But Ross wasn’t acting like he was a threat; none of them were. His smile still big, Ross said, ‘We had to know if we were gonna get along with you. And we had to know if you were gonna get along with us. But now we all think it’s okay, if you think it’s okay. So what I’m gonna do is tell you about the job.’
Parker looked at him. ‘We just did the job,’ he said.
‘Not that,’ Ross said, dismissing the bank job with a wave of the hand. ‘That wasn’t the job. You know what that was? That was the financingfor the job.’
‘The job,’ Melander added, ‘the real job, is not nickel-dime. Not like this.’
‘The real job,’ Ross said, ‘is worthy of our talents.’ Parker looked from one to another. He didn’t know these people. Was this something, or was it smoke and mirrors? Was this what Hurley had almost but not quite mentioned? ‘I think,’ he said, ‘you ought to tell me about the job.’
2
It had started with a phone call, through a cutout. Parker returned the call from a pay phone and recognized Tom Hurley’s voice when he said, ‘You busy?’
‘Not in particular,’ Parker said. ‘How’s the wing?’ Because the last time they’d been together, in a town called Tyler, Hurley had wound up shot in the arm and had been taken out of the action by a friend of his named Dalesia.
Hurley laughed, not as though he was amused but as though he was angry. ‘Fucked me a little,’ he said. ‘I feel it in cold weather.’
‘Stay where it’s warm.’
‘That’s what I’m doing. In fact, that’s why I’m calling.’
Parker waited. After a little dead air, Hurley did his laugh again and said, ‘You never were much for small talk.’
Parker waited. After a shorter pause, Hurley cleared his throat and said, ‘It’s a thing with some people I don’t think you know.’
‘I know you.’
‘Well, that’s just it, I won’t be there. If you want it, you’re taking my place.’
‘Why?’
‘I got a better something come up, offshore. I’m fixing to be a beachcomber. A rich beachcomber.’
‘Because of the arm,’ Parker suggested.
‘That, too,’ Hurley agreed. ‘These three are good boys. They know how to count at the end of the day, you know what I mean.’
Parker knew what he meant; they wouldn’t try to hog it all, at the end of the day. He said, ‘Why don’t I know them? They civilians?’
‘No, they just work different places, different people, you know how it is. But then, it could pan out with them, and then you know them, and who knows.’
‘Who knows what?’
‘What happens next,’ Hurley said.
Letting that go, Parker said, ‘Where are they now?’
‘They move around, like people do,’ Hurley told him. ‘Lately, they’re based around the Northwest somewhere, or maybe Vancouver. Over there someplace.’
‘Is that where this thing is?’
‘No, they like to work away from home.’ So did Parker. He said, ‘Not around me.’
‘No, in the Midwest, one of those flat states out there. I told them about you. If you’re interested I’ll give you a number.’
So one thing led to another, and here he was in the back of the Bronco with Melander and Carlson and Ross, and after all he was going to be told the who-knows that Hurley hadn’t wanted to talk about.
3
‘It’s jewelry,’ Ross said.
Parker wasn’t impressed. ‘That’s a dime on the dollar, if you’re lucky.’
‘That’s right,’ Ross said, ‘that’s what we’ll get.’
Melander said, ‘We got three buyers, ready to go. That’s what they all give us.’
Parker said, ‘Three?’
‘There’s too much for one fence,’ Ross explained.
Parker was beginning to get interested. ‘What are we talking about here?’
Carlson steered them up onto the interstate ramp as Ross said, ‘Four of us will walk home’
‘Ride home,’ Melander corrected him. ‘In a limo.’
‘Right,’ Ross agreed. ‘Four of us will ride home with three hundred grand apiece.’
Parker looked from Ross to Melander and back.
