“Right.”
Parker hung up, and turned back to Nate Simms. “You were making a point.”
“That we can have too much of a good thing,” Simms said, “and then it isn’t a good thing any more. A little stirring up, that was good, it made us aware. Too much stirring up and the general public is going to get aware, and that isn’t good any way at all.”
“That’s why we’re all being friendly together,” Lozini said. “Parker and us, all chums. We’ll stay nice and quiet from now on, just dealing inside our own organization. Because that’s where the trouble is. O’Hara was one of ours, whoever he went to for help was one of ours, and whoever got the money had to be connected with us, one way or another. Had to be.”
“I just want us to wait,” Simms said. “Wait till after the election, that’s only Tuesday, only three days away.”
“No,” Lozini said. “After the election I could be in worse shape than I am now. I want to know what’s happening, I want to know who has to get weeded out.” He gestured at Parker. “And why should he wait?”
“I won’t,” Parker said.
Simms turned a reasonable face to Parker, saying, “Why not? It’s to your advantage, too. If we cause too much disruption, we’ll have police authorities in here that we can’t deal with or work our way around, and you could wind up in as much trouble as the rest of us.”
Parker said, “Pressure is the only thing I’ve got on you people. Lozini wants to do some housecleaning, fine, but he doesn’t need me to help. The only way I get my money is if I keep pressure on. I won’t call time-out for three days, it doesn’t make any sense.”
Simms’ face screwed up in a combination of disappointment and hard thinking as he worked that out. “I suppose so,” he said reluctantly. “I suppose I can see it from your side.”
Harold Calesian, smiling in a patronizing way, said, “You did your best, Nate.”
Lozini said, “That’s right, Nate. What you’re saying is smart from a nice calm accountant’s point of view. But that’s not where we’re at. Where we’re at is halfway across the rope with no net. This is no place to stop.”
Simms shrugged, displaying resignation. “I guess that’s the way it’s got to be,” he said.
Lozini said, “All right. What we’re going to do is, Ted and Frank, you’re going to take a look at everybody that was in on the amusement-park thing two years ago. Maybe the cop corrupted one of my people, you never know. I want to be sure they’re clean, every last one of them.”
“Fine,” Faran said, and Shevelly said, “When do you want it by?”
“Do it tomorrow,” Lozini told him. “I gave you the list of names, you get together with Frank and work it out.”
“Okay.”
Calesian said, “I’ll check into O’Hara’s partner, the old one.”
Parker told him, “And any other cop O’Hara might have talked to. Anybody he knew that well.”
“That’s a tall order,” Calesian said. “Particularly without anybody noticing what I’m doing. Running a check on one patrolman is easy, I can slip it into routine business, but when you get to ten or fifteen men, it gets noticeable.”
“You’ll do your best,” Lozini told him.
Calesian spread his hands, easy and assured. “Naturally,” he said.
Parker said, “That’s tomorrow, too, right?”
“It’s tough on Sunday,” Calesian said. “I’ll do what I can, but some of it may have to wait till Monday.”
Lozini said, “Why? The cops work seven days a week.”
“Not the clerical staff,” Calesian said. “The kind of small-time check we’re talking about, no urgency, nothing major, that’s always done during the week and during regular business hours. For instance, I can’t call a bank tomorrow, check on anybody’s balance.”
Parker said, “Lozini, the simple answer is, you pay me my money now, and get it back when you find the right people. That way, you can wait till after election and I won’t be sitting in a room somewhere getting impatient.”
“I don’t have the money,” Lozini told him. “Nate told you; receipts are down. Not just in policy, everywhere. Receipts down, expenses up. This election cost us an arm and a leg, and my man may not even stay in. Listen, I’m just as impatient as you are.”
“No, you’re not,” Parker told him. He looked around and said, “Is there anything else I have to hear?” Everybody looked at everybody else.
“All right,” Parker said. “Lozini, I’ll call you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Try me at home,” Lozini said, and sourly added, “You know the number.”
Calesian, rising, said, “I’m finished, too, for now. I’ll ride down with you, Parker.”
“By God,” Lozini said grimly, “we’re going to put this together. I don’t like the whole feel of this.”
As Parker left, he heard Lozini behind him going on in the same vein, with his three lieutenants silently listening and nodding their heads. Walking across the empty receptionist’s office with Calesian, Parker listened to Lozini’s voice without the words, and there seemed a slight echo in the sound, a touch of hollowness created both by distance and the tone of the man’s voice. Lozini sounded more and more like someone blustering to hide his uncertainty.
Parker and Calesian walked down the hall to the elevator. Calesian pushed the button, then turned to say, “You know, just between us, what Nate said wasn’t all that stupid.”
Parker shrugged.
“There’s such a thing as too much pressure,” Calesian said. “You have Al where you want him; now might be a good time to ease off a bit. Let him take care of business first, get this election out of the way.”
“No.”
Calesian looked puzzled. “Why not? What’s the problem?”
“Lozini.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
Parker said, “He’s a man who didn’t hear the twig snap.”
Calesian frowned a second, then said, “Oh. Somebody’s coming up behind him?”
“Somebody came up.”
“You think somebody’s going to try a takeover.”
Parker gestured a thumb toward Lozini’s office. “Isn’t that what that was all about?”
Calesian thought about it. “Maybe,” he said. “But who?”
“You know the territory better than I do.”
The elevator door slid back, showing an empty interior. Grinning at it, Calesian said, “That’s a smart boy.”
They stepped into the elevator, and started down.
Calesian said, “If you’re right, you know, that’s even more reason to ease up on Al a little. Don’t distract him while he’s trying to hold his business together.”
“This election you’ve got coming up,” Parker said. “I think maybe that’s the key. Come Wednesday, Lozini may not be around any more.”
Calesian looked troubled, but had nothing to say.
Parker said, “I wouldn’t want to start all over again with somebody new.”
Seventeen
The two men sat in the back seat of a darkened car on Brower Road, near the baseball field and the amusement park. It was four o’clock Sunday morning, six hours after the meeting in Lozini’s office had broken up, and it was almost pitch-dark. The stars were thin and aloof and far away, the thin crescent of moon was like a tiny rip in a black plastic bag showing the sugar inside. There were no houses out in this part of town, no traffic, nobody moving except the driver of the car, strolling back and forth a hundred feet down the road, kicking at stones he could barely see, while the two men in the car, dark faceless mounds to one another, talked things over.
“So Al knows what’s happening, does he?”
“Not yet. He knows something is happening, but he doesn’t know what.”
“The money?”
“You mean from Fun Island?”
“No, the money we’ve been skimming. Is he onto that?”
“No. He still believes it’s just that times are slow.”