After that he left a call for noon, took a leisurely shower, and opened the pint of vodka he’d bought on the way back. He could drink it now; he was finished and he could relax. In Omaha, maybe Joe could set him up with a woman. If not, it could wait till Miami.
He woke to the jangling of the telephone, telling him it was noon, the first day of the new-old pattern. The hotel wasn’t as good as he was used to, but it didn’t matter. He was on his way back, starting now.
He took another shower, and dressed, and packed. He left the room carrying the two suitcases, his own and the one full of money. He rode down in the elevator and started across the lobby, and the desk clerk pointed him out to two men in rumpled suits.
They came toward him, and he hesitated, not believing they’d dare try anything here. And how could they find him here anyway? They couldn’t. But he was unarmed, the Luger thrown away last night on Flatbush Avenue.
The two men came over, and one reached to his hip pocket, and Parker tensed, ready to throw the suitcase with the clothing in it. But all that came out of the pocket was a wallet. It flipped open, showing the badge pinned to the leather. The owner of the wallet said, “Mr. Edward Johnson?”
What is this? What is this? “Yes,” he said, because the desk clerk had pointed him out. “What is it?”
“We want to talk to you.” The plainclothesman looked around at the lobby. “In private,” he said. “We’ll go to the manager’s office.”
“What is it? What’s it all about?”
“There are some questions. If you’ll come with us?”
One of them had his left arm, gently. It was only to the manager’s office, so he didn’t fight it. He didn’t try to guess what it was all about. He went along, ready, waiting to find out the score before making any kind of move.
The three employees behind the desk watched out of the corners of their eyes as the detectives took him through a door marked Private into a small empty office. The door to the next room, the manager’s office, was open, and the manager peered at them from his desk.
One of the detectives went over and said through the door, “We won’t be long, sir. Thank you for your cooperation.”
“That’s perfectly all right,” the manager said. He seemed embarrassed.
The detective smiled and closed the door. Then he turned the smile off again and said, “Sit down, Mr. Johnson.”
Parker sat down on the corner of the sofa nearest the door, ready, waiting for them to tell him what it was all about.
The silent one stood by the door. The other one pulled a chair over and sat on it backwards, facing Parker, his forearms folded on the chair back, his bent knees jutting out at the sides.
“Two days ago,” he said, “you were in a grocery store on West 104th Street between Central Park West and Manhattan Avenue. You spent some time in the back room of the store, talking with Manuel Delgardo, the proprietor. When two patrolmen entered the store, you stated that you were having a soft drink with Mr. Delgardo in the back of the store, and that you were there looking for Mr. Delgardo’s son, Jimmy. You stated that you and Jimmy Delgardo once worked for the same trucking company in Buffalo. You also brought up the subject of narcotics, although neither of the patrolmen had given any indication that they were thinking of narcotics or suspected you of having anything to do with junk. Is this all substantially correct, as you remember it?”
“Yes,” said Parker. Don’t explain, don’t justify, don’t argue. Wait till you find out the score.
The detective nodded. “Fine,” he said. “Now, you also stated that you were recently laid off from a General Electric Company plant on Long Island. Is that correct?”
“That’s what I said,” Parker answered.
The detective caught it. “But is it correct?”
So they’d checked that part. Change stories. “No,” said Parker.
The detective nodded again. “That’s right, we checked you out. The California address you gave the hotel is also incorrect, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Would you like to explain those lies?”
“You’ve got to give a cop a background,” said Parker. “You tell him you’re just drifting, he pulls you in on general principles. You give him some kind of background, he leaves you alone. Same with the hotel. I put down no permanent address, then I get a lot of static from the hotel.”
“I see.” The detective nodded once more. “Then the truth is that you’re a drifter, that you don’t really have any background or address or job or anything else, is that it?”
“That’s right.”
“And where did you get the money to afford this hotel?”
“I won it in a crap game.”
“Where?”
Parker shook his head.
The detective reddened. “Don’t shake your head at me, punk! There wasn’t any crap game!”
Parker waited, ready. There wasn’t any reason to do anything yet. Maybe later he’d have to pay this one back for the bad name.
The detective controlled himself. “All right,” he said. “Get on your feet. Turn around. Touch the wall over the sofa, palms of your hands.”
The other detective came over from the door and emptied his pockets. Then they let him sit down again.
The first one looked at his driver’s license. He looked at it more closely than anyone had before, and frowned. He turned it over, and studied different parts of it, and then he licked the ball of his thumb and rubbed it against the state seal. He looked up at his partner and grinned. “A phony,” he said. “Not even a good one. Here, look.”
The other detective looked at the license and chuckled over it too, then handed it back. The first cop offered it to Parker, saying, “Want it back, Mr. Johnson?”
“No, thanks,” said Parker. “You spoiled it.”
“I’m sorry about that. What trucking firm in Buffalo did you and Jimmy Delgardo work for together?”
Parker grabbed a name out of the air. “Lester Brothers.”
The detective took a notebook out of his pocket, opened it, read something, and shook his head. “Wrong.”
Parker said, “Do you mind telling me what it’s all about?”
“I don’t mind at all,” said the detective. “Because then you’ll tell me what it’s all about. A man interested in narcotics, like you.”
“Wrong,” Parker said.
“Jimmy Delgardo,” said the detective, “was picked up at the Canadian border this morning at five o’clock coming down from Montreal. He was trying to enter the United States with a carload of liquor and marijuana.” He smiled from his corner of the web. “Now, Mr. Johnson,” he said, “you tell me what it’s all about. You tell me what your right name is and what you do for a living and what connection you have with that carload Jimmy Delgardo was driving into this country.”
Parker clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back on the sofa. He started to cross one leg over the other, but instead rammed his heel into the detective’s face, just above the nose. Detective and chair clattered over backward, and Parker surged out of the sofa, coming in low on the other one, who was pawing at his hip for his gun. Parker butted him in the stomach and brought his head up sharply, the crown cracking into the detective’s chin. His fist came up after, catching him in the throat.
Parker stepped back, yanking the detective by the tie. The detective stumbled, falling away from the door, and Parker grabbed the suitcase full of money, pulled open the door, and ran.
As he hit the revolving door, there were shouts behind him. The glass of the door starred, higher than his head, and something tugged at the shoulder of his coat.
He got through to the street, and there was a cab waiting at the hackstand outside the hotel, waiting for a fare. He pulled open the door, tossed the suitcase in and dove in after it. “Grand Central!” he shouted. “A fin if I make my train!”
There wasn’t time now to get to Idlewild. The alarm would be out first.