The Hot Rock

4

Dortmunder and Kelp walked into the O. J. Bar and Grill at one minute after ten. The same regular customers were draped in their usual positions on the bar, watching the television set, looking not quite as real as the figures in a wax museum. Rollo was wiping glasses with a towel that once was white.

Dortmunder said, "Hi," and Rollo nodded. Dortmunder said, "Anybody else here yet?"

"The beer and salt is back there," Rollo said. "You expecting the sherry?"

"Yeah."

"I'll send him along when he comes in. You boys want a bottle and glasses and some ice, right?"

"Right."

"I'll bring it on in."

"Thanks."

They walked on into the back room and found Murch there reading his Mustang owner's manual. Dortmunder said, "You're early again."

"I tried a different route," Murch said. He put the owner's manual down on the green felt tabletop. "I went over to Pennsylvania Avenue and up Bushwick and Grand and over the Williamsburg Bridge and straight up Third Avenue. It seemed to work out pretty well." He picked up his beer and drank three drops.

"That's good," Dortmunder said. He and Kelp sat down, and Rollo came in with the bourbon and glasses. While he was putting them down, Chefwick came in. Rollo said to him, "You're a sherry, right?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Done."

Rollo went out, not bothering to ask Murch if he was ready for another, and Chefwick sat down, saying, "I'm certainly intrigued. I don't see how the emerald job can come back to life again. It's lost, isn't it?"

"No," Dortmunder said. "Greenwood hid it."

"In the Coliseum?"

"We don't know where. But he clouted it somewhere, and that means we can get back on the track."

Murch said, "There's a gimmick in this somewhere, I can smell it."

"Not a gimmick exactly," Dortmunder said. "Just another heist. Two for the price of one."

"What do we heist?"

"Greenwood."

Murch said, "Hah?"

"Greenwood," Dortmunder repeated, and Rollo came in with Chefwick's sherry. He went out again and Dortmunder said, "Greenwood's price is we bust him out. His lawyer tells him there's no way to beat the rap, so he's got to beat a retreat instead."

Chefwick said, "Does that mean we're going to break into jail?"

"In and back out," Kelp said.

"We hope," Dortmunder said.

Chefwick smiled in a dazed sort of way and sipped at his sherry. "I never thought I'd be breaking

into

jail," he said. "It raises interesting questions."

Murch said, "You want me to drive, huh?"

"Right," said Dortmunder.

Murch frowned and drank a whole mouthful of beer.

Dortmunder said, "What's wrong?"

"Me sitting in a car, late at night, outside a jail, gunning the engine. I don't feature it. It don't raise any interesting questions for me at all."

"If we can't work it out," Dortmunder said, "we won't do it."

Kelp said to Murch, "None of us wants to go into that jail for more than a minute or two. If it looks like years, don't worry, we'll throw it over."

Murch said, "I got to be careful, that's all. I'm the sole support of my mother."

Dortmunder said, "Doesn't she drive a cab?"

"There's no living in that," Murch said. "She just does that to get out of the house, meet people."

Chefwick said, "What sort of jail is this?"

"We'll all go out there, one time or another, take a look at it," Dortmunder told him. "In the meantime, this is what I've got." He began to spread out on the table the contents of the three manila envelopes.