Mackey sat at the nearest desk, just outside a band of light, and opened drawers until he found the local phone book, then called the place where Brenda was staying. He spoke with the clerk there, then hung up, shook his head, and said, ‘She’s got a no-disturb until her wake-up call at eight.’
‘We need a car,’ Parker said. ‘We need somebody with a car.’
‘Shit,’ Williams said.
They looked at him. Mackey said, ‘You got something?’
‘I hate to think I do,’ Williams said. ‘I called my sister, you know, I went’
‘No,’ Parker said. ‘We didn’t know.’
‘It wasn’t dangerous,’ Williams promised him. ‘I left that beer company place where we were staying, late at night, I walked maybe five blocks, found a phone booth, called from there, came back. Nobody saw me, no sweat.’
Parker said, ‘The law is listening to your sister’s phone.’
‘I know that,’ Williams said. ‘I was just calling to say goodbye, because I gotta get away from here.’ He looked around at the rental office. Disgusted, he said, ‘If I ever get away from here,I mean, then I gotta get away from this town.’
Mackey said, ‘You can’t call your sister again. She would definitelybring the cops down on us. Not meaning to; they’d just come along.’
‘No, I wouldn’t do that,’ Williams told him. ‘I wouldn’t do a thing to mess up her life. But the thing is, when I called her, she told me, there’s this guy we both know, his name is Goody, or everybody calls him Goody, he already been in touch with her, soon as he heard I busted out, said to her she couldn’t help me because of the cops but he could, give me money, whatever, I should call him, he’d help out.’
Mackey said, ‘This is a good guy? Friend of yours?’
Williams shook his head. ‘This is a scumbag,’ he said. ‘He’s a dealer, street dealer, works for some big-deal drug guy.’
Parker said, ‘So he told your sister, have Brandon get in touch with me, I wanna help him, but what he means is, he’ll turn you in.’
‘Sure,’ Williams said. ‘I knew that from the first second. I wasn’t gonna call Goody at all. But now, maybe so.’
Mackey said, ‘If you call this guy, tell him where we are, he just calls the cops, tells themwhere we are, goes back to bed, goes downtown tomorrow to collect the reward.’
Williams said, ‘Well, I’m the only local guy in this room, and he’s all I got.’
Parker said, ‘Then we’ll work with him.’
Williams looked at him. ‘How?’
‘You’ll tell him a story.’
‘What story?’ Williams spread his hands. ‘Soon as I tell him to come here, he knows I’m here.’
‘You don’t tell him to come here,’ Parker said.
Mackey said, ‘Then what good is he?’
‘Just wait,’ Parker told him. To Williams, he said, ‘When we were looking out that back way, across the street, there were stores. There was one of them, second or third in from the corner, a camera shop, isn’t it?’
‘Oh, yeah,’ Williams said. ‘Yeah, I been seeing that all my life, it’s, uh, Nelson’s Lens Shop, that’s what it’s called.’
‘Okay.’ Parker went over to one of the other desks, saying, ‘Come on over. Let’s write this down.’
Williams sat at the desk, found a pen and a sheet of letterhead stationery, and Parker said, ‘You call this Goody. You tell him you’re hiding out in Nelson’s Lens Shop, but you’ve gotta get out of there, you’ve gotta be out in How fast could he get here, if you woke him up at home?’
‘Half an hour.’
‘Okay, good. You tell him it’s almost three-thirty now you tell him you’ve gotta be out of there by four. You just can’t stay after that, one way or another you’ve gotta get out of there, even if it means just walking down the street. You’ve got two thousand dollars for him, cash money, if he’ll come right now,pick you up, drive you to What’s a place he’ll believe you want to go to, hide out?’
Williams thought. ‘There’s a little town,’ he said, ‘Stanton, about ten miles down the river, it’s all black, dying town, just some old people still living there. I got a couple relations living down there, he’d believe me if I said I was gonna go hide out with them awhile.’
Parker said, ‘And he’ll believe you think you can buy him off with two grand.’
Williams laughed. ‘So he thinks I’m stupid, and I think he’s stupid.’
