The Outfit (14 page)

Parker went in first. He had his gun in his right hand, a pencil flash in his left. There was electric tape over the tip of the flash, leaving only a small opening for the light to peep through.

They had entered a stair well. Concrete stairs led down to the basement, wooden stairs led to the upper floors. Straight ahead was another door, unlocked. Parker opened it cautiously, to find more darkness. He aimed the light into the darkness and saw that they were in a big, square kitchen. He crossed it, Handy behind him, and on the other side there were three doors. One led to a small dining room on the right, one to a deep pantry, and a third to a hallway. At the far end of the hallway, there was light. As Parker started down the hallway, clocks all over the house began striking eleven.

They waited for the clocks to finish, unmoving. When the chiming ended, Handy whispered, "Jesus!"

Parker started forward again, and another chime sounded. He thought at first it was another clock, then he realized it must be the front door. "Hold it," he whispered.

Ahead, at the far end of the hallway, one of the bodyguards went by. They waited, heard the front door open, heard voices, then a door closed and the bodyguard went back to the Monopoly game.

Parker moved again. The two of them hurried silently down the hallway to where it opened into the main front hall. Someone was going upstairs. They heard a casual voice. "Hello, Mr Bronson. A real mess, that Cockatoo situation."

Another voice muttered something unintelligible.

"Very nice house, Mr Bronson. Really very fine. Really."

"You said that last time."

That would be Bronson. He sounded bitter about something.

"I must mean it, then."

"Yeah. Well, Quill, come on into the office."

There was silence, and then a door closed upstairs.

Parker whispered, "Watch the stairs."

Handy nodded.

Parker moved to the right, at an angle, and came to the doorway where the bodyguards were playing Monopoly. He glanced in, saw them sitting there, concentrating on the game. They would be there another three or four hours. They played Monopoly all the time, as though they were addicted to it. They could be ignored.

Parker hadn't expected a visitor. Bronson had had only one visitor in the five days they'd been watching his house, and that had been a youngish man with a briefcase who'd showed up in a chauffeur-driven limousine Sunday night. He'd looked like an insurance adjustor, except for the limousine. He'd stayed half an hour, and then had gone away again.

He wondered if this were the same one, back again. Whether it was or not, he was holding things up.

Parker went back to Handy and whispered, "They're at the game again. We can forget them."

"Right."

Mrs Bronson was already in bed. They'd seen the light go on and off in her bedroom an hour before. So, except for the visitor, everything was set up the way they'd planned.

Parker led the way up the stairs. They were thickly carpeted, as was the hall on the second floor, so they moved without sound.

The third door on the right should be Bronson's office. Bronson's bedroom was beyond that, and his wife's bedroom farther down, at the end. The hall was dimly lit by electric candelabras. Light gleamed under the door of Bronson's office.

Parker moved up silently to the door and pressed his ear against it. He heard the stranger's voice, a monotone. After a minute, he figured out what the stranger was talking about. His name was Quill. There'd been a hit at a place called the Club Cockatoo and he was describing the robbery to Bronson.

Parker smiled to himself. He'd been right. He wondered which of his letters had set off the robbery. He moved away from the door, back down the hall to Handy who was waiting at the head of the stairs. Handy was keeping an eye on the staircase, just in case anyone decided to come up.

Parker whispered, "The guy is called Quill. They're talking about a robbery."

Handy grinned. "Just
one
?"

"I don't know."

Parker went back and listened some more. Bronson didn't like Quill very much. Quill was explaining how come the people who worked at the Club Cockatoo had let the robbers get away with it. Parker listened, as impatient as Bronson, and at last Quill said, "Well, I think we may have learned from this."

Bronson's voice was bitter, "And the others?"

"I'd heard there'd been some more."

"
Eleven
more."

Parker moved away, back to Handy, smiling again. "Twelve," he whispered. "They been knocked over twelve times."

"That must have hurt," said Handy.

"Karns will go along now. Twelve times! He'll pay us to stop."

Handy looked over the rail at the stairs and the hallway below. Faintly, the Monopoly players could still be heard. Handy said, "What do you want to do? Tackle him with that guy in there?"

"No. He's maybe due some place else after he leaves here. We don't want to keep him and louse up his schedule."

"What, then?"

"We'll wait. In Bronson's bedroom."

"Right."

They went down the hall together, past the den door, through which they could faintly hear the murmuring of Quill and Bronson. Parker went in first, shining the pencil flash around, reassuring him the room was empty. Handy came in after him. Parker shut off the flashlight, and they settled down to wait.

They left the hall door partly open, just in case one of the bodyguards should come up, or Mrs Bronson should decide to leave her room. They took their hats off and tossed them on the bed, but kept their topcoats on. Handy sat on the edge of the bed, and Parker stood by the door. They could hear Bronson and Quill talking next door, but couldn't quite make out the words. They both had their guns in their hands.

They waited about fifteen minutes and then they heard the den door open. "Good night, Mr Bronson." Bronson muttered something from inside and Quill shut the office door and walked away towards the stairs.

Parker whispered, "Take the stairs. I'm going in after Bronson now."

"Right."

As soon as Quill started down the stairs and was out of sight, Handy moved out of the bedroom. He went silently down the hall and stood against the wall by the head of the stairs, covering them.

