“What are you trying to do to me?”
He took a last drag on his cigarette, and flicked the butt out over the edge. “See if you’ll crack.”
“Why?”
“You know my name. You know my face. I don’t want you going back and talking to the law.”
“I see.”
They waited again. Parker got out his cigarettes, lit one, then said, “You want one?”
“Yes, please.”
He lit it for her. She looked up and studied his face in the matchlight, and when it was dark again she said, “The simplest thing would just be to throw me off the cliff here, wouldn’t it?”
“It would.”
“Why don’t you? You’re not afraid of Grofield.”
“I don’t kill as the easy way out of something. If I kill, it’s because I don’t have any choice.”
“You mean self-defense.”
“Wrong. I mean it’s the only way to get what I want.”
“Do you want me to promise I’ll stay with Grofield forever? Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. I know I won’t go back to Copper Canyon, and there’s no reason for me to go to the police.”
“Why’d you come along with Grofield?”
“He’s my chance. He’s smart and exciting and fun, and he knows a lot of things. He can show me the whole world, and make it all fun. I had to scream and holler before he’d take me along, so don’t blame him too much.”
“Grofield’ll be in jail within five years.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because he’s impulsive. He’s smart, but he doesn’t always act smart. Also, he doesn’t pay his income tax. Also, he spends too loose and works too often.”
“So maybe I can help him, then.”
Parker debated. He walked up and down along the cliff edge, thinking it out. The girl was a lot better than he’d expected. The only false note was that she’d run off in the first place, that she’d decided to come along with Grofield. She was too cool and sure of herself to be the run-off type. But maybe the running off was cool and methodical, too, maybe she was just running a calculated risk. Looked at that way, it made better sense.
And made her a better risk for him, too.
He said, “Go tell Grofield to show you where his car is. That’s where you two will stay nights; we can’t have you in the shed with the rest of us.”
“All right. Thank you.”
She went away, and Parker stayed outside a while longer. Far to the east, a narrow band of faint lightness was beginning to mark the horizon. Parker walked back and forth, back and forth, unwinding, getting the tension out of his body and mind.
He’d never been involved with such a contradictory job in his life. A job where he deliberately put himself in a box with only one exit, but in this particular case it didn’t matter. A job where everything went smooth and sweet and precise, right up the end, and then all hell broke loose, with one madman going around trying to blow up the city and another madman bringing a girl along for the ride. But the first madman’s explosions and fires helped to cover the getaway in spite of themselves, and the second madman’s girl turned out to be a safe risk.
Thinking of the girl, he felt a quickening in his loins, the sudden return of desire that always followed a job. He walked back and forth, back and forth, smoking his cigarette, thinking of women, thinking about the next opportunity he’d have to get next to a woman.
Not Grofield’s girl. Messing with another man’s woman was always dangerous, and never more dangerous than while hiding out. Besides, she acted too cool and composed for his taste. He wanted something with more abandon to her.
He knew who, knew exactly who. Three or four days, and he’d go see her.
Somebody had to tell her Edgars wouldn’t be showing up.
2
The helicopter passed over again with a great flapping sound, like a huge bird of prey, and everyone in the shed crouched instinctively lower and stared upward at the roof.
It was late afternoon, and stifling hot in the shed. They were all there, all eleven of them. Parker and Wycza and Phillips and Salsa and Elkins were sitting around the card table, a hand of seven-card stud half dealt in front of them, halted temporarily while they all listened to the helicopter. Grofield and his girl were sitting on an army cot in the corner, with Littlefield standing next to them; the three of them had been playing charades and Littlefield had stopped in the middle of the third word. Wiss and Paulus and Kerwin, the three safe men, had been shop-talking in a corner, but they too were now quiet.
Pop Phillips said, “It’s enough to make a man think of reforming.”
“Tire tracks,” said Parker. He looked over at Littlefield. “What about them?”
“Brushed away,” Littlefield told him. “All brushed away.”
Wycza said, “What about on the road going down, where I took the truck?”
“That’s all hard-packed,” Littlefield told him. “No tracks show.”
Paulus said, “I don’t like this place. Edgars set this place up, what do we know about it? We ought to get the hell out of here.”
Parker shook his head. “And go where? None of us knows this territory. The roadblocks’ll still be up.”
“I just don’t like this place. I want out of here tonight.”
Parker shrugged and looked at his hole cards. Five and seven of spades. Six of spades and queen of hearts up, so far. Three cards to go.
Two days to go. This was always the worst part, afterward. The best jobs were the ones you could walk away from and keep on going. But the jobs where you had to hole up for a while, they were bad for the nerves. Particularly with a crowd this size. Eleven people stuck in a big empty shed with no interior walls, no proper furniture, no way to get away from each other. A lot of jobs that had run sweet all the way through suddenly went sour at this point, after the tough part was supposedly all over. One or two people decided not to wait it out any more, took off, got themselves picked up and backtracked, and there was the law all of a sudden at the hideout door.
Paulus said, “We make the split tonight, and then I go. Littlefield? You’re supposed to ride with me, you want to come along?”
Littlefield seemed to consider it, and then said, “I don’t think so, Paulus. I think I’ll stay here and keep out of jail, if I can get a ride with somebody else.”
Salsa said, “Chambers was supposed to ride with me. You can take his place.”
“Thank you.”
Paulus said, “Well, I’mgoing. Tonight, right after the split.”
Parker, looking at his cards, said, “We don’t split tonight. We make the split day after tomorrow.”
Paulus said, “I’m taking myshare tonight.”
Wycza said, “Shut your face, Paulus, you ain’t going nowhere.”
“I don’t likethis place, I tell you!”
Grofield said, “Shut up a second. Listen. Is he coming back?”
The sound of the helicopter had faded to a murmur, but that murmur had remained unchanged as the copter circled the general area over the mining cut. Now the murmur was getting louder again.
Phillips said, “What does he think he seesout there?”
Nobody answered him. The murmur increased and then faded again, without having come close. It faded almost out of hearing, and then came back a little, and then faded again.
Salsa said, “He’s doing a grid-check, that’s all. A methodical search pattern. These sheds were a landmark for him, a hub, but now he’s got some other hub.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Phillips.
They listened some more. The helicopter was a distant hum, and then silence. Very briefly, a humming again, like a far-off bee, and then silence. Still silence. Silence.
Parker said, “Deal. He’s gone.”
Elkins picked up the cards and dealt another round. Parker got the jack of spades. He called Phillips’ bet without raising, and got the four of spades on the sixth card. He bumped small, fed Phillips’ large return raise, bet more heavily after the last card, and took the pot.