‘No,’ Parker said. ‘He thinks you’re stupid, but you think he’s greedy. If he thinks there’s money in it from you, in cash, he’ll take you where you want to go first, and then call the law.’
Mackey said, ‘So we go down to that door, and what? Soon as he shows up, we run out there?’
‘No,’ Parker said. To Williams he said, ‘You tell him, you’re hiding in the back of the store. When he gets there, he should come over and knock on the door.’ To Mackey, Parker said, ‘That way, he’s out of the car before we move. And we get to see if it’s Goody or somebody else that shows up.’
6
When Williams hung up, his grin was both nervous and confident. ‘He’ll do it,’ he said.
From just listening to this side of the conversation, Parker believed Williams was right. Williams had been hushed and urgent throughout the brief call. ‘I’ll tell you in the car,man!’ he’d exclaim, every time Goody started asking questions. ‘If you don’t get here, I just gotta go, I don’t know where, I just gotta get outa here!’ And at last, ‘Good man, Goody, Maryenne says I could count on you, see you, my man.’ And he hung up and gave them his grin.
Mackey said, ‘I know it’s more comfortable in this place, but I wanna be down by that door.’
They all did. They left the rental office, strode to the far other end of the hall, past the sleeping residents of the Armory Apartments, and trotted down the service stairs to the door with the alarmed bar. Williams leaned against the window frame, looking out that deep narrow space at the camera store across the street, and Parker and Mackey sat on the stairs to wait.
The feeling at the bottom of this stairwell was like being in the base of a mineshaft. Even though they were at street level, the sidewalk just the other side of that door in front of them, it felt in here as though they were buried much deeper in the earth than when they’d been in the tunnel. The feeling reminded Parker of his more than two weeks in Stoneveldt. He wanted out of here.
It was three minutes to four when Williams suddenly straightened, looking out the window. Reading his body language, Parker and Mackey both got to their feet, watching Williams as he leaned closer to the window.
‘It’s him,’ Williams said. His voice was hushed, as though he was afraid the man out there could hear him. Then he shook his head. ‘Get out the car,Goody!’
Parker and Mackey moved in close to look out past Williams’ shoulders. A black Mercury, several years old, was stopped now across the street, in front of the camera store. Gray exhaust sputtered from the tailpipe. The driver was indistinct, but clearly alone in the car.
Mackey said, ‘What’s he waiting for?’
‘He’s got to get out of the car,’ Parker said.
And then he did. The driver’s door opened, the interior light switched on, and Parker could see a skinny black man, any age from twenty to forty, jiggling in nervous fidgety motions inside there. He pushed his door open, hesitated, looked around, then abruptly jumped out of the car. Exhaust still puffed from the tailpipe. The driver closed the door, but then leaned his chest against the side of the car and stared off at something to his right, down the street.
Mackey said, ‘What’s he looking at?’
Parker took his S&W Terrier .32 from its holster in the middle of his back. ‘We’ll be finding out,’ he said.
The other two both brought out their pistols, as Goody finally moved across the street. Jerking like a marionette, he hurried around the front of the Mercury and ran to the inset doorway of the camera store. As he knocked on the
glass over there, Parker rammed his body into the barred door. It popped open, outward to the street. A great metal screamrose up, and Parker and Mackey and Williams ran out to the street.
Parker was already looking to his right as he came out past the door, and what was parked down there, a dozen car lengths behind the Mercury, wasn’t the law. It was a dark green Land Rover, with three burly black men boiling out of three of its doors. They were all shouting, but nobody could hear anything with the scream of that siren laid over them all.
Already there were lights coming on in windows up above, and the three men from the Land Rover waved guns as they ran forward. The two from the front seat would be muscle, the one from the backseat brain. All three started to fire their guns as they ran, which meant the bullets went anywhere.
Parker stopped in the street, one step beyond the curb, aimed down his right arm, dropped the brain. Mackey and Williams were also firing. Parker looked toward the Mercury, and Goody was running for it, across the sidewalk from the camera store, reaching for the passenger door. Two-handed stance, Williams shot him through both closed windows, and Goody bounced off the car, sprawled on his back on the sidewalk, shards of window glass glittering around him.
