Deadly Edge: A Parker Novel by Richard Stark Read Free Book Online

the first desk.”
    “RG, if you were going to call that number, what would you dial?”
    “That’s extension twenty-three.”
    “Is that all you dial? Two three?”
    “No. For an inside call, you dial nine first.”

    “Nine two three, and that phone will ring?”
    “That’s right, yes.”
    “Good. Now, RG, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to get up and go to the filing cabinet behind you. Open the top drawer and act as though you’re looking for something. Good. Just like that. Stay there.”
    Parker got down on hands and knees and crawled across the carpet and around behind the desk. Keegan kept watching the other room in the mirror, and Stevenson stood at the filing cabinet, his back to everything that was happening.
    Parker raised himself cautiously behind the desk till he could look over the top. His first sight of the room beyond showed him everything as Keegan had described it. No one was looking in this direction. The four clerks were working, Dan Garrison was looking at the money, Beau Lavenstein was looking at his card game, and Hal Pressbury was looking off into space and seemed to be mostly asleep.
    Parker lifted his right arm and slid it across the desk top to the phone, then pulled the phone toward him. The cord ran off and down the side of the desk, so there was no problem about length. Parker took the phone off the desk top, put it on the floor, sat in front of it, and dialed 9 2 3. Faintly, through the glass and the distant sound of crowd-and-music in the auditorium, he heard the phone ring in the next room.
    “It’s a clerk,” Keegan said, and the receiver in Parker’s hand clicked. A voice said, “Hello?”
    “A message for Edward Lavenstein,” Parker said.
    “One moment, please.”
    Parker waited. Keegan said, “Here he comes. Garrison’s watching, but he isn’t moving.”

    “Hello?”
    “Beau?”
    “Who’s this?”
    “Hold on a second, will you? There’s a message.”
    Parker lowered the phone and put his hand over the mouthpiece. Now, if there was trouble, no one from the next room would be using the phone; the line was tied up till Parker broke the connection at this end.
    He said, “RG, don’t turn around. I’ve got more instructions for you. When I say to, you go over to the door, open it, and tell Garrison you want to see him. Get him to come in here. Stand to the left of the doorway when he comes in, so he doesn’t see my partner. Talk to him as he’s coming in, keep him distracted, say anything you want. When he’s in, shut the door and say, ‘There are men pointing guns at you. I don’t want anybody killed. I assured them we’d cooperate.’ You got that?”
    “I think so.” Nervousness trembled in Stevenson’s voice like a wind riffling curtains.
    “Tell me what you’re going to say after you shut the door.”
    “There are men here with guns. I don’t want anybody killed. I said we’d cooperate.”
    “Fine. Go ahead now.”
    Stevenson turned and walked toward the door. He moved unsteadily, as though he were very tired or a little drunk. Parker, keeping one hand folded over the mouthpiece of the phone, stretched out on his stomach behind the desk, so that his head and shoulders emerged past the desk’s right side and he could see the door Stevenson was walking toward. His left hand, holding the phone receiver, was down at his side. His right hand was out in front of his face, resting the butt of the automatic on the carpet.

    Stevenson reached the door, and grabbed for the knob as though he needed it to go on standing. He rested his other palm, shoulder-height, against the door frame, then opened the door and called, “Lieutenant Garrison? Could you come here for a moment?”
    Down by Parker’s left hand, a tinny voice said, “Hello? Hello?” A deeper echo sounded through the open door.
    Keegan, his voice low, said, “Here he comes. Easy as pie.”
    Parker saw the feet first, saw Stevenson moving awkwardly to his left—the door opened to