Parmitt.’
That did astonish her. ‘My God! No!’
‘Yes. Might of slipped in and out, nobody the wiser, except we were already on the scene, account of Parmitt being gone. So now we got this fella, and pretty soon he’ll tell us who hired him, and then we’ll learn a lot more about Daniel Parmitt than we know right now.’
‘Good,’ she said.
‘But the thing is,’ Farley told her, ‘this is the second try at him we know about, the first being the gunshot put him in the hospital. Before we catch up with the fella that’s paying for all this, some other goon might catch up with Parmitt. And probably anybody standing too close to him.’
‘Thank you, Sergeant,’ she said. ‘I understand what you’re saying. Just in case I aminvolved with Daniel, I should know to watch out. But I’m not.’ The laugh she offered was almost completely real. ‘Speeding tickets is as big a criminal as I’ve ever been.’
‘Good, keep it that way,’ he said, and got to his feet, at last. She also rose, as he said, ‘If you hear from him, I’d appreciate a call.’
‘Absolutely,’ she said. ‘And if youfind out anything about him, would you let me know?’
‘Will do.’ He extended a hand. ‘Nice to meet you, Ms Mackenzie.’
He’s got a thing for me, she thought, as they shook hands, but he’d never show it in a million years. She said, ‘I guess I can cross Daniel Parmitt off my list of eligible bachelors.’
His grin was just a little sour. ‘Good idea,’ he said.
She had Daniel stashed in the condo where he’d first told her about the three men who planned to rob tonight’s jewelry auction. That condo had now been sold, by her, but the closing hadn’t happened yet, so nobody would have any reason to go in there for a couple of weeks. She’d brought him in last night, with the help of Loretta, who was suddenly happy and perky and full of good cheer now that the scary part was over, and they’d left him with milk and candy bars and two blankets.
Now, once she was sure Farley wasn’t still around and following her, she drove back down to the condo, carried the canvas bag in with her, and found Parker seated on the bench on the terrace, where they’d talked the first time. He had one of the blankets wrapped around himself.
‘I have clothes for you,’ she said, and showed him the canvas bag.
He got up stiffly, but he could move better today than last night. He took the bag from her and went off to another room, and when he came back, dressed, he looked almost his normal self, but more gaunt, and still moving slowly. ‘I could use a razor,’ he said as he sat on the terrace bench again. His voice at last was above a whisper, was now a hoarse burr, like a palm brushing corduroy.
She sat beside him, saying, ‘Okay. Anything else?’
‘Can you pick me up at seven-thirty?’
‘Daniel, you still want to go after those people? Tonight?’
‘Tonight’s when they’re doing it.’
‘But you’re I don’t suppose I could argue you out of it.’
‘If you argue me out of it,’ he said, ‘you don’t get anything.’
‘If they kill you I don’t get anything either.’
‘Maybe it won’t happen.’
‘Maybe,’ she said, giving up. ‘Sergeant Farley came to see me this afternoon.’
He watched her. ‘Did he worry you?’
‘A little,’ she admitted. ‘But he had more news.’
‘What?’
She told him about the hired killer Farley had captured. He grunted at that and said, ‘That’s the end of it, then.’
‘But who is he? Who’s after you like this?’
‘The stupid thing is,’ he said, ‘I don’t know. The guy’s making trouble, and he doesn’t have to.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘I got some identification from a guy,’ he said.
‘Daniel Parmitt’s identification?’
He shrugged. ‘He’s a guy who does that kind of thing. He did it for somebody else, South American or Central American I think, maybe a drug guy or a general, whoever. Turns out that guy wants to erase anybody knows about his changeover. He sent people to kill the guy did the work for him. I was there, he thinks I know his story, too, he’s tracking me down. Only now the law’s gonna follow the string back from the guy they just nabbed, and they’re gonna find him, and his cover’s blown. He must be wanted badly somewhere, and it’ll come out. You’ll read about it in the papers, a month or two from now, some guy everybody’s after, he suddenly pops up.’
‘But you’re not concerned about him,’ she said. ‘He tries to kill you, and it doesn’t matter to you. These other people, you feel they cheated you, that’s all, but you won’t give up.’
‘The other guy’s gonna self-destruct,’ he told her. ‘He has to, he’s too stupid to last. He’s somebody used to power, not brains. But these three are mechanics, we had an understanding, they broke it. They don’t do that.’ He shrugged. ‘It makes sense, or it doesn’t.’
Did anything about Daniel Parmitt make sense? Getting to her feet, she said, ‘I’ll see you at seven-thirty. With the razor.’
