The Jugger

Parker turned and went on into the hotel. It was a small building, only four stories high, but spread out in a rambling manner, and with a lobby far too broad and long for the rest of the place. Green leather sofas were scattered here and there over the dark orange carpeting in the lobby, and at the far end one lone man stood like a joke behind the broad sweep of desk.

Parker went upstairs, and Captain Younger stayed on plant out in front of the hotel.

Then, everywhere else Parker went, it kept coming back to Captain Younger, and it wound up in Joe Sheer's house, the two of them face to face, Parker and Captain Younger, and Parker still didn't know a damn thing.

Except he had trouble.

PART TWO

ONE

DR. RAYBORN was a poor liar, but a good doctor. He didn't ask any questions, either of Captain Younger or Parker, but went right to work on Parker's face. He cleaned the bruises with cotton, and put a stinging ointment on a couple of the worst places, and then sprayed something on the side of his face out of a pressurized can. The spray was freezing cold at first, but it cut through the pain and gradually numbed the side of Parker's face like Novocain.

All through it, nobody talked. Younger watched Parker and Parker watched the doctor, and the doctor watched his own hands. He wouldn't meet anybody's eye. Through his efficiency, nervousness glittered, like the sky seen through an intermittent overcast.

When at last he was finished and putting his tools back in his black bag, Younger said to him, 'This is just between us fellas, Larry.'

Not looking up from his bag, the doctor said, 'This is the end, Abner, the last straw. No more. Don't call me again.'

'I didn't do that to him,' Younger said. 'He fell downstairs. Isn't that right, Willis?'

Parker didn't say anything.

Dr. Rayborn said, 'He didn't get that from falling downstairs. Don't lie to me, Abner, I'm not a fool.'

'Well, I say I didn't do it. God damn it, Willis, did I lay a hand on you?'

Still Parker didn't say anything. Face expressionless, he watched the two of them. Sooner or later he'd want another private talk with Dr. Rayborn, the weak link.

The doctor was saying, 'I don't care about the details, Abner. I don't want to know about them. I didn't want to know about-'

'Shut your mouth!'

The doctor was suddenly twice as nervous. He shut his bag with a loud click, and his eyes kept darting over to look at Parker. Parker watched him with flat expressionless eyes.

Younger said, 'You're gonna get yourself in trouble.' He pointed a finger at the doctor and jabbed the finger in air. 'You're gonna get everybody in trouble. Now, you just watch yourself.'

'I'm sorry. I-'

'You just won't quit talking, will you? Go on home, Larry, I'll call you later on.'

'All right.' He picked up his bag and stood there looking nervous and agitated. 'Abner,' he said, 'I don't want any more. This is the last time.'

'I'll call you later.'

'I mean it, Abner.'

'I said I'll call you later.'

Rayborn still hesitated a few seconds longer and then finally gave a weak man's shrug and turned away and went on out the front door. He closed it behind himself, and in the silence that followed, Younger puffed out a blue Disney cloud of cigar smoke and said, 'That man is a weak sister. Nothing but a weak sister.'

Parker swivelled his eyes without moving his head. He watched Younger, and waited to see what would happen next. His face felt strange, the left side dead and numb.

Captain Younger sighed massively and got to his feet. The cigar was in his left hand, the gun in his right. His cowboy hat was tipped back on his head, his shirt collar was open and tie loosened, his suit jacket was unbuttoned, and his trousers were hooked under his paunch. He looked like a man with nothing but time and patience. He was a lot more sure of himself now, after the session with Rayborn, and he was showing it.

He walked around the room a little bit, still keeping well away from Parker, and finally he said, 'The question is, do you know where it is or don't you? That's the question.'

Parker waited; nothing to say yet, nothing to respond to.

'At first, I figured you did know, and all I had to do was keep you in sight, you'd lead me straight to it. But now I don't think so. It isn't here. I don't believe for a minute it's in this house, so you poking around here means you don't know any more than anybody. Is that right?'

Parker couldn't tell yet whether it would be best to claim to know nothing or everything, so he went on waiting.

Younger had been trying some rudimentary kind of psychology, because now he said, 'Or is it here? Do you know for sure it's here? How come you were digging in the cellar?'

Parker shook his head, but didn't say anything.

'All right, not you, your partner. The little bastard in the funny clothes. You were seen punching him in the face right out on the sidewalk this afternoon, what do you think of that?'

'Not much.'

'He's your partner, isn't he?'

'No.'

'He was digging down there, wasn't he?'

'Maybe it was him, maybe not. The guy that hit me had a burlap bag over his head.'

'Oh, stop that! You went down there with him! What do you think I am?'

Parker said, 'I think you're a hick and a moron and a bigmouth and yellow from your head to your ass.'

The captain stopped in his tracks and stared at Parker. His face got red, and his hand on the gun got white. He opened his mouth three times before he managed to say anything, and then the words came out in a strangled whisper:

'I could kill you, Willis, don't you know that? I run this town, I run it, I run the police force. I could kill you, right here and now, shoot you down dead at my feet, and nobody'd ever say a word to me about it. You're surely wanted somewhere for something, an old friend of Joe Sheer's like you, you've got to be on somebody's wanted list. I caught you burglarizing the house and when I tried to arrest you, you jumped me and I shot you in self-defence. Don't you know that? I could kill you right now and not think twice about it.'

'If you kill me,' Parker told him, 'you'll never know anything.'

'I won't? I won't?' For some reason, that seemed to make Younger even madder than before. 'Explain that,' he said. 'Make it snappy, you, explain yourself. By God, I will kill you! You give me a reason not to do it, just one good reason not to shoot you down this minute.' Parker said, 'I went to see Gliffe.'

Younger waited, but Parker didn't say any more. Finally, Younger said, 'So what? What's that supposed to mean?'

'You figure it out.'

'What the hell are you talking about?'

'You don't understand what's going on, Younger. You got a theory and it doesn't work, it's full of holes. There's some little man I'm supposed to be partners with, but I'm seen hitting him on the street and he hits me with a shovel down in the cellar here. You call that partners? Does your theory tell you why I went to see Gliffe and Rayborn? Does it tell you why I went to Lynbrooke?'