Mourn The Living (21 page)

“Well?” she called, as Nolan came from the doorway of the apartment.

“Well?” he returned, heading for the Lincoln. He opened up the trunk of the big car, got out his clothes-bags, luggage and the money-stuffed suitcase. He slammed the lid back down, tossed the keys in the open window of the Lincoln and joined Lyn Parks in the dirty red Plymouth, piling the back seat with his baggage.

“You need all that crap?” she asked.

He patted the suitcase of cash fondly. “This one’s all I really need.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“Drive.”

“Where?”

“Think you can find Milwaukee?”

“Eventually,” she shrugged.

“I got a stop to make.” Nolan’s Milwaukee contact, a broker named Richmond, would see that the quarter million was properly banked/invested.

“You’re the boss,” she said. “I just hope this crate’ll make it as far as Wisconsin.”

“I’ll buy you a new one on the way.”

She grinned. “Sounds good.” She started the car, her blonde hair bouncing, and four minutes later Chelsey was a memory.

Nolan leaned back, his hand on Lyn Parks’ thigh. There would be no sweat from the Boys for a while; they’d be busy trying to figure out what had been going on in Chelsey. And that was good, he hadn’t relaxed for months. He squeezed Lyn’s thigh, leaned his head back and shut his eyes. Wisconsin would be cold this time of year. It would be nice to have a bed warmer.

   About the Author

Max Allan Collins, who created the graphic novel on which the Oscar-winning film
Road to Perdition
was based, has been writing hard-boiled mysteries since his college days in the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa. Besides the books about Nolan, the criminal who just wants his piece of the American dream, and killer-for-hire Quarry, he has written a popular series of historical mysteries featuring Nate Heller and many, many other novels. At last count, Collins’s books and short stories have been nominated for fifteen Shamus awards by the Private Eye Writers of America, winning for two Heller novels,
True Detective
and
Stolen Away
. He lives in Muscatine, Iowa with his wife, Barbara Collins, with whom he has collaborated on several novels and numerous short stories. The photo above shows Max in 1971, when he was first writing about Nolan and Quarry.