Firebreak

10

"Downhill," Parker said. "And time to switch."

The orange coats were reversible, muddy brown waterproofs on the other side. As they trotted through the house, headed now for the front entrance, they shook off the coats, pulled the sleeves through, shrugged into the coats again, switched their guns from the inner pockets to the out.

Bert Hayes, crawling on his stomach, had made it halfway through the doorway, heading back into the office, probably hoping to knock the phone off the desk. Moxon, lying where they'd left him, looked up, startled, as they jumped over Hayes's legs and stopped for one second at the front door. Parker pulled the door open just far enough to see out, to be sure there were no vehicles and no people out there, only the two-lane concrete road angling away downhill.

"Good," he said, and they went out, and straight down the hill.

Panting as he ran, trying to talk, Wiss said, "There'll be more coming up. They'll call for backup."

"We go as far as we can," Parker said, "then get off the road, work downhill."

"Lights!" Elkins called, and all three veered away from the road, running full tilt in among the evergreens, as the flashing red lights came thrusting up the hill. They dropped to the ground, saw and heard the three state police cars go by, and waited until the sirens were only echoes from up the mountain. Then they got to their feet, and Parker said, "We can do the road again for a while. They're all up there, they've got Harry to think about, they won't start back down—"

"Until Moxon and Hayes start talking," Elkins said.

"We've got a few minutes, anyway," Parker told him, "and the road's faster."

They loped downhill for less than a minute when Elkins yelled, "Another one!" and again they hurried away from the road. But this time Parker went only as far as the cover of the first tree, because there was something wrong with it, whatever that was coming up the road.

A big vehicle, boxy, almost completely white. But no whirling red lights, not even headlights, and no siren. Just—

Wiss, peering from nearby, said, "An ambulance? So soon?"

"Hold on," Parker said, and got to his feet, and trotted toward the road as the ambulance went by, moving slow, without extra light or sound. "Lloyd!" he yelled, and the driver turned his white face, saw Parker waving his arms, and the brake lights flashed on.

"My God," Wiss yelled, "it's Larry!"

They ran toward the ambulance, as Lloyd rolled down his window to shout, "One in front, two in back!" He was dressed in a white coat but no hat, like a medic.

Wiss climbed in front with Lloyd, the other two in back, where there was a narrow long space between two made-up stretchers. Parker sat on the right, Elkins on the left.

Wiss slammed his door and then, astonished, said, "Larry? What the hell are you doing?"

"I figured," Lloyd said, "I'd see how you guys were, if everything was okay we could carry the paintings in the back." Looking in his interior mirror, he said, "You two set back there?"

"Turn it around," Parker told him. "Get us out of here."

Lloyd's jaw dropped. "What? We need those paintings!"

Wiss said, "Larry, there's law all over that place up there."

"No," Lloyd said. The muscles of his jaw were bunched. 'That's the only score I've got. I need to do my face, I need to set myself up."

"Larry," Elkins said, "let's discuss this a hundred miles from here."

"I can't leave this mountain without the paintings," Lloyd insisted. He sat hunched over the steering wheel, glaring sidelong at Wiss.

Mildly, Parker said to Wiss, "Ralph, he's beginning to sound like those other friends of yours."

"Wait, wait a minute," Wiss said. "Let's talk this over."

"Not here," Parker said.

"I tell you what," Wiss said. 'The sentry house, just down the road. There's nobody in there now, no reason for anybody to go there. We can move ourselves in just long enough to talk."

Parker said, 'Just so we're moving away from the lodge."

"Exactly." Wiss said to Lloyd, "Do it, Larry."

Lloyd unclenched. "Fine," he said.

As Lloyd K-turned the blocky ambulance, Elkins said, "Going down, Larry, use your flasher and siren. There's gonna be more cops coming up."

"I'm not sure where those controls are," Lloyd said.

Wiss told him, 'You drive, I'll find them," and leaned close to the dashboard.

As they started down the slope, Elkins said, "How do you manage to promote yourself an ambulance?"

'The hospital was only a few blocks from the motel," Lloyd explained, "and this was parked by itself."

Ahead, two more state cars were coming up. Wiss

ducked low, and the state cars pulled to the side to let the ambulance roar on by.

A minute later they saw the sentry house down below them, to the left of the road, with the driveway angling in toward the wide three-car attached garage. As Wiss cut the siren and lights and Lloyd slowed for the turn, Parker said, "Cut over the lawn, take it around back, where they won't see it from the road."

Lloyd said, "What about the garage?"

"Later, if we have to. Now, we'd have to bust in, and we can't bust into this building."

As Lloyd steered the ambulance around the sentry house, Wiss said, "That's right, this place is still wired, we could set off alarms down in the police station in Havre."

"We'll ease in," Elkins said. "The house won't even know we're there."

Lloyd stopped the ambulance close to the rear of the house. He reached for his door, but stopped when Parker said, "Lloyd."

Lloyd looked around at him. He looked apprehensive, but determined. 'Yes?"

Parker said, "I don't like to leave empty-handed either, but it would be worse to leave in a prison bus. If we work something out* good. If not, I don't mind leaving you right here."

Lloyd slowly nodded. "I understand," he said.