Plunder Squad

Four

Parker found Mackey down by the bar, talking with one of the bartenders about pro football. “I’m done,” Parker said.

“Sure thing.” Mackey knocked back the rest of his drink and put his glass on the table. “Tittle,” he said to the bartender. “I still say Tittle.”

The bartender gave a disbelieving shrug. “Maybe,” he said.

“No maybe about it.” Mackey turned away, saying to Parker, “Let’s find Brenda.”

Brenda was with a group of younger people in the middle of the lawn, discussing Viva. It took Mackey a minute to cut her out of the herd, during which time Parker stood to one side and avoided becoming involved in other people’s conversations. Then the three of them walked up across the lawn and into the house. They went through the same rooms and halls as before, and out the front door, without having seen Griffith anywhere along their route. They got back into the car again, Mackey driving, Brenda in the middle, Parker to the right, and after they’d driven out into the street and turned in the direction of the motel, Mackey said, “You get everything worked out the way you wanted?”

“Yes.”

“What was the point, anyway? You just want to meet him?”

”I wanted to get the other twenty grand,” Parker said. Mackey frowned across Brenda at him. “What other twenty grand?”

“Between one-thirty and one-fifty.”

Mackey grinned suddenly, and faced front. They were driving in light traffic through a residential area. Mackey said, “You get it?”

“I got more.”

“More?”

“He jumped from one-forty to one-sixty. So I said yes.”

Mackey laughed out loud. “I wish I’d been there,” he said. “God damn it, that’s beautiful.”

“Maybe,” Parker said. “I’m not so sure.”

“Why not? What’s the problem?”

“It came too easy. Jumping like that. And some people at the party said he was broke.”

“Griffith? With that house?”

“The story is, he’s stuck with a lot of paintings he can’t sell.”

Mackey frowned, gazing out through the windshield. “You think so?”

Brenda said, “Why would he want more then? I mean, if he can’t sell the ones he’s got.”

Mackey dismissed that one with a shake of the head. “He could have buyers lined up. He could take care of that one ahead of time.”

Parker said, “You talk to him about payment?”

“That’s the question,” Mackey said. He sounded worried. “I didn’t bother to ask, you know? I figured, he’s stuck with that house, that business, his whole life, he can’t really skip out, so he won’t try a cross. So I didn’t worry about it.”

Brenda said, “You think he might try to run away?”

“No,” Mackey said. “That isn’t the problem.”

“Now is when I need money,” Parker said.

“Me, too,” Mackey said.

Brenda said, “Oh. You mean he might want you to wait till he’d sold the paintings.”

”Robbery on consignment,” Mackey said. He sounded disgusted.

Parker said, “Let’s get that straightened out.”

“We can go back right now.”

“No. He’s in a heavy mood now, he might decide to drop the hole thing. Call him tonight. Don’t sound suspicious or greedy, just say you want to talk over the details of trading the paintings for our money.”

Mackey nodded. “Okay. I’ll work it out with him.”

Brenda said, “Does this mean it might not happen?”

“Bite your tongue,” Mackey said.

Brenda turned to Parker. “What do you think?”

Parker thought three in a row would be too many. He said, “We should be able to work something out. First we’ll find out what he’s got in mind.”

“I want to get this thing off the ground,” Mackey said. “It’s been a long while between drinks.”

They drove the rest of the way back to the motel in silence. Parker left them and went off to his own room and called Handy McKay again. If something else had come along, he’d leave this right now. If nothing was happening, he’d stay here and hope for the best.

Handy came on the line and said, “Got a call for you.”

“Good.”

“Guy in San Francisco. Named Beaghler.”

Parker shook his head. “Forget it,” he said.

“Well, what Beaghler said was, he had information for you on a friend of yours. Somebody you wanted to look up.”

“Ah.”

“He said to call him at home.”

Parker did, but it was Sharon’s voice that answered, full of strangled sexuality. Parker said, “Bob there?”

“No, he’s out now.” The sentence was so loaded with veiled invitation that it sounded as though it had to be a parody; except it wasn’t.

“When will he be back?”

”Around five.” The voice had throttled back, become more matter-of-fact. “You want me to have him call you?”

Five. There was a two-hour time difference from here to California, so that would be seven this evening here. “No,” Parker said, “I’ll call him.”

“Who should I say?”

“I’ll tell him when I call back,” Parker said, and hung up, and phoned again at quarter after seven.

This time Beaghler himself answered, all of his belligerence and insecurity compressing themselves into the one suspicious word, “Hello?”

“The last time I saw you,” Parker said, “was at that motel in Fremont. I got mad at you for shouting my name so loud.”

“What? Oh, Pa—! Oh, yeah, yeah. That’s right. You got my message, huh?”

“I got it.”

“You were looking for that fellow George, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, he’s here.”

“Where?”

“Not thirty miles from where I’m standing. Where are you?”

“More than thirty miles from where you’re standing. How can I get in touch with George?”

“I’ll take you to him.”

Parker frowned at the telephone. “There’s no need for that,” he said.

“But I want to. Listen, be a sport. There’s money in it.”

“What money?”

“Not from you. But this could help me, it really could.”

Parker considered, trying to work it out. Uhl was someplace with money, apparently. Beaghler wanted the money, but didn’t want to go up against Uhl himself. So he wanted Parker to take care of Uhl while Beaghler took care of the money. And the hook would be that Beaghler wanted to make a deal: Uhl’s whereabouts for Uhl’s money.

Beaghler said, “Hello?”

Parker said, “How long’s he going to be there?”

”Just a few days.”

The details would have to be worked out at the scene. “I’ll be there tomorrow,” Parker said.

“I’ll stay home from work.”

Parker hung up, and went to see Mackey. Mackey and Brenda were getting ready to go out to dinner, and they both had the slightly flushed look of people who’d paused in the middle of changing clothes. Parker said, “I’m taking off for a couple days. Work out what you can with Griffith. I’ll give you a call before I come back, to see if things are still on. If you aren’t here, I’ll know they’re off.”

Mackey said, “You want help?”

“No, you have things to do here. I’ll call you in a couple days.”

“So long,” Mackey said.

Brenda said, “Good luck.”