The island kept looking empty and grim as they went around, until they reached the section exactly opposite the part they’d seen while coming out. Here was the main building, a huge sprawling two-story red brick affair fronted by thick white pillars. Two long piers jutted out into the water, and between them bobbed half a dozen boats like the one Parker was aboard. Careful rock gardens flanked the slate paths up from the piers to the main building, which looked most like an old southern plantation, except that it was practically bare of windows.
Yancy said, ‘The cockfight pit’s behind the main building; you can’t see it from here. Baron lives in the main building, most of the people that work for him live in that building on the left.’
The building on the left was also brick, also two stories high, but plain and functional in design and containing a normal amount of windows.
Parker said, ‘So far, this is the only place we could land.’
Yancy nodded. ‘That’s right. Baron cleaned out a channel here.’
‘So we couldn’t land anyplace else.’
‘That’s right.’
Parker shook his head. ‘Bad.’
This time, Yancy said nothing.
The guy at the wheel said, ‘They’re following us.’
Parker looked behind them, and the little boat was in their wake, but keeping back.
Yancy said, ‘Ignore them. Go on around.’
They went on around the island, and there was nothing else to see. To east and west and south the Gulf of Mexico stretched to the horizon and beyond. To the north the coast was a grey smudge.
Parker said, ‘Head back.’
Yancy gestured with the bottle. ‘Well? What do you think?’
Parker shook his head.
‘It’s worth the trouble,’ Yancy told him.
‘Maybe.’
A helicopter passed over, coming from the east and heading west. The guy at the wheel squinted up at it: ‘Is that them, too?’
Yancy laughed. ‘What, Baron’s boys? That’s the Navy, US Navy. You think Baron’s got helicopters?’
‘How should I know?’
Parker was watching aft. The trio in the little boat had dropped out of sight, losing interest. The island again looked empty and uninviting.
Yancy stretched and said, ‘We’ll be back in less than an hour.’
Parker looked out towards shore, but they were still too far away to make out any details. Galveston was up that way, ahead of them, but it couldn’t be seen yet. Parker turned away and went back down into the cabin. He put his tie and suitcoat on and sat down to wait.
Yancy came down, smiling, easy, relaxed. He sat on the sofa and said, ‘Well? What do you think?’
‘I haven’t made up my mind.’
‘Mr. Karns would be very happy if you thought yes.’
Parker looked at him. ‘Karns doesn’t threaten me. Didn’t he tell you that?’
Yancy waved glass and bottle. ‘Wrong, wrong! No threat, just a comment.’
Parker went over to the bar and made himself a drink. ‘I don’t have enough yet,’ he said. ‘I need more before I can make up my mind.’
‘Name it.’
‘I want a map of the island. Buildings, paths, landing places, everything.’
‘It can be arranged.’
‘And I want a list of personnel. How many, which of them live on the island, what each man’s job is, how many of them are heeled, what kind of weapons they got on the island and how many.’
‘That’ll take a little longer.’
‘But it can be done,’ Parker said.
Yancy nodded. ‘It can be done.’ He smiled again, and motioned with the glass. ‘One thing I know. Some nights, the handle in that place is a quarter million bucks.’
Parker shrugged. It didn’t matter how much was there; what counted was how possible it was to take it and leave with it.
He sat down and waited for Galveston.
2
PARKER opened the door and Yancy came in, smiling, well dressed, light on his feet. He carried a tan calfskin attaché case, and he looked like an insurance salesman wearing an ape mask. The ape mask opened its smiling mouth and said, ‘Greetings. I’ve got it.’
Beyond the door the sun beat down white and hot. Parker was staying at a motel on Broadway in Galveston while looking things over and making up his mind. It wasn’t the motel he would have chosen for himself, but the reservation had been made for him by Yancy or someone else in Walter Karns’ organization; the organization was paying his expenses.
Parker shut the door against the sunlight, leaving the room cool and dim. In the corner the air conditioner hummed to itself. The room looked a lot like the cabin of the boat he was out on yesterday.
Yancy stood in the middle of the room looking around, jiggling his right arm so the attaché case tapped against the side of his knee. ‘Drink?’ he said. ‘Cold and wet?’
‘Don’t have any,’ Parker told him. He itched when he was around steady drinkers; they were unpredictable and unreliable.
Yancy said, ‘Bad business.’ He tossed the attaché case on one of the twin beds, went over to the telephone, and stood with it to his ear for a minute. He smiled at Parker, and his right foot tapped on the rug.
‘Ah!’ he said, into the phone. ‘This is room twenty-seven. Send me a boy, would you, dear? A million thanks.’ He cradled the phone and made a gesture of amiable helplessness, saying to Parker, ‘One of my minor vices. You understand.’
Parker shrugged. Understanding had nothing to do with it; he didn’t give a damn, that was all. Yancy wasn’t his problem. He motioned at the attaché case. ‘Let’s see it.’
‘Oh, let’s not hurry. Wait till I fortify.’ Yancy smiled agreeably, twisting his hood’s face into an expression it wasn’t equipped for, and said, ‘This is faster service than you expected anyway. Yesterday afternoon on the boat you told me what you wanted, and this afternoon I bring it.’
There was a knock at the door. Yancy raised a hand. ‘There he is.’ He went over and opened the door and told the boy there, ‘Jack Daniels, a fifth. You’ll pick it up for me?’
‘Yes, sir.’
Yancy gave him money. ‘And a bucket of ice. Do it in under five minutes and the change is yours.’
‘Yes, sir.’
Yancy’s smile was the same for everybody; Parker, the bellboy, the three guys yesterday in the other boat. Now he turned it on Parker again and said, ‘Well, what do you think of Galveston?’
Parker shook his head. He was no good at small talk, because he had no interest in it.
Yancy kept trying. ‘You haven’t seen the night life around here? No? Well, you haven’t missed much. Houston’s just fifty miles away, of course. Have you been up there?’
Parker turned his back on him, went over to the bed, and picked up the attaché case.
Yancy said, ‘Not that Houston’s so what are you doing?’
Parker carried the attaché case over to the writing desk, set it down, opened the snaps.
Yancy came over, looking aggrieved, trying to see the funny side of life, saying, ‘You’re in a hell of a hurry, aren’t you?’
Parker said, ‘You want to go out and come in again? I’ll wait. Just don’t come in here and stand around.’
The hail-fellow expressions drained off Yancy’s face one by one, as though they’d been painted on in water colour and he was standing in the rain. What was left was hard and humourless. ‘I was told,’ he said, and all the pretty music was missing from his voice now, too, ‘I was told to co-operate with you, give you all the help I could, and treat you with kid gloves. I do what I’m told. That’s the smart way, do what you’re told. But don’t push me. Don’t push me so far I forget to be smart.’
Parker had opened the attaché case. Now he shut it again. ‘The deal’s off. You tell Karns he sent the wrong boy around.’
‘Wait a second,’ Yancy said. ‘Wait a second.’
‘I got no time,’ Parker told him, ‘to sell you insurance, play buddies with you, smile, small talk, how’s the weather? I’m here on business.’