Parker and Fusco turned the corner, walked around the building, and saw nothing more except that the second-storey windows all across the left side were also screened with mesh and bars. They walked back to Devers, and Parker said, “Does the finance office work on shifts?”
“Hell, no. Eight to five. Eight to noon on Saturday.”
“What about the offices downstairs? The Red Cross open all the time?”
Devers grinned and shook his head. “The Red Cross is shut more than it’s open. There’s only two people in there, an old guy and a nice-looking chick, and half the time they’re down to the snack bar having coffee.”
“What about the re-enlistment office?”
“Same hours as us.”
Parker nodded, stood looking around. This part of the base was laid out in a grid of streets, every block an absolute square, with two long buildings on each side. Parker said, “Is the whole base set up like this? These streets like this?”
“Mostly. Except around the flight line.”
“Can we walk to this other gate?”
“Sure. It’s down that way, to the right.”
The South Gate turned out to be three blocks from the finance office; one over and two down. It was a smaller gate, less pretentious, with no billboard outside. They stood half a block away and watched a few trucks and cars go in and out. There was no pedestrian traffic at all.
Parker said, “Where’s that gate lead to?”
Devers said, “Something called Hilker Road. Down that way it meets up with the road we took out here on the bus. The other way it goes off into the woods someplace. Comes out around Cooks Corners, I think.”
“There’s no bars out there, no diners, nothing like that?”
“Nothing but woods.”
“What about a bus stop?”
“You mean outside? A civilian bus?” Devers shook his head. “The only bus away from here is that one we took out from town, stops at the main gate.”
“So there’s no reason for anybody to walk off the base in that direction.”
Devers looked towards the gate. “I guess not,” he said. “I never thought about it, but you’re right. You’d only go out that way if you were in a car and this was closer than the main gate.”
“What about these trucks coming in?”
“I guess they’re headed for places nearer here than the main gate. Maybe there’s some kind of shortcut in from the highway, I don’t know.”
“We’ll want to know,” Parker said. “We’ll want to know what trucks come in, where they go, which ones are regular arrivers, what times of day they come in. We’ll want to know what route they take to get here.”
Devers said, “That just means sitting and watching for a few days, and then following a couple of trucks away when they leave.”
“That’s what we’ll do, then,” Parker said. He looked around. “Is there any building overlooking this that we could get into without any static?”
Devers considered, and then pointed to a building off to the left, the second rank in from the fence. “There’s some kind of technical library in there,” he said. “You could hang around in there without anybody paying any attention, as long as you kept a book in your hand.”
“Good. All right, let’s go back.” They started walking, and Parker said, “Does that number one bus make a belt? If we get on it, can we go completely around and come back where we started?”
“Sure,” said Devers. “They’re all belts.”
“I want to look at the base,” Parker said.
They walked back to the bus stop where they’d gotten off, and when the next bus came along in the same direction they boarded it and sat as before. Devers kept up a low-voiced running description as they went, with Parker asking an occasional question.
It took twenty minutes to get back to the main gate. They got off the bus there and Devers said, “Anything else you want to see?”
“Not today. Let’s go back and talk.”
“Fine.”
They went through the gate without trouble, and there was a civilian bus waiting out by the road. They climbed aboard and a few minutes later the bus started for town.
8
Ellen Fusco met them at the door, furious and showing it. “You know my session’s at one o’clock,” she told Devers.
“I forgot,” he said. “Sorry, sweetheart, I was thinking about other things. Here’s the keys.”
She took them without comment. “Pam’s in the yard,” she said, and went out to the car.
The three men went into the house and Devers shut the door, saying to Fusco, “If that ex-wife of yours doesn’t come off it pretty soon, I’ll be trading places with you.”
“Ellen wouldn’t take me back,” Fusco said. “Even if I wanted,” he added, and headed for the kitchen. “I need something to eat. Parker?”
“Coffee.”
“There should be hamburger,” Devers said. “Why don’t you make us all some?”
“Coming up,” Fusco said, and went on out to the kitchen. A minute later he was moving around out there with an apron on.
Devers said to Parker, “You’ve got more questions.”
“A few now. I’ll have more later, when I’ve thought about it a little more.”
“Naturally.”
“Sit down,” Parker said, and himself went to the chair he’d been sitting in the last time. When Devers was settled on the sofa, Parker said, “The building next door to the finance office, facing the barred windows on the side. What’s in there?”
“Legal department,” Devers said. “They’ve got the entire building and they work eight to five.”
“Can you get me a map of the base?”
“Sure. There’s one they give the new boys when they arrive, it’s only got a few things listed on it, like the Post Office and Supply Building, but we can fill in whatever else we need.”
“Good. Do you have a Polaroid?”
“A camera?”
“A Polaroid,” Parker insisted. “We don’t want any drugstore developing our prints.”
“I don’t have one myself,” Devers said, “but I know a couple guys on base who do. I can borrow one for a day or two.”
“Good. I’ll want pictures of the finance building, every side. And the offices inside, if you can manage it.”
“That could be tricky,” Devers said.
“Don’t do it if it’ll blow things.”
“I’ll see what I can work out. Anything else?”
“Probably. I’ll let you know.”
Fusco came walking in with three cups of coffee on a tray, distributed them, said to Devers, “If I was you, I’d quit paying for that analyst of hers. All she does is make you babysit while she’s at the sessions.”
Devers shrugged, saying, “What the hell. She’s nervous about this, that’s all. She was married to you when you got yourself caught. She doesn’t want to see the same thing happen to me.”
“Maybe you ought to be her analyst,” Fusco said. “I’ll bring the burgers in in a minute.”
“Take a look at the kid, will you?” Devers asked him.
“I already did. She’s fine.”
Fusco went back into the kitchen, and Devers said to Parker, “Is this weird? I’m shacked up with a broad, she’s got a kid, her ex-husband is around the place as much as I am, I’m in on a goddam robbery with him, I’m paying for the broad’s analysis, I swear to God I never thought I’d get involved in anything this complicated in my life.”
“The robbery part is simple,” Parker told him. “We look it over, we see if it can be done, we work out the method, we do it, we split. We don’t let other things come in and make complications.”
“I follow you,” Devers said. “Don’t worry, Mis—sorry. Don’t worry, anyway. There won’t be any complications.”
Fusco came back in with the hamburgers, “I been listening,” he said. “You think it can be done, Parker?”