Parker waited a minute, then went down the hall and opened the door to Bronson's den. Bronson was standing at the window looking out, his back to the door. Parker studied his back, wondering if there were any reason to spend time talking to Bronson first, and had just about decided there wasn't any reason to, when Bronson turned around.

Bronson saw him, and gave a start, but recovered quickly. A bitter smile creased his lips and he said, "So you're Parker."

"That's right." Parker raised the .38.

But there was sudden motion to his right. He turned his head and saw Handy coming on the run. He stepped into the den, and Handy barrelled in after him, saying hoarsely, "They're coming back up!"

Parker turned to Bronson. "Why?"

"What? Quill's staying the night."

"All right. Keep your mouth shut."

Bronson shook his head. "No. I've been wondering if those bodyguards were any damn good. Now I'll find out." He raised his head and shouted, "Help!"

Parker shot in irritation and ducked back out to the hall. Behind him, Bronson sagged on to the desk.

Quill and one of the bodyguards were at the head of the stairs. They gaped at Parker and Handy, then turned to run back down again. Parker and Handy fired, but they'd both aimed at the bodyguard, so Quill got away, stumbling over the body which was rolling down the stairs.

"The wife!" said Parker. "Shut her up."

"Right."

Handy hurried down the hall and Parker went back into Bronson's den. Bronson was lying on his face behind the desk. Parker checked him, but he wouldn't need a booster. He straightened and took the phone off the hook, hoping there was only one trunk line in the house. If all the extensions were on the same line, no calls could be made.

Parker hurried back to the hall. Handy hadn't come back yet. Parker ran down to the end, by the stairs, just in time to see the three bodyguards starting up. He fired, not hitting anybody, and they ducked back into the room where they'd been playing Monopoly. Parker knelt behind the railing and waited for Handy.

This was a good spot, for right now. Looking over the railing he could see straight down to the foot of the stairs, and across the main hall to the front door. He could also see the room where the bodyguards and Quill were holed up. He could keep them in there, unless they tried going out the window.

Somebody took a shot at him from the doorway down there. He ducked back, waited a beat, and leaned forward in time to see one of them making a dash across the hall for the room on the opposite side, hoping to catch Parker and Handy in a cross fire. Parker slid the nose of the .38 over the top of the railing, dropped the running man, and ducked back out of sight again. They were firing from the room on the right again, the bullets gouging the wall over Parker's head.

Handy showed up, running in a crouch, ducking down to kneel beside Parker. "Tied and gagged," he said. "What now?"

"Three left. Two bodyguards and Quill."

"What about the back stairs?"

"I don't want a chase. We finish them off in here, It's private in here. No neighbours, no questions."

"Okay."

"Besides, we want time to go through the place. You don't want to do this for nothing."

"Okay."

"Yeah, that's right."

"You stay here. Take a shot at them every once in a while. I'll go down and around outside to the window."

"Right."

Parker slid away in a crouch and straightened when he was part way down the hall. He hurried to the far end, where he found the stairs that led to the back door. He started down them, and a sound made him stop. Somebody was coming in through the back door.

Parker waited. Whoever it was, he was being slow and cautious. Occasional faint noises told Parker where he was and what he was doing. He came in the back door, shut it carefully behind him, and then started up the stairs. Parker had shut the second-floor door behind him, so it was inky black in the stair well. He sat on the top step, the .38 in his right hand and the pencil flash in his left, waiting. Both were aimed down at the landing.

The man came slowly up the stairs, and finally reached the landing. He made the turn and started up the other half-flight towards Parker. Parker switched on the pencil flash. It was one of the bodyguards, staring up at him, blinded by the light. Parker fired, and the face fell away. He switched off the light and heard the bodyguard go crashing back down the stairs.

Parker followed him, hurrying. He'd been delayed too long. Handy would be wondering where the hell he was.

He went out the back door and around the outside of the house. He saw the open window the bodyguard had crawled through, trying Parker's tactic in reverse. He moved up to the window, peered over the edge, and saw the two men inside. The remaining bodyguard was crouched by the doorway, peering out around the corner, an automatic in his hand. Quill was at the far end of the room, sitting in a leather chair, the briefcase on his lap. He had the blank expression of somebody in a waiting room.

Parker called to the bodyguard, "Drop the gun. Don't turn around."

But the bodyguard wouldn't quit. He spun around, firing wildly, and Parker dropped him with one shot. Then he turned and showed the gun to Quill, resting it on the window sill. "Don't move," he said. "Don't make any move at all."

"I'm just sitting here," Quill answered. He didn't act particularly worried.

"Handy! Come on down."

They waited, and, after a minute Handy came in, grinning. He looked around and said, "One more. There's one missing."

"I met him on the back stairs. Watch this guy Quill."

"Right."

Parker left the window and went around to the back of the house again. He entered and walked through the house to the game room where Handy and Quill were waiting.

Parker went over to Quill. "You know Karns?"

"Not personally. I've heard of him."

"I hear he'll be taking over."

"Bronson's dead?"

"I want you to give Karns a message from me."

"I take it you're Parker."

"That's right."

"And since you want me to deliver a message, that means you'll let me live?"

"Why not?"

Quill smiled. "Exactly. Why not?"

"You heeled, Quill?"