Feccio said, ‘Dan told us. He’s the one ambushed you last night.’
‘Twice,’ Parker told him. ‘Just this afternoon.’
From the doorway, Negli said, ‘You keep up like that, Parker, you’ll turn into a figure of fun.’
Parker looked carefully at Feccio. ‘Turn your angelino off,’ he said.
Feccio’s face darkened. ‘Don’t start on me, Parker.’
Kifka said, ‘Negli, what’s your little problem?’
‘My seventh,’ Negli told him. ‘Where’s my seventh, that’s my problem.’
Kifka said, ‘We’ll find it for you, okay?’
From his gloomy corner, Clinger said, ‘Squabble, that’s what we need now. A nice long squabble.’ Rudd and Shelly had come in now and were just standing around.
Feccio said to the room in general, ‘Bob won’t say anything more, you got my guarantee.’ He looked at Negli. ‘My guarantee,’ he said.
Negli looked insulted, and walked over into a corner.
Kifka said, ‘What’s the story so far, Parker?’
Parker told them of his afternoon: Detective Dougherty and Ellie’s apartment and the madman on the roof. ‘I had to unload the Buick,’ he said. ‘And sooner or later that cop’s going to get your name, Dan; you knew Ellie, and he’ll come around here to ask questions, so we’ve got to find a different place to meet.’
Feccio said, ‘Vimorama. We’ve got the run of the place. Dan could move right on out there now.’
‘Fine. All right with you, Dan?’
‘As long as I got my Janey with me,’ Kifka said, ‘I don’t care where I am.’
Parker took Dougherty’s list out of his pocket and gave it to Kifka. ‘You know any of these people?’
Kifka glanced down the list and said, ‘Sure. About all of them. This is the list you got from the cop, huh?’
That’s right.’
Clinger said, ‘One thing I got to admit. I got to admit, Parker, you’ve got gall. You go to the cop to get your information.’
Parker said, ‘He was the only one had it.’
Rudd said, ‘One thing.’
They all looked at him. Rudd was a silent workman type; it was a strange thing to hear him speak.
Kifka said, ‘What is it?’
Rudd said, ‘What we’re talking about here is maybe twenty thousand bucks. Less than that. And financing out of that, maybe eighteen grand. For eighteen grand, Parker is walking into cops’ houses, we’re all hanging around here where a cop is going to show up sometime, maybe five minutes from now, and we’re going to keep poking around in the same places where the cops are poking around. They’re looking for the same guy as us.’
‘So what do you want to do?’
‘Pack it in. I don’t blame Parker, it could have happened to me, to anybody. But I say pack it in.’
It was the most anyone had heard Rudd talk in years, so it had its effect. Much more effect than if Little Bob Negli had said the same things.
But Parker was aggravated. Somewhere in this dirty city there was a guy who had stolen two suitcases full of money from Parker. And shot at Parker twice. And killed the girl Parker was living with. And tried to set Parker up to take the fall.
What he wanted now was the appearances of logic and good sense. If the other six stayed active in this thing, then it was a simple sensible matter of getting the group’s money back. But if they all quit, Parker knew he himself wouldn’t quit, and he’d be going after the guy instead of the money.
He didn’t like to catch himself doing things that weren’t sensible, and that just aggravated him all the more.
He said, ‘Anyone wants to give up his seventh, just turn it over to me.’
Negli rose to the bait. ‘Not you, Parker. Don’t you even think it.’
Kifka said, ‘I’m not going to pack it in. But face it, I won’t be able to help much; I’m weak as a kitten.’
Parker said, ‘Feccio? You in or out?’
‘In, you know that. And so’s Bob.’
‘Good. Clinger?’
Clinger shrugged and looked pessimistic. ‘It’s good effort thrown after bad,’ he said, ‘but what can we do? Twenty thousand dollars is still and all and nevertheless twenty thousand dollars.’
Feccio smiled and said, ‘Well spoken.’
Parker turned around. ‘Shelly?’
Shelly grinned. ‘I got nothing else to do with my time,’ he said. ‘This might be interesting.’
Kifka said to Rudd, ‘You’re the only one doesn’t want his seventh. You want us each to have a sixth?’
‘I don’t walk out alone,’ Rudd told him. ‘You people mess around, with or without me, I’m still in the same trouble, it could still get back to me if you louse yourselves up.’
‘So you’re in?’
‘I’m in.’
Parker said, ‘Dan, you’ve got to know more of Ellie’s friends, names not on that list.’
‘Sure I do.’
‘Then write them down. We can’t go near one of those nine unless we’re pretty sure it’s the guy we want. The reason I had to talk to the cop, I had to know which of Ellie’s friends the law was on to and watching, and I had to know if they were on to you.’
‘Ellie hung round with different groups different times,’ Kifka said. He tapped the list of names. ‘Most of these are in a different kind of crowd from me. I know some of them, we’ve met here and there, but we’re not buddies. Starting from these guys, the world these guys hang around in, it’s going to take that cop a hell of a long while to get to me.’
‘Maybe.’
Kifka shrugged. ‘All right, maybe. What about these phone numbers on the list here?’
‘They mean anything to you? I got them in Ellie’s apartment.’
Kifka shook his head. ‘Not a thing. Let’s check them out.’
‘Me,’ Clinger said. ‘My kind of proposition.’
Kifka ripped that part of the sheet of paper off and handed it to Clinger, who went out to the living room to make the calls. Kifka took a pencil from the bedside table, wet the tip with his tongue, and said, ‘Other people Ellie knew.’
Parker said, ‘With a grudge, if you know any.’
‘That I wouldn’t know. Let me just give you the names.’
Feccio said, ‘Then we go play detective?’
Parker said, ‘Something like that.’
Rudd said, ‘We’re looking for trouble.’
‘Don’t worry, Pete,’ said Kifka. ‘This won’t be as bad as you think.’ He shifted around in the bed and started writing names and addresses down on the paper.
For a couple of minutes there was silence, everybody sitting around waiting for Kifka to get his list finished. Clinger came back in and shook his head and said, ‘A pizzeria and a movie theater.’
Parker said, ‘It figured.’
Shelly said, ‘Who’s for poker?’
They all trooped out but Parker and Kifka. Kifka sat on the bed, frowning in concentration like a wrestler trying to remember who’s supposed to win this bout, and Parker went over to the window and looked out at the night-dark city.
He was out there, somewhere.
PART THREE
One
He was standing in a small square room with beige walls.
The room was nine feet long, ten feet wide, nine feet high. Paint was peeling from the ceiling. A gray carpet covered most of the floor. The furniture was old and nondescript.
He was looking out the window at the night-dark city, feeling Parker’s eyes. Somewhere, looking out. from some other window in some other part of this city, were Parker’s eyes, searching for him.
He didn’t know Parker’s name, didn’t know his history, but it wasn’t necessary. He had seen Parker. He had tried once to frame Parker, and twice to kill Parker. He had taken an awful lot of money from Parker, money which must connect Parker with that robbery out at the stadium.
He was terrified of Parker.
At the beginning of it, he hadn’t really been aware of Parker at all. He’d known Ellen was living with another one, someone new, but his rage and hatred and sense of loss, all because of Ellen herself, had been so strong in him that he hadn’t had the thought or the inclination to wonder about this new one, or care about him, or even consider him in his plans.