“Too early,” Parker told him. “We’d be the only car on the street.”
“And with three guys in it,” William said.
“But we should be above the Land Rover,” Parker said.
“Right,” Mackey said, and drove them up the ramp, past the Land Rover and one level more to an area that was no more than half full. He tucked the Honda in between two other vehicles, both larger, then opened his window, shut off the engine, and said, “What do they do after they find it, that’s the question.”
Williams said, “Do they search the whole building?”
“No,” Parker said. “They’ve got too much to do. This is a big place, a lot of cars, and pretty soon they’ll be thinking about the jewelry place.”
Mackey laughed. “Pretty soon they’ll have a lot to think about,” he said.
Williams said, “But they’ve at least got to look around in here.”
“Sure,” Parker agreed. “They ask the cashier if any car went out since four o’clock, he says no. They make a pass up to the top and back down. We duck down below window level while they go by. There’s no car alarms going off, nothing looks wrong, that’s it.”
“But,” Williams said, “they leave somebody at the exit.”
“Both exits,” Mackey said. “Car, and pedestrian.”
“They probably will,” Parker said. “They’re looking for three guys. When traffic starts, around six o’clock, I’ll get in the trunk, Williams lies on the floor here in back, it’s just one guy in the car.”
“Or maybe,” Williams said, “I just walk down and out, meet you two around the corner.”
Parker said, “You got any useful ID on you?”
Williams grinned and shook his head. “I see what you mean. I’ll lie down there on the floor.”
“Wait,” Mackey said. “I hear something.”
“That was fast,” Williams said. “Suppose somebody saw me turn in here?”
“Let’s hope not,” Mackey said. “Because then they’d search every car.”
Parker said, “Could you be hearing a civilian?”
“I don’t think so.” Mackey leaned leftward, listening at his open window, then shook his head. “I think it’s two cars. They’re just easing along, coming slow up the ramp, taking their time. They’re searching.”
They all listened. Parker could now hear it, too, the low grumble of two cars throttled back, spiraling very slowly up the ramp.
Williams said, “This job was fucked up from the beginning, wasn’t it?”
“It felt wrong,” Parker agreed, “but we were stuck in it.”
“Stuck in the job or stuck in the jail.” Williams grinned back at Parker. “Some choice.”
“They stopped,” Mackey said. “So they’re at the Rover. I’m closing the window now.” And he did.
Parker said, “If they do like we thought at first, loop up, turn around, loop back down, we’re all right. If they go up and they don’t come back down, that means they’re searching everything.”
Mackey said, “Do we have a Plan B?”
Parker shrugged. “Only leave the car, go down the stairs, see how hard it is to get through whatever they’ve got to guard the exit.”
“And be on foot,” Williams added.
“I like Plan A better,” Mackey said.
Parker looked out his window to the right. Being in the backseat, he had the better view of the ramp curling up from below. It was gray concrete, flanked by the rears of cars. He kept watching it.
They had nothing left to say, and with the window closed nothing to hear. They stayed in silence, Parker watching the ramp, the other two watching Parker, and then the black-and-white cruiser nosed around the curve and Parker said, “Down.”
They all ducked low, Williams folding himself into the footwell, Mackey doing a kind of slow-motion limbo, squeezing himself under the steering wheel. In back, Parker lay on the floor, looking now upward and out of the left window, where he could see the double row of car roofs coiling away and up. After a minute, he saw the black roof of the cruiser move among the other roofs, gliding up and out of sight. He watched, and then said, “Only one went up.”
“Other one with the Rover,” Mackey said. “Calling in.” He sounded compressed.
They waited, two minutes, three minutes, and here came the cruiser again, angling back down the ramp, moving at the same slow pace. “Coming back,” Parker said. “Just looking it over.”
“Good,” Williams said.
The cruiser left Parker’s angle of vision. He waited, then turned around to look down the ramp. “It’s gone,” he said.
Everyone climbed back into the seats. “Been a while since I breathed,” Mackey said. “I’m gonna open this window again.”
“All I want,” Williams said, “is to be in a place I’m not trying to get out of.”
8
After a while they heard the tow truck arrive, a deeper sound with more snarl in it. A while later, it went away again. Now there was nothing to do but wait for the world to wake up and start moving around.
They all napped from time to time, not getting much out of it, but they were all awake when they heard the first car engine start, probably two levels below them. Mackey looked at his watch: “Ten to six.”
“We’ll wait awhile,” Parker said.
“Oh, yeah.”
By 6:15, they’d heard half a dozen cars start up and drive away, none of them from this far up the ramp. Then Mackey said, “I think we could try it now.”
“Fine,” Parker said, and got out of the Honda, pausing with the door open to say, “Leave me in the trunk until we get there.”
Climbing out of the passenger seat in front, Williams said, “And I’ll stay on the floor.”
“Close me in,” Parker said to him. Going to the back of the Honda, he drew the Terrier from its holster, to have ready in his hand in case anything went wrong, and opened the trunk.
As Parker climbed over the rear bumper, Williams grinned at him and said, “I know why you want you in there and me on the floor in back.”
Parker looked at him. “You’re darker.”
“Right. You set?”
Parker lay curled on his side. The trunk was a little messy, but mostly empty, and not too uncomfortable. He had to keep his knees bent. With his head cushioned on his folded left arm, right arm resting across his waist, weight of the Terrier on the floor, he was in a position he could maintain for a while. “Set,” he said.
“See you there,” Williams said, and shut the trunk.
Now he had only his ears to tell him what was happening. In the blackness, he felt the car dip when Williams got aboard, then heard the engine fire up, then felt a jolt as Mackey backed out of the slot.
The experience was different, done this way. Braking and accelerating seemed more exaggerated, turns more abrupt. Parker was more aware of the Honda going down a fairly steep slope than he would have been if seated in the normal way in the car. He felt the change when they leveled out at the bottom, and gripped the Terrier tighter, waiting for something to go wrong.
If Mackey was challenged, they’d quickly find Williams in back. They’d know they were looking for three men, so would they open the trunk right away? If they did, he’d do what he could. If they impounded the car before searching it, took it away to their pound, he’d try to find the best moment to get out of here.
The car stopped. Was Mackey paying the cashier now, or answering questions? The car started again. It jounced heavily down to street level, turned hard, drove straight, jolted to a stop. Red light. They were out of there.
It was a twenty-minute drive, with red lights and turnings. At the end, the Honda stopped, the door slammed, there was a pause, the door slammed, the Honda jerked forward again, and again it stopped. The door slammed, and then a second door slammed, and the trunk lid lifted. Parker saw Williams raising the lid, Mackey behind him closing the overhead door. They were back at the beer distributor’s.