Comeback

10

Nine-fifty. Light, moving through the woods.

Is he driving the car in here? Over that road?

But maybe it made sense. The road was almost nonexistent, but Liss might be more comfortable driving on it than having to walk back to the main road in total darkness. Particularly with Parker at his side.

Yes, here it came, very slowly. Some sort of four-door sedan. Liss drove with parking lights only, just enough amber illumination out front to give him a sense of where the road was. Now he swung the car to the left, just the other side of the fence, reversed, swung forward again, and backed up almost to the fence, facing out. Making it easier for himself for the return.

Liss hadn't removed the interior light. It flashed on as they got out of the car, and Parker saw that Liss had been driving and his new partner was still alive.

Parker moved into the shadows away from where they would enter the house. He could hear them talking as they neared it, and when they came through the break in the plywood he could make out the words. Liss was saying "—trust him. He doesn't trust me, and he's right, and I don't trust him, and I'm right. If he can take us down, he will. Ralph, you listening?"

"Yes." The voice was small, quavery, frightened, but determined.

"We gotta work together," Liss said, "or he'll kill us both. You hear what I'm saying?"

"Why don't we just leave him?" Quindero asked. "Just walk away now and take the car and get away from here and just leave him down there."

"I need the money," Liss said. "We need the money, Ralph, you and me. Your half is two hundred grand, just keep thinking about that. You need that money, if you're gonna get to Canada, start over."

So that's the fairy tale they're telling each other. Parker followed, well behind, as they went downstairs toward the dining room.

Liss said, "We gotta keep him with us, and we gotta keep him alive, until we see if he really

does know where the money is. Then we can deal with him. But before then, we gotta keep him from doing its. Jesus, it's bright in here."

They were in the dining room now, Parker on the stairs behind them.

Quindero said, "That's good, isn't it? If there's light, we can see him."

"Here's what we're going to do," Liss said. "I'll wait here. You go down and— Wait. Where's that gun of his?"

"Here."

"Give it to me," Liss said. "I don't want him taking it off you."

"You want me to go down there without a gun? Where are you going to be?"

"Up here."

"But—"

'Just listen," Liss said, and Parker sat down on the stairs to listen. Liss said, "You go down there and take that piece of wood out of the lock. Do it quiet if you can. Then get back into some dark corner somewhere that he's not gonna see you, and then shout to him to come out. Then I'll shout from up here, and I'll tell him to come up. Then he'll come up and you'll come up behind him."

"So he's in between us."

"That's right," Liss said.

Quindero said, "But if I don't have a gun? What good is it if—"

"Does he know that? What if he sees you, and instead of coming upstairs he makes a jump for you? If you've got a gun, you're not gonna use it. So you show him your hands, you tell him you don't have any weapons on you, they're all up with me. He knows he has to come up past me before he can get out. And I'll call to him, I'll say, 'Don't mess with my partner, I'm up here, come up.' And he'll come up."

Liss was explaining all this as though Quindero was a six-year-old, and he was probably right to play it that way. Another professional would already know most of what Liss was saying, but Ralph Quindero was not a professional.

And now Quindero said, "Okay, he comes up here. And then what?"

"I'll move ahead of him," Liss said. "I'll go up those stairs over there, ahead of him, and we'll tell him to follow, and you come along behind. And we'll go out to the car that way, me always in front of him, you always behind him, so he can never get the both of us."

"What if he jumps you?"

"I'll put one in his arm," Liss said. "It'll stop him, but it won't kill him, and it won't put him into shock. Maybe I ought to do that anyway."

Quindero said, "Don't," pleading.

Liss was amused. "What, you don't like loud noises? Or is it blood you're afraid of?"

"We don't have to shoot him," Quindero said. Now he sounded sullen.

Liss said, "Haven't you been listening? Of course we have to shoot him, sooner or later. We have to shoot him dead. When we get there, wherever the money's supposed to be, we're gonna shoot him then."

"Why? Why do we have to?"

"You want him behind you, the rest of your life?"

Quindero didn't say anything to that. They were shuffling around down there in the dining room, doing something Parker couldn't see, because he didn't want to descend the stairs far enough that he might be noticed, and then Liss said, "Okay, go on down and let him out."

Parker rose, silent, as he heard Quindero thump down the next flight of stairs. He eased downward, step by step, until he could see into the room, bluish gray in the moonlight, the boxes and trash throwing long black shadows across the gray floor. He looked left and right, and at first he didn't see Liss at all. Where was he?

Oh. Smart. Liss was seated on the floor directly under the windows, in the middle of that long wall. It was the one place in the room where he'd be hard to see, and he'd stay there until he was sure things were going right with Quindero.

But things wouldn't go right with Quindero. And where Liss had placed himself, Parker couldn't get at him. He'd never get across that large room without being seen, and shot.

"Hey! Mr. Parker! Come on out!"

Parker eased back up the stairs. He'd have to come at them in some other way.

It was too late now to get away from here. If he took the car, he wouldn't be able to drive it at better than a walking pace between here and the main road. Liss would have no trouble catching up. If he went on foot, Liss could get close enough to him with the car's headlights to bring him down.

He had to stay here, and finish it.