Ричард Старк - Flashfire [= Parker]

“Charities,” Melander said.

“They love charities in Palm Beach,” Carlson agreed. “But these stars didn’t do it right. They thought they were already entitled. They threw big flashy parties, they brought in rock bands , for Christ’s sake, and nobody came.”

“Well, a lot of people went to those parties,” Ross said.

Carlson said, “Not the right people. Also, the parties were playing hell with the house, messing it up. Then the stars went away to be stars someplace else—”

“Where stars are looked up to,” Melander said.

“So the house was abandoned,” Carlson said, “and the alarm systems would break down all the time, and bums would sneak in there from the beach, and they had a couple little fires, and the cops finally said, we can’t keep a man on this house twenty-four hours a day, you got to put in your own security patrol, and the stars said fuck it, and put it on the market.”

Laughing, Melander said, “A fixer-upper for sale in Palm Beach. A do-it-yourselfer.”

“These stars couldn’t do anything right,” Carlson said. “If they do the fix-up, they make a lot more money when they sell the place. But they’re not interested, they’re off somewheres else, and the house sits there until Boyd comes along.”

Melander got off the bed and took a stance, shoulders squared, big body relaxed, big smile, big wavy hair framing his head. He said, in a strong Texas accent, “I do like this little town you got here, I’d like to contribute if I could, make it even better. I like that ocean you got, you know, it’s bigger than the Gulf, I like the idea of that whole ocean out there and then Europe on the other side, not Mexico. Not that I have anything against Mexicans, hardworking little fellas, most of them.”

Melander sat down to the money again while a grinning Carlson said to Parker, “Boyd can fit right in. And with all that oil money in his family, he’ll fix up that mansion good as new. Better. And when he’s got the house all done, he wants to host the big library benefit there.”

Parker nodded. “All right, he can be plausible,” he said.

Carlson looked pleased. “So you’re in?”

“No,” Parker said.

All three were disappointed, gazing at him as though he’d let them down in some unexpected way. Carlson said, “Could I ask why?”

‘You’ve got a place to stay,” Parker said. “If I ask, you’ll tell me how the mansion won’t trace back to any of you after it’s all over.”

“Sure,” Carlson said.

“But that isn’t the job,” Parker told him. “That’s nothing but the safe house. The job is still a whole lot of jewelry, twelve million dollars’ worth of jewelry, completely surrounded by people with weapons who don’t want you to get your hands on it. From this idea today — blow up something a little farther out of town as a distraction — I can see you guys like to be gaudy. That’s fine, fires and explosions have their place, but I think you mean to be gaudy in Palm Beach, and it won’t work out for you any better than it did for the movie stars.”

Carlson wanted to say something, but Parker held up his hand. “Don’t tell me,” he said. “I’m not in this, so I don’t want to know what the plan is, and you don’t want me to know.”

The three of them looked at one another. Parker watched them, waiting to see what his move should be, but nobody seemed ready to offer any threat. At last, Carlson said, “How’s the count coming?”

“Done,” Ross said. “Eighty-five and change.”

“That’s short,” Carlson said.

Melander said, “Well, we knew it could be.”

Carlson turned back to Parker. “The down payment on the place is a hundred grand. It was higher, but Boyd haggled them down to that, but that’s it, rock bottom. Two days from now, this cash here is gonna be an electronic impulse out of a bank in Austin, but it isn’t enough. As it is, we’re gonna have to borrow black to top it up.”

Parker waited.

From the bed, Ross said, “You see how it is. We gotta borrow fifteen, that means we gotta pay back thirty. Man, if we give you your” — he consulted a slip of paper on the bed in front of himself — “twenty-one thousand three hundred nineteen bucks, we’re gonna have to borrow almost forty, that’s a payback eighty, that begins to cut in.”

“Also,” Carlson said, being very reasonable about it all, “we still need a fourth man, the way we got it set up, so somebody has to get that fourth share. That’s why we want it to be you.”

“No,” Parker said.

Again they looked at one another, and again Parker waited for them to make a move, but again it didn’t happen. Melander simply said, “He isn’t gonna change his mind.”

“Well, that’s a bitch,” Carlson said.

Melander said, “We knew it could happen.”

“Still.”

Meanwhile, Ross was counting out a little stack of money onto the bed while Carlson got to his feet and crossed over to the closet. Opening the closet door, he pulled out two of the three suitcases in there, leaving Parker’s. Ross got off the bed and came over to hand the little stack of cash to Parker, saying, “Sorry it didn’t work out. We’ll catch up with you later.”

Parker looked at the money, and it wasn’t enough, nowhere near enough. He said, “What’s this?”

“Ten percent,” Ross told him. ‘Just over two grand. When we’re done in Palm, you’ll get the full amount, so this is like interest on the loan.”

“I’m not loaning you anything,” Parker said.

Melander and Carlson were stuffing the rest of the cash into the two suitcases. Melander said, “I’m afraid you got to, pal. You don’t have a choice, and we don’t have a choice.”

Ross showed Parker a pistol but didn’t exactly point it at him. “You shouldn’t stand up,” he said, “and you shouldn’t move your hands off the table.”

Parker said, “Tom Hurley told me you guys weren’t hijackers.”

“We aren’t hijackers,” Ross said with simple sincerity. “You’ll get your money. The job goes down two months from now, and then the money’s yours. With interest.”

Melander said, “Pal, I’m sorry we got to act this way, but what’s our choice? We thought you’d come in with us, and then everything’d be fine. I’m sorry you feel the way you do, but there it is.”

Carlson said, ‘You can count on us to pay you. I never stiffed another mechanic in my life.”

You’re stiffing me now, Parker thought, but what was the point talking?

The three exchanged glances, as though they thought there might be something more to say, and then Melander turned to Parker and spread his hands: “You know where we’re going.”

“Palm Beach.”

“If we were hijackers, we’d kill you now.”

The only thing to do, Parker thought, and waited.

Carlson said, “But that isn’t our style.”

Then you’re dead, Parker thought, and waited.

Melander said, “It’s just, we’d like you to stay at home the next couple months. We’ll phone you sometimes, we’d like to know you’re there.”

Parker shrugged. There was nothing to say to these people.

Apparently, they now themselves thought they’d said enough. They moved toward the door, Ross putting the pistol away, and left, not looking back at him.

Parker sat there, hands palm-down on the table, little stack of bills between his hands. His money was gone, about to become an electronic impulse in Texas. This wasn’t what it was supposed to be, and it wasn’t what it was going to be.

He got to his feet, and crossed to the phone, and called Claire, at the house up in New Jersey. When she answered, without identifying himself he said, “You remember that hotel with the shark scare,” meaning a place they’d stayed once in Miami Beach.