Liss had seated himself at the table in a chair where he could give the doddering waiter his good side, about which the waiter cared nothing. Tom Carmody, across from Liss, was quiet, low-key, ordering as though he didn't care if he ate or not, then sitting there in a funk. Liss gave him a minute or two of cheery conversation and then ate rolls instead.
Brenda came back to the table and Mackey said, "Your magic worked."
"So I see."
While Mackey signaled to the waiter for the check, Brenda studied the guy sitting over there with Liss. Mackey repeated his hand gesture at the waiter—signing his name in the air—then turned back to Brenda to say, "What do you think?"
"He's too gloomy."
"I don't want you to date him, honey."
"I don't want you to date him, either," she said. "That's what I mean, he's too gloomy."
Parker listened, while across the way Liss and Carmody got their salads. Liss tucked in, while Carmody pushed the lettuce and tomato slice around in the shallow bowl.
Meantime, Mackey said, "Explain yourself," and Brenda said, "He already gave up. Look at him, Ed. He doesn't care if anything good happens or not. You know what a guy like that does when there's trouble? He lies down."
"Good," Mackey said. "He'll give us traction."
The waiter brought the check then, and stood around as Mackey brought out his wallet and, despite the hand signal, paid in cash. While he did that, Brenda said to Parker, "How's Claire?"
Unlike Mackey, Parker didn't bring his woman to work. "She's fine," he said.
"Will I be seeing her?"
"I don't think so."
Mackey left a little tip, and said, "Let's go look at our boy up close."
Parker let Mackey and Brenda go first; they were better at the social niceties, like pretending to be happily surprised at the sight of Liss sitting there: "George! How you doing, old son?"
"Hello, Ed! How are you? And Brenda!" Liss rose, shaking Mackey's hand, kissing Brenda's cheek, giving Parker a bright-eyed look of non-recognition.
Mackey said, "George Liss, here's a pal of ours, Jack Grant."
"How you doing, Jack?" Liss said, grinning, extending his hand.
"Fine," Parker said, shaking the hand briefly. Play-acting wasn't what he did best.
On the other hand, Liss was having a good time. "And this is a pal of mine," he announced, with a big wave at the pigeon. "Tom Carmody. Tom, this is Ed and Brenda Fawcett, and a pal of theirs."
Tom Carmody had been raised as a mannerly boy; he got to his feet and managed a smile at Brenda, with his how-do-you-dos. Mackey squeezed Carmody's hand, grinning hard at him, saying, "I'm a salesman, Tom, but I guess you can see that. Most people pipe me right away. You I don't get, though. You teach?"
"Not exactly." Carmody was clearly uncomfortable at having to explain himself. "I'm in rehabilitation," he said.
Mackey did a good job of misunderstanding. Looking concerned, he said, "Hey, I'm sorry. Whatcha rehabilitating from?"
"No, I'm—I—" Carmody's confusion made him blush. He finally managed to get it out: "I work for a preacher. We do rehabilitation work for, uh, people."
"Well, that's fine," Mackey told him. "There's a lotta people need that stuff." With a big jokey grin he said, "What about old George here? You gonna rehabilitate him?"
Carmody began to stumble and stutter all over himself again, but this time Liss came to his rescue, saying, "Not me. I'm a hopeless case."
"Us honest citizens shouldn't be seen with the likes of you," Mackey said, and whacked Liss playfully on the arm. "See you around, George."
Everybody said good-bye, Carmody sat down with obvious relief, and Parker and Mackey and Brenda went out to the parking lot, where Mackey had a laughing fit, leaning over the hood of their car. When he got himself under control he said, "That was touching, Parker. Do you know that? He didn't wanna blow the gaff on George being on parole. I call that touching."
"He's a very straight citizen," Parker agreed.
Mackey leaned against the car, wiping his eyes, and said to Brenda, "Well? What do you think? Still too gloomy?"
"I think you can take a chance," she said. "If everything else is okay. If Parker's going in."
"Yeah?" Mackey was interested. "How come the change of heart?"
"He isn't a liar," Brenda said. "He isn't trapping anybody, or double-crossing anybody, or anything like that, because that fella couldn't lie about what time it is without the whole thing showing on his face."
"Well, that's true." Mackey nodded, thinking it over, then grinned again and looked at Parker. "Ever work with a guy on that recommendation before? He can't tell a lie. Parker, we're signing on with George Washington."
4
They waited in the parking lot, and when Carmody came out with Liss half an hour later he stopped dead at the sight of them. Eyes round, he stared off toward the street for rescue, but before he could do anything foolish Liss took his elbow and said, reassuringly, "It's okay, Tom. This means they like you."
"What? What?"
Gently, Liss explained: "These are the people gonna help us, Tom. They wanted to see you first, see what they thought. If they figured you were okay, they'd wait here until we came out. And here they are."
"You mean, the, the—"
Mackey said, "That's right, Tom. The reverend's millions."
Startled, Carmody said, "Not millions!"
"I know, I know." Mackey grinned at himself. "I was just exaggerating, Tom, it's a bad habit I got. The number's four hundred grand, am I right? Two for us, two for you."
"Approximately," Carmody said.
Mackey spread his hands, looking at Liss. "How can we not love this guy, George?" he asked. "He doesn't want to mislead us or anything."
Parker said, "Carmody, you'll give George a list of the places where your preacher's going to be doing his thing the next four or five months."
Carmody said, "That long? I was hoping—"
"Maybe we'll do it next week," Parker told him, although he knew they wouldn't. "Maybe not till later. We'll do it when we got the right place, the right circumstances. You don't want any risk, right?"
"That's right," Carmody said. He stared at Parker like an antelope looking at a lion. "Mr. uh, Grant, is it?"
"Yeah."
"I never did anything like—"
"We know," Parker said. "George told us what your idea is. You want to do good."
"Whereas," Mackey said, 'W want to do well."
Ignoring that, Parker said to Carmody, "If
something goes wrong, the cops won't ask you what your motive was. You see what I mean?"
"Absolutely," Carmody said.
"So we'll pick the right time, the right place, the right circumstances," Parker told him. "We'll decide when it's safe to make our move. And then we'll say to you, now."
5
The money room was long, low-ceilinged and windowless. There were bright fluorescent lights in the ceiling, the walls were off-white plasterboard, and a pale gray industrial carpet was on the floor, but even with all that lightness and brightness the place had the feeling of being a cave or a tunnel, far underground. Air conditioning produced a flat dry atmosphere, in which sounds became muffled and small. The hymn-singing could not be heard in here.
Parker and Liss and Mackey came into the room fast, ski masks on their faces, the shotguns pointing outward, slightly over the occupants' heads, the blued-steel barrels moving back and forth as though looking for a target. Liss cried out, "Everybody stop! Stop now! Hands on desks! You! You'll die!"