Plunder Squad

Two

Parker walked through the house and saw Claire out by the lake, sunning herself. She was wearing a two-piece white bathing suit, and she was lying on a dark blue towel. It was still only June, but she already had a good tan, accented by the white suit.

He slid open the glass door between the dining room and the back porch, crossed the porch, went down the stoop, and walked over the just-trimmed lawn toward where she was lying. She had turned her head at the sound of the door sliding, and now smiled in his direction as he approached. She was wearing sunglasses, large blue ovals with white frames. Through the blue glass, her eyes were level and bright. She said, “You’re back sooner than I thought.”

“It fell through.” He squatted beside her and placed one palm on her stomach, just above the white trunks. Her flesh was warm, almost hot, and covered with a butter-like suntan lotion.

“I’m all oily,” she said. But she smiled, and reached up to touch his other arm.

“You’re hot,” he said. “You don’t want to overdo.” He shifted his hand to her near thigh, cupping his fingers down along the side of her leg, so that his knuckles brushed softly against the skin of her other thigh. The flesh under his palm was hot, but down between her legs it was cooler.”I’m used to it now,” she said. Then she sat up and said, “I’ll shower. Don’t kiss me, I’ll just make you all slippery.”

He straightened and gave her a hand to help her up. They walked back into the house together and he said, “I have a phone call to make.”

“All right.”

She went away to the bedroom. Parker walked first to the kitchen to wipe the suntan lotion from his hand on a paper towel, and then turned back to the living room, where the phone was. He dialed the number of a diner in Presque Isle, Maine, four states from here, a diner run by a man named Handy McKay. McKay had been a sideman of Parker’s several times in the old days. He was retired now, living on his diner, and he served as a middleman for people in the business who wanted to get in touch with Parker.

Somebody else answered, but Handy came on a minute later and Parker said, “It’s me. I’m home again.”

“Didn’t work out?”

“Remember me telling you about a guy named George Uhl?”

“Couple years ago.”

“He showed up, and caused trouble.”

‘Too bad.”

“I’d like to get in touch with him.”

“I don’t know if I’d be any help.”

“Just mentioning it,” Parker said. “And also, I’m available again.”

“No messages since we talked.”

“All right.”

“When you going to come visit?”

“Sometime.”

“Sure. So long, now.”

“So long.”

Parker hung up and went to the bedroom. The two-piece bathing suit was on the floor, and the shower was running in the bathroom. He took off his clothes and went in to join her.