Comeback

'Anyway, Parker,' Mackey said, 'what's he gonna do if he doesn't believe it? We're the takers, not him. Is he gonna take it from the takers? No way.'

Parker ignored that. He said to Liss, 'How many parole guys does this fella have beer with?'

Liss half-frowned; that face of his took some getting used to. He said, 'You mean, he puts together a backup crew to take it away after we get it? But what's the point, Parker? If he's afraid we're gonna cut him out, what's he gonna do about the second crew? Come up with a third?'

'What I think it is,' Mackey said, 'I think the guy bought his own story. He's not buying from us, he's buying from himself.'

Parker said to Mackey, 'You meet this wonder?'

'Not yet.'

'That can be arranged,' Liss said. 'Easiest thing there is. I'll call him tonight, say we're—'

'No,' Parker said. 'You say he goes out with this preacher on his crusades. When's the next one?'

'Couple weeks. I figured that's when we could pull it.'

'No. Where they gonna be? The whole tour.'

Liss's face went out of whack again. He said, 'Beats me. I guess I could find out.'

'Good,' Parker said. 'Then somewhere along the way, without any invitations or planning or setting things up, we're there, and we say hello. Mackey and me.'

'And Brenda,' Mackey said.

Parker looked at Brenda. 'Naturally,' he said.

3

In a not-very-good restaurant in St. Louis, with old bored waiters and old-fashioned dark red-and-brown decor, Parker and Mackey and Brenda ate dinner, taking their time over it. Liss had said he'd get the pigeon here between eight and ten, and it was already nine-thirty. 'I gotta go to the john again,' Brenda said, fooling with her coffee cup, 'but I know, the minute I leave the table, they're gonna walk in.'

'Then do it,' Mackey told her. 'I'd like to see something make them walk in.'

'Only for you,' she said, and left the table, and a minute later Liss walked in with a sandy-haired nervous- looking guy in his late twenties, wearing tan slacks and a plaid shirt.

'There, you see,' Mackey said. 'That's why I keep Brenda around. She's magic.'

Parker said nothing. He already knew why Mackey kept Brenda around—she was his brains—and his interest was in the guy over there with Liss. And also with whoever might come into the restaurant next.

Which was nobody. If Carmody was being watched, it was a very long leash. Watchers couldn't have been planted in the place ahead of time, because Liss wouldn't have told Tom where they were going until they got here. 'This looks like a good place, Tom. I'm ready for dinner, how about you?'

And why would a watcher wait outside, when the whole point of keeping an eye on your bait was to see who came around and what happened? So Tom was not under observation. Which didn't mean he wasn't a Judas goat, only that, if he was, they were letting him float on his own. Not important to them, in other words, or not yet. Not until he starts to come home with somebody.

Liss had seated himself at the table in a chair where he could give the doddering waiter his good side, about which the waiter cared nothing. Tom Carmody, across from Liss, was quiet, low-key, ordering as though he didn't care if he ate or not, then sitting there in a funk. Liss gave him a minute or two of cheery conversation and then ate rolls instead.

Brenda came back to the table and Mackey said, 'Your magic worked.'

'So I see.'

While Mackey signaled to the waiter for the check, Brenda studied the guy sitting over there with Liss. Mackey repeated his hand gesture at the waiter—signing his name in the air—then turned back to Brenda to say, 'What do you think?'

'He's too gloomy.'

'I don't want you to date him, honey.'

'I don't want you to date him, either,' she said. 'That's what I mean, he's too gloomy.'

Parker listened, while across the way Liss and Carmody got their salads. Liss tucked in, while Carmody pushed the lettuce and tomato slice around in the shallow bowl.

Meantime, Mackey said, 'Explain yourself,' and Brenda said, 'He already gave up. Look at him, Ed. He doesn't care if anything good happens or not. You know what a guy like that does when there's trouble? He lies down.'

'Good,' Mackey said. 'He'll give us traction.'

The waiter brought the check then, and stood around as Mackey brought out his wallet and, despite the hand signal, paid in cash. While he did that, Brenda said to Parker, 'How's Claire?'

Unlike Mackey, Parker didn't bring his woman to work. 'She's fine,' he said.

'Will I be seeing her?'