Comeback

'So you are stupid,' Parker said, and walked toward him.

'Hey! Hey!' the guy said, startled, and backed up two steps to the wall. Then, before Parker could reach him, he holstered the automatic, just as rapidly as he'd taken it out. Showing his palms, he said, 'All right.'

Parker backed away, and now he was the one who pointed at the table and chairs, saying, 'Why don't we both sit down?'

The guy frowned at him. 'Jesus Christ,' he said thoughtfully. 'What if I was the excitable type?'

'I'd calm you down,' Parker told him. He went over and sat in the chair that didn't have its back to the door. Watching the guy, still standing there, indecisive, he said, 'You're looking for the money.'

The guy nodded, still frowning; not so much in agreement that he was looking for the money but accepting the force of the statement. 'I know who I am,' he said. 'Who the hell are you?'

'John Orr,' Parker told him. 'Midwest Insurance.'

'You're an insurance man?'

'Investigator.'

'You got ID?'

'Never,' Parker said. 'Not on the job. How about you?'

Now at last the guy came over and sat in the other chair. He put one forearm on the table and said, 'Dwayne Thorsen. Head of Security for the Christian Crusade.'

'Archibald's guy.'

'He's who I work for,' Thorsen said. 'You've got no ID on you at all?'

Parker pulled his wallet out of his hip pocket and dropped it on the table. 'I've got papers on three different names in there,' he said. 'None of them true. It makes you feel better, look em over.'

Thorsen looked at the beat-up wallet, then at Parker, and laughed. 'You'll tell me when you're telling the truth,' he said, 'and you'll tell me when you're lying, and I can believe you or I can go fuck myself.'

This was true, and there was no need for Parker to confirm it. There was a persona he wanted Thorsen to believe, and the more that persona was Thorsen's own invention, instead of a razzle-dazzle fed him by Parker, the better.

Thorsen said, 'Midwest Insurance. Who's your client? The stadium?'

Parker put his wallet away. 'Nobody,' he said. 'Not on this one.'

Thorsen nodded, considering that. 'What you mean is, you were already on their trail, for something else.'

'One of them,' Parker said. 'A fellow named George Liss.'

'That's a name I know,' Thorsen agreed.

So Carmody had broken; not a surprise.

Thorsen went on, 'Seems to be his real handle, Liss. What do you have on the others?'

'Nothing,' Parker said. 'They're not part of my job. Or they weren't. I guess they are now. Do you have names on them?'

'Not names I like,' Thorsen said. 'Jack Grant.

Ed and Brenda Fawcett.' He waggled a hand, to show doubt. 'That's what they told Carmody, for what it's worth.'

Parker decided an insurance investigator following George Liss would have some knowledge of Carmody. He said, 'Carmody. He's something in Liss's parole, isn't he?'

'He's also the inside man on the robbery,' Thorsen said.

'It looked like there had to be somebody inside,' Parker agreed. 'And they holed up in that trailer that blew apart, I suppose.'

'From there,' Thorsen said, 'God knows where they went.'

'Who's running the investigation?'

Thorsen shook his head. 'I don't like him,' he said, 'and you won't either. Detective Second Grade Calavecci.'

'Is that why you're looking around here yourself? He's incompetent?'

'No, he's good at the job,' Thorsen said. 'I think the whole department's good. He just enjoys himself a little too much.'

'Maybe I'll stay out of his way,' Parker said.

'That's what I'm doing,' Thorsen said. 'Came over here to see what's what, when I couldn't stand him any more.'

'You knew about this place from Carmody?'

'And also from another bunch, trying to cut themselves a piece. Calavecci didn't want to come here, said they wouldn't be back, but you never know. Their stuff is here.'

Parker said, 'Another bunch?' That must be the trio in the car in the stadium parking lot. Who were those clowns? And where were they now? Parker said, 'I don't know any other bunch.'