence and insecurity compressing themselves into the one suspicious word, “Hello?”
“The last time I saw you,” Parker said, “was at that motel in Fremont. I got mad at you for shouting my name so loud.”
“What? Oh, Pa—! Oh, yeah, yeah. That’s right. You got my message, huh?”
“I got it.”
“You were looking for that fellow George, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Well, he’s here.”
“Where?”
“Not thirty miles from where I’m standing. Where are you?”
“More than thirty miles from where you’re standing. How can I get in touch with George?”
“I’ll take you to him.”
Parker frowned at the telephone. “There’s no need for that,” he said.
“But I want to. Listen, be a sport. There’s money in it.”
“What money?”
“Not from you. But this could help me, it really could.”
Parker considered, trying to work it out. Uhl was someplace with money, apparently. Beaghler wanted the money, but didn’t want to go up against Uhl himself. So he wanted Parker to take care of Uhl while Beaghler took care of the money. And the hook would be that Beaghler wanted to make a deal: Uhl’s whereabouts for Uhl’s money.
Beaghler said, “Hello?”
Parker said, “How long’s he going to be there?”
”Just a few days.”
The details would have to be worked out at the scene. “I’ll be there tomorrow,” Parker said.
“I’ll stay home from work.”
Parker hung up, and went to see Mackey. Mackey and Brenda were getting ready to go out to dinner, and they both had the slightly flushed look of people who’d paused in the middle of changing clothes. Parker said, “I’m taking off for a couple days. Work out what you can with Griffith. I’ll give you a call before I come back, to see if things are still on. If you aren’t here, I’ll know they’re off.”
Mackey said, “You want help?”
