�Glad you got out of that.�
She nodded, her mouth full.
Clyde laughed.�Wilma�s pretty hungry, too. I�m taking her for a steak. Want to come?�
She swallowed.�Going to ride back with Max, take the horses back. I think Ryan�s going with Dallas, her truck is at our place.�
He nodded.�How did the snitch know where you were?� he said softly. �She called Max, but how did she know?�
�The white cat, Clyde. That feral cat. He�Against all odds, that wild little animal went down into the village. Went to Kit for help. Dulcie was there at the Greenlaws� with Kit, and it was Dulcie who called.�
Clyde shook his head.�Seems impossible.�
�But then,� she said, �the other two ferals�all three of them and Dulcie and Kit chewed my ropes. They had me almost loose when Wilma found me.� She swallowed the last of the sandwich, washed it down with more coffee. �And there�s a lot that we don�t know yet, that Dulcie and Kit will tell us. But you�You and Joe��
�Same thing,� Clyde said, grinning. �A lot to tell. Too much for now, Wilma�s starving.� He hugged her and rose, stood a moment with his hand on her shoulder. �She�s pretty upset that Jones dragged you into whatever he wanted from her.�
�She doesn�t know what he wanted?�
�Not a clue.� He leaned down to hug her again. �Have a good ride home.�
She watched him stop to talk with Ryan and make a date with her for the next night, then head down to fetch Wilma.
�Where�d the sandwiches go?� Max said, coming to join her, looking at the wadded-up paper bag. �I was gone no more than three minutes.�
Charlie laughed.
�That hold you until we get home? Take about an hour. You�ve had a long day, you feel up to the ride?�
�Ohyes. Can you do that, can you leave, with�?�
�Dallas is here. Prisoners are secured. Wilma�s safe, with Clyde. We�ll take her statement in the morning. Right now, I think it�s time for me to take your statement.�
Flushing, she moved away to the horses. Leaving Max to wrap up a few details, she stood with Ryan, leaning against her mare.�You found me gone, and you called Max.�
Ryan nodded and put her arm around her.
Charlie said,�Guess I owe you supper.�
�Guess you do,� Ryan said. �If you two take the horses back, I�ll never see that potato salad and roast beef you had laid out.�
�Guess I can make more potato salad,� Charlie said, hugging her back, and as Max turned to join them, she tightened Redwing�s cinch and mounted up.
30
I t was midnight when the old man descended to the basement and, working silently, moved the piled boxes out of the closet, shoving them in among the rest of the detritus that crowded the concrete room. He guessed Lilly had gotten nervous about that safe, so visible and all. The fact that it was covered up told him there was something to be nervousabout.
Kneeling over the locked metal box he tried to remove it from the closet, but it was sunk deep in the floor. Probably bolted, the bolts removable only from inside, once it was open. When he couldn�t budge it, he took from his pocket a small, rechargeable electric drill and a miniature periscope, a tiny light on a long, thin, flexible neck, an eyepiece at the end.
The sound of the drill wasn�t loud. But twice he stopped to listen to the house above him, just in case Lilly woke and started down. The big old house remained silent, and within minutes the drill had gone through the thick metal lid, leaving a quarter-inch hole into which he slid the periscope.
Slowly he turned the safe�s dial, watching through the periscope as the plates moved, slowly working out the combination until, after maybe twenty minutes, he was able to apply that information and lift the heavy lid.
Staring down into the metal box, Greeley was very still. His expression didn�t change. An observer could have read nothing on the face of the grizzled old man. He knelt there in his wrinkled clothes and old worn shoes, shaggy gray hair, three days� growth of stubble, looking down blankly into the empty safe. Only slowly did his rage burn to the surface, like a flame that started deep inside a building, belatedly flickering and blooming until it blazed red and violent through the walls.
Rage. Disbelief. A deep and painful disappointment. He knelt there a long time, looking. At last he closed the safe again, spun the dial, and rose. He put back the boxes on top as they had been, shut the closet door, and turned resolutely to search the rest of the basement, but without much hope.
Knowing Cage, he limited his survey to places that would be relatively fireproof, because Cage had once lost a nice haul in a fire, in an old, tinder-dry apartment. He investigated a patched area of concrete where another safe might be sunk, but could find no way into it. Carefully he examined the concrete walls, the concrete floor beneath the stairs. He looked over the stacked boxes and old bits of furniture, but they were all tinder, not what Cage would choose. At last he turned away, discouraged, and left the basement, moving up the wooden stairs in his stockinged feet just as he had come down.
Back in his room, shutting the door silently behind him, he sat down on the bed, put his feet up on the spread, poured a good jolt of whiskey into the plastic glass he�d taken from the bathroom, and drank it down. You could bet that bitch parole officer had been here, just like Cage must�ve thought. Her and her partner, her and that hard-nosed Bennett-served him right coming in here and stealing, served him right he got shot.
He thought about them cats. That one cat that lived with the Getz woman. Had them cats spied on Cage, watched as he opened the safe and then told her? And she�d waltzed right in here, her and Bennett, and cleaned it out? Withthem cats, anything was possible.
It did not occur to Greeley that Wilma and Mandell Bennett had made that official search of the Jones house with the DEA agents some years before tabby Dulcie had come to live with her. In fact, before Dulcie was born. Sitting on the bed finishing the whiskey, the old man began to feel trapped, driven into a corner by an unfair and twisted fate. He�d been counting on that gold. Not so much because he needed it; he had already cashed out half his own share, before this trip, more than enough for all the cars and whiskey, and even women, he could handle in what remained of his lifetime; and he didn�t care about fancy houses and clothes, hecared only about his own pleasure. No, it wasn�t that he needed Cage�s half of the haul. He wanted it purely because he�d set his mind on it-because this theft had been the big one. The one spectacular prize before he retired, before he kicked back and enjoyed life. This job was big enough tohave the entire Panamanian government panicked into closing its borders, if they�d knowed about it.
That was the beauty of this heist. The Guardia didn�t know, not a clue. A theft from thieves didn�t get a lot of police action. If those guys he and Cage�d stole from had run to the Guardia,they were the ones who�d be in thecarcel.
And now, that bitch parole officer had cheated him out of every penny.
Sure as hell no one else had known about the stash. Cage wouldn�t of told anyone, he was too closemouthed. Greeley wondered if he�d told Eddie Sears, but Cage never had trusted him. Cage�s sister Violet, she didn�t count for nothing, skinny little thing afraid of her own shadow. Ditto Lilly Jones. Lilly didn�t have the imagination or the balls to think of stealing anything. The very idea of cracking a safe would give the old girl a sick headache.
No, it was that Getz woman. Fancy stone house and new car. Not hardly, on her federal retirement. Likely socked the rest of the loot away in some kind of securities or some little-old-lady annuity, safe and untouchable.
But right now he had to search the rest of the house. Cagecould have hidden the stash somewhere else, and he�d be a friggin� fool to miss it. Slipping out of the room to toss the main floor, he used a little penlight that wasn�t much. A nuisance searching in the dark. He went through the refrigerator-freezer, which might be impervious to fire but was the first place a burglar would look. He was turning out the living room, checking the electrical plugs for tampering, when he heard a noise at the front door. The lock clicked, the knob turned, and as the door opened Greeley drew back behind the couch, crouching down as sneaky and undignified as them damned spying cats.