Plunder Squad

Three

When the door opened and Griffith came in, Parker was sitting at the desk in the small neat office, looking at nothing in particular. Griffith looked at him, shut the door, and said petulantly, “I suppose you’ve gone through everything.”

“There wasn’t that much to go through.”

Griffith obviously didn’t know how to handle Parker’s lack of denial, any more than he knew what to do about the fact that Parker wasn’t getting up from the desk. He stood indecisively just inside the door, and then made an abrupt unfocused movement forward, ending it just as abruptly, and saying, “Well. Very well, I’m here. You wanted to talk.”

“My price is forty thousand,” Parker said.

Griffith frowned. “You should have talked this over with Mackey,” he said. “I’ve made all the financial arrangements with him.”

“I know, he told me all about it. We get one-thirty to split however we want. That’s between you and Mackey. But my price is forty. Meaning that whatever my share of the one-thirty is, the difference between that and forty I get direct from you.”

“Definitely not,” Griffith said. “Absolutely no.”

“All right,” Parker said. He got to his feet, walked around the desk, and headed for the door.

Griffith watched him, frowning, until Parker reached out for the doorknob. Then he said, irritably, “What makes you worth it?”

Parker kept his hand on the knob. Looking at Griffith, he said, “When Mackey called you and said I wanted this meeting, you said no. Mackey told you he wanted me in on the job, and he gave you reasons. The reasons were good enough to make you change your mind about seeing me. Those are the same reasons why I cost forty.”

“Other people can make up plans,” Griffith said. “You aren’t the only one who can do it.”

“If they’re good, they’re expensive.”

Griffith gazed moodily toward his desk. From the way the side of his face was rippling, he was biting the inside of his cheek. Parker watched him, and finally Griffith said, still looking toward the desk, “It might be we could work something out.”

Parker took his hand from the knob. “I’m willing to listen.”

Griffith moved. He tried to pretend he was walking casually toward his desk, but in fact he was hurrying there, not wanting Parker to go back and sit there again. Parker leaned against the door and waited, and when Griffith had seated himself behind the desk, told him, “But my price is still forty.”

Griffith seemed to be more confident with the desk around him. Palms on the desktop, he gave Parker a tight smile and said, “We can’t negotiate that way. Why not come sit down?”

“It might be wasted movement.”

Suddenly irritable again, Griffith said, “Why not argue with Mackey? He’s the one who thinks you’re so important. Tell him you want forty thousand, and he can split the other ninety any way he wants.”

“No. You’re the one buying, not Mackey.”

“Well, what if he finds out you’re getting a special deal? I can’t—”

“I’ll tell him,” Parker said.

“You’ll— But then he’ll come want the same thing!”

Parker shrugged. “That’s up to the two of you.”

“This is—I can’t—” Griffith gestured vaguely with both hands. “I can’t have you people coming in one at a time, holding me up, everybody wanting the same amount as everybody else.”

“I figure it will probably be five men,” Parker said.

“Five! That’s two hundred thousand dollars.”

“If everybody gets paid the same.”

“Won’t they all want to? I can’t afford that.”

“They probably will, yes.”

Griffith shook his head; he was positive, definite. “I can’t do that,” he said.

“Tell them so. My price is forty.”

“I know, I know.” Griffith looked around the small room as though the solution to his problem were written on one of the walls somewhere. Then he brooded at Parker again, and finally said, “Why not do it with three? I’ll still pay one hundred thirty, and you’ll have an extra ten thousand dollars to split among you.”

“Can’t be done,” Parker said. “You’re talking about a major robbery, a hijacking of goods valued at around half a million dollars. It’ll be well guarded, it’ll be tough to get at. Three men can’t do it, not a chance in the world.”

Griffith was becoming petulant again. “This was all supposed to be taken care of,” he said. “We were supposed to have an understanding.”

“You do. With Mackey. But my—”

“I know, I know.” Griffith irritably patted the air. “Your price is forty. Try not to say that any more.”

Parker pushed away from the door he’d been leaning against, as though getting ready to leave. “If I’m wasting your time—”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute.” Griffith fidgeted as though mosquitoes were bothering him. “Let me think about this.”

Parker stood there, not quite against the door, neither fully committed to the room nor fully committed to leave, and Griffith chewed the inside of his face for a while, frowning at his desk, pushing pencils and stamp-holders around. From far away the rock music could be heard, more as vibration than sound; at this distance, it gave the room a timeless quality, a feeling like that of an aquarium, a place for afternoon naps.

Griffith sighed. Frowning up at Parker, he said tentatively, “I’ll tell you what.” Then he paused again, apparently still thinking over his proposition.

Parker said nothing. He waited.

Griffith cocked his head to one side. “Four men?” he asked. Parker shrugged. “Maybe,” he said. “Depends how it lays out.”

“But it’s possible.”

“Maybe.”

“You could do it with four men,” Griffith insisted. “If the circumstances were right.”

Parker nodded. “Yes,” he said.

“Then I’ll tell you what.” Griffith smiled slightly, showing a surprising warmth and openness and friendliness, all patently false. “I’ll add another ten thousand to the main number,” he said, “making it a hundred forty. That way, if you do it with four men you’ll wind up with thirty-five thousand for yourself. How about that?”

“And I get the other five direct from you?”

For just a second Griffith looked really angry; then it subsided to his normal irritation, he said, “You know better than that. I’m talking about a compromise here, and you know damn well that’s what I’m talking about.”

“But I don’t compromise,” Parker said. “My price is forty thousand dollars. Not thirty-five. Not even thirty-nine and a half.”

Petulant, Griffith said, “Never? Never in your goddam life have you ever done anything for less than forty thousand?”

“This job,” Parker said, pointing straight down. “This job, my price is forty thousand.”

“Come off it,” Griffith said, as though suddenly he was desperate to be finished. “Come away from that number, how can I talk to you? I came up ten thousand, you won’t even come down five?”

“What if it takes five men? Then my piece is twenty-eight. You offering me the other seven thousand to bring it up to thirty-five?”

“No, God damn it,” Griffith said. “I’m saying I won’t make any separate deals, because once I do it with one, I’ll wind up doing it with everybody. I say to you all right, okay, thirty-five, and then one after another everybody else wants thirty-five, and then you do it with ten men. And where’s my profit?”

Parker shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said.

“You don’t even give a damn,” Griffith said. “You stand there and you don’t care. Maybe the whole thing is, you don’t want to do the job at all, it scares you, but you don’t want Mackey to know you’re afraid of it, so you’re going through all this to have an excuse to run away.”

“Pay me forty thousand,” Parker said, “and I’m in. Don’t pay it and I’m out.”

“You won’t negotiate, damn it. How can I deal with you?”

“Maybe you can’t.”

Griffith chewed his lips and cheeks again for a minute, looking now very angry. Finally he said, “All right, I have another suggestion. You said it’s a possibility you could do it with four men.”

“Maybe. With luck.”

“All right, all right. Let’s both take a chance. I’ll go to one-sixty. That way, if you do it with four men, you get your price. If it takes more, you settle for less. And I’m paying you practically separate from everybody else, I’ve come up thirty thousand from what I already agreed.”

Parker looked doubtful. “I don’t know—”

“What don’t you know?” Griffith was on his feet all at once, trembling with annoyance. “I’ve broken my back for you, I’ve given you everything you want. What don’t you know?”

Being hesitant, a little reluctant, Parker finally nodded. “All right,” he said. “One-sixty, no matter how many men it takes.”

“At last.” Griffith said.