Good Behavior by Donald E. Westlake Read Free Book Online Page B

hear—I know, I go along with you, I owe these nuns a little something—”
    â€œEvery day you’re not in prison the rest of your life, that’s what you owe them.”
    â€œYeah, I know that, I know that. But look at this place.” He poked at those Polaroids with the rubber-tipped cane, aggressively, the pictures sliding around on the coffee table. “I can’t even find the elevator .”
    â€œYou can’t?”
    â€œIt’ll look like something else, right? The special elevator, goes just to the top floor.” Dortmunder gave the photos a dirty look. “There’s the lobby, every bit of the lobby. There’s the garden, with all the skinny trees. I don’t know what anybody looks like that goes up to that top floor, so I don’t have anybody I can follow and see where they go that doesn’t look like an elevator but is an elevator. But even if I find the goddamn thing, May, what then?”
    May nodded. “If you just ride it up to the top, that won’t help.”
    â€œNot much. And it’s just me, with maybe Andy Kelp. I can’t put together a string on this because what’s in it for anybody?”
    May watched Dortmunder brood at the pictures of the lobby and the garden and the exterior of the building and the top several floors as seen from a high floor in a nearby skyscraper. “It’s very difficult, isn