part of the attic. In there were a razor and shaving cream and comb and some clothing, all things the dead heisters had left behind, plus an unopened box of cereal, a plastic bag of rolls, two cans of tuna, and half a dozen bottles of beer. But if they were going to shut this house down completely he wouldn’t be able to stay much longer.
After they left, he came down to see what they’d taken, which was all the furniture, all the personal possessions, all the leftover food. The refrigerator was there, but had been switched off and the door propped open. There was still water and still electricity, so he started the refrigerator and put the beer and rolls in it.
What he was waiting for was Lesley. She’d come back, he knew she would. She’d figure some way to get back to this house, if only out of curiosity. Or, more likely, to try to find his trail. One way or another, she would show up here, and that’s what he had to count on, because he needed her assistance just one more time. He knew he couldn’t just walk out of here and down the road, looking the way he did. He wouldn’t get half a mile before some cop would stop to ask questions. Any question at all.
Wednesday afternoon. He was spending most of his waking time seated on the floor on the secondfloor terrace, out of sight of anybody on the beach, but in the open air, giving his body a chance to relax, to heal itself. He had all the interior doors open in the house, and the door to the terrace open, so he’d hear if anybody came in.
Midafternoon, the terrace now in the building’s shadow. He felt hungry, but otherwise not bad. The breathing was better, the ribs less painful. The bandages were now almost a week old, but he didn’t want to remove them or fuss with them because he didn’t have any replacements.
He heard the front door shut, and rose, grunting a little. In the doorway, he could look straight down the staircase to the front hall, where he saw Lesley just disappearing to the right. Going to switch off the useless alarm.
He stepped through the doorway, leaned on the railing at the head of the stairs, waited. She came into view again down there, looking around, as though deciding what to do first. Softly, he called, ‘You alone?’
She lifted her startled face, saw him up there. ‘My God! I thought you were a thousand miles from here!’
‘Not yet. Wait there, I’ll come down.’
He went down, and they sat together on the staircase, and he noted the clump of keys in her hand. ‘It’s okay you being here?’
She grinned, pleased with herself. ‘I’ve got the exclusive,’ she said.
‘I don’t follow.’
‘The house reverted to its former owner,’ she explained, ‘so it’s on the market again. I’m a heroine, so I’ve got the exclusive listing.’ She grinned at him, as though bringing him a present. ‘No one is going to come into this house unless they’re with me.’
‘That’s good,’ he said. ‘But I can’t stay here. Are they still doing traffic stops?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘They think the fourth man escaped with the jewelry somewhere else.’
‘Fourth man?’
‘They searched the house all day Saturday and didn’t find the jewelry, so there must be a fourth man.’
‘All right.’
‘They think the three who came here gave this fourth man the jewelry somewhere along the way, and I’m pretty sure they thinkhe’s somebody locally prominent, but nobody’s saying so.’
Parker stretched his lips in a grin. ‘Now it’s an inside job,’ he said.
‘Exactly,’ she said, grinning back, but then her expression clouded, and she said, ‘Except for that sheriff. Farley.’
‘He’s still around?’
‘He’s decided,’ she told him, ‘that the fourth man was Daniel Parmitt, and the other three got him out of the hospital because they needed him in their plan. Nobody else cares about Daniel Parmitt or thinks he had anything to do with the robbery, only Farley. He thinks Parmitt had a boat or something. He keeps trying to find somebody to tell that story to, but the police here think he’s just a small-town jerk from the Everglades.’
‘He’s a small-town jerk, but he’s sharp,’ Parker said. ‘What story did youtell?’
‘I said I thought this house had been abandoned, because there was never anybody around, and I wanted the opportunity to sell it if it was on the market, and I even thought youmight be a prospect.’
‘Parmitt.’
‘Right. And I came here, and it was unlocked, and there was nobody home. And I was still looking around when these three terrifying men in wet suits came in and kidnapped me. And I didn’t see them carrying any jewels, then or ever.’
‘Good.’
‘They held me overnight, and then they gave me breakfast in the morning, and I found that little gun taped under the table, I have no idea where it came from. There was still tape on the gun when I gave it to the police, and they found the rest under the table.’
‘Good.’
‘I told them I was afraid to touch it at first, but then the police arrived, and I thought they were going to go away again and not rescue me, so that’s why I pulled the gun out to shoot it to attract their attention.’
‘That’s good,’ Parker said. ‘And you’re a local, solid reputation, the story’s good enough, so it might be true.’
‘They believe me,’ she insisted.
He shrugged. ‘Why not? What do they think about the guns being rigged?’
She looked confused. ‘Rigged?’