The three from the Land Rover were all down. That was the better car. Parker ran for it, knowing Mackey and Williams had to see him, because he couldn’t shout to them under the siren. Windows were opening upstairs, people staring down at the street, where three men were fallen in twisted positions, one lay spread-eagled on his back on the sidewalk next to a black Mercury, and three men with guns in their hands raced for a hulking dark Land Rover.
Still running, Parker half-turned, pointed to Williams running behind him, pointed to the driver’s seat of the Land Rover; Williams knew this town. The three piled in, Mackey following Parker through the same door to the back seat, and Williams tore them away from there.
As soon as the siren was behind them, Parker said, ‘Go to ground. Don’t drive a lot.’
‘Where we put the cars,’ Williams told him. ‘It’s just down here.’
Parker looked back. No law yet. They’d been out of the building less than a minute.
Williams drove without lights, nothing else moving on the street, and when he got to the parking garage he stopped to get the ticket that opened the barrier, then circled upward three stories before he finally found a space to park. Cutting the engine, he turned to the two in back and said, ‘I think the big guy was the one Goody worked for.’
‘He should have stuck to drugs,’ Parker said.
7
‘What now?’ Mackey asked. ‘Do we get the Honda and drive out of here?’
‘We move to the Honda,’ Parker said. ‘We don’t want to be in this thing.’
‘That’s right,’ Williams said. ‘They’ll be looking for these wheels everywhere around here.’
They left the Land Rover, Williams locking it and taking the keys, and walked down the ramp to the Honda. Mackey had the keys for that; he unlocked it and took the wheel, Williams beside him, Parker in back. Putting the key in the ignition, Mackey said, ‘So now what? Drive out of here?’
‘Too early,’ Parker told him. ‘We’d be the only car on the street.’
‘And with three guys in it,’ Williams said.
‘But we should be above the Land Rover,’ Parker said.
‘Right,’ Mackey said, and drove them up the ramp, past the Land Rover and one level more to an area that was no more than half full. He tucked the Honda in between two other vehicles, both larger, then opened his window, shut off the engine, and said, ‘What do they do after they find it, that’s the question.’
Williams said, ‘Do they search the whole building?’
‘No,’ Parker said. ‘They’ve got too much to do. This is a big place, a lot of cars, and pretty soon they’ll be thinking about the jewelry place.’
Mackey laughed. ‘Pretty soon they’ll have a lot to think about,’ he said.
Williams said, ‘But they’ve at least got to look around in here.’
‘Sure,’ Parker agreed. ‘They ask the cashier if any car went out since four o’clock, he says no. They make a pass up to the top and back down. We duck down below window level while they go by. There’s no car alarms going off, nothing looks wrong, that’s it.’
‘But,’ Williams said, ‘they leave somebody at the exit.’
‘Both exits,’ Mackey said. ‘Car, and pedestrian.’
‘They probably will,’ Parker said. ‘They’re looking for three guys. When traffic starts, around six o’clock, I’ll get in the trunk, Williams lies on the floor here in back, it’s just one guy in the car.’
‘Or maybe,’ Williams said, ‘I just walk down and out, meet you two around the corner.’
Parker said, ‘You got any useful ID on you?’
Williams grinned and shook his head. ‘I see what you mean. I’ll lie down there on the floor.’
‘Wait,’ Mackey said. ‘I hear something.’
‘That was fast,’ Williams said. ‘Suppose somebody saw me turn in here?’
‘Let’s hope not,’ Mackey said. ‘Because then they’d search every car.’
Parker said, ‘Could you be hearing a civilian?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Mackey leaned leftward, listening at his open window, then shook his head. ‘I think it’s two cars. They’re just easing along, coming slow up the ramp, taking their time. They’re searching.’
They all listened. Parker could now hear it, too, the low grumble of two cars throttled back, spiraling very slowly up the ramp.
Williams said, ‘This job was fucked up from the beginning, wasn’t it?’
