Forty seconds since he'd first reached for the drawer. They were all down. They were all out and silent except the one trying to breathe. Parker crossed to Thorsen, stripped off the coat, stripped off the very nice holster that was engineered to fit against the side without a strap across the body, and put it on himself, under his jacket. It would need some adjustment later, but it would do for now.
12
The hall was empty. Parker pulled the door to 1237 hard shut, to lock it, and walked at a steady pace toward the turn to the elevators. Behind him, way back at or near Archibald's suite, a door opened and closed, but he didn't look back.
The neat young guard was still in place on the wing chair facing the elevators. He nodded when Parker came around the corner, and put a finger in his missal to hold his place. Parker said, 'How you doing?'
'Fine, sir.'
Parker pushed the Down button and waited, but before it arrived someone else came walking around the corner. Christine Mackenzie. Dressed as before, but now with a simple gray hat and gray cloak as well, as though she were on her way to give alms to the poor. 'Well, hello,' she said, on seeing Parker, with a bigger smile than she'd permitted herself back in the suite. 'Fancy meeting you here,' as though she hadn't been watching Thorsen's office door, waiting for him to leave.
'How you doing?' Parker said.
'Well, I'm doing fine,' she told him. 'Since we have this unexpected stay here in this nice city, I believe I'm going to do some shopping.'
'Good idea.'
The elevator arrived. He gestured, and she boarded, and he boarded, and she pushed L. The young guard was back reading his missal again before the doors closed.
They were alone in the elevator. 'You should see the view on nine,' she said, and pushed that button.
Parker didn't have time for views, or anything else. A lot of people were going to be chasing after him in a few minutes. He said, 'Why's that better than the view on twelve?'
Here they were at nine already. 'They have a conference room here,' she said, holding the door open. 'Huge windows, all around. Come on and see, it's fabulous.'
It was easier to go along. 'Okay,' he said, following her out of the elevator. 'Show it to me.'
She giggled, a low contralto. 'I will,' she said.
He never thought about sex when he was working, but he was always hungry for it afterward. What situation was this he was in now? The heist was done, and yet it wasn't done. The job was finished, but it was still going on, with complications and trailing smoke. Was he going to have sex with this woman now, or not? He looked at her body, imperfectly hidden in somebody else's clothing, and it looked very good, but his mind kept filling with Liss, with Brenda and Mackey, with the duffel bags full of money; and now with Thorsen and Archibald and Calavecci and Quindero and who knew how many more. But still, it was a good body, walking along beside him here.
The conference room was at the opposite end on nine from Archibald's suite on twelve, so it was a view of a different quadrant of the city, but not that much different. Still, the room was large and airy and empty, with thick gray-green carpet and a large free-form conference table and some tan leatherette sofas along the inner wall.
'Come look,' she said, and when he went over to stand beside her she hooked her arm through his. 'I love the way the sunlight bounces off that roof,' she said, pointing with her free hand. 'See it?'
'Yes.'
She smiled at him, came close to laughing at him. 'You don't care much for views, do you?'
'Depends,' he said, and bit that swollen lower lip.
'Oo, careful,' she said. 'No marks.'
Beneath his hand, her breast was so firmly contained in place it might have been made of kapok. This wasn't going to work; she might as well be a sofa. 'Not a good idea,' he said, and backed away, disengaging her arm.
'You don't think so?' She stood by the window, facing him, letting the full light from outside make her argument.
Three floors up, they'd surely be making phone calls by now, and not all of them for a doctor. Parker said, 'Sometimes the time isn't the right time.'
'All times are the right time,' she corrected him, and slowly smiled. 'As the Bible says, Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.'
'That's the Bible?'
'I always do what the Bible tells me,' she said, and stretched, and smiled again. 'Come, let us take our fill of love, until the morning. It says that, too.'
She was a true pistol. He said, 'What about Archibald?'
She laughed at the idea that he cared about
Archibald. 'Stolen waters are sweet,' she quoted, 'and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.'
'I'm sure it is,' Parker told her. 'And it'll be even better later. I'll take a rain check.'
The smile disappeared. The body snapped to attention. Behind the horn-rim glasses, the blue eyes flashed at him. 'Rain check? I'm not a