‘It felt wrong,’ Parker agreed, ‘but we were stuck in it.’
‘Stuck in the job or stuck in the jail.’ Williams grinned back at Parker. ‘Some choice.’
‘They stopped,’ Mackey said. ‘So they’re at the Rover. I’m closing the window now.’ And he did.
Parker said, ‘If they do like we thought at first, loop up, turn around, loop back down, we’re all right. If they go up and they don’tcome back down, that means they’re searching everything.’
Mackey said, ‘Do we have a Plan B?’
Parker shrugged. ‘Only leave the car, go down the stairs, see how hard it is to get through whatever they’ve got to guard the exit.’
‘And be on foot,’ Williams added.
‘I like Plan A better,’ Mackey said.
Parker looked out his window to the right. Being in the backseat, he had the better view of the ramp curling up from below. It was gray concrete, flanked by the rears of cars. He kept watching it.
They had nothing left to say, and with the window closed nothing to hear. They stayed in silence, Parker watching the ramp, the other two watching Parker, and then the black-and-white cruiser nosed around the curve and Parker said, ‘Down.’
They all ducked low, Williams folding himself into the footwell, Mackey doing a kind of slow-motion limbo, squeezing himself under the steering wheel. In back, Parker lay on the floor, looking now upward and out of the left window, where he could see the double row of car roofs coiling away and up. After a minute, he saw the black roof of the cruiser move among the other roofs, gliding up and out of sight. He watched, and then said, ‘Only one went up.’
‘Other one with the Rover,’ Mackey said. ‘Calling in.’ He sounded compressed.
They waited, two minutes, three minutes, and here came the cruiser again, angling back down the ramp, moving at the same slow pace. ‘Coming back,’ Parker said. ‘Just looking it over.’
‘Good,’ Williams said.
The cruiser left Parker’s angle of vision. He waited, then turned around to look down the ramp. ‘It’s gone,’ he said.
Everyone climbed back into the seats. ‘Been a while since I breathed,’ Mackey said. ‘I’m gonna open this window again.’
‘All I want,’ Williams said, ‘is to be in a place I’m not trying to get out of.’
; 8
After a while they heard the tow truck arrive, a deeper sound with more snarl in it. A while later, it went away again. Now there was nothing to do but wait for the world to wake up and start moving around.
They all napped from time to time, not getting much out of it, but they were all awake when they heard the first car engine start, probably two levels below them. Mackey looked at his watch: ‘Ten to six.’
‘We’ll wait awhile,’ Parker said.
‘Oh, yeah.’
By 6:15, they’d heard half a dozen cars start up and drive away, none of them from this far up the ramp. Then Mackey said, ‘I think we could try it now.’
‘Fine,’ Parker said, and got out of the Honda, pausing with the door open to say, ‘Leave me in the trunk until we get there.’
Climbing out of the passenger seat in front, Williams said, ‘And I’ll stay on the floor.’
‘Close me in,’ Parker said to him. Going to the back of the Honda, he drew the Terrier from its holster, to have ready in his hand in case anything went wrong, and opened the trunk.
As Parker climbed over the rear bumper, Williams grinned at him and said, ‘I know why you want you in there and me on the floor in back.’
Parker looked at him. ‘You’re darker.’
‘Right. You set?’
Parker lay curled on his side. The trunk was a little messy, but mostly empty, and not too uncomfortable. He had to keep his knees bent. With his head cushioned on his folded left arm, right arm resting across his waist, weight of the Terrier on the floor, he was in a position he could maintain for a while. ‘Set,’ he said.
‘See you there,’ Williams said, and shut the trunk.
Now he had only his ears to tell him what was happening. In the blackness, he felt the car dip when Williams got aboard, then heard the engine fire up, then felt a jolt as Mackey backed out of the slot.
The experience was different, done this way. Braking and accelerating seemed more exaggerated, turns more abrupt. Parker was more aware of the Honda going down a fairly steep slope than he would have been if seated in the normal way in the car. He felt the change when they leveled out at the bottom, and gripped the Terrier tighter, waiting for something to go wrong.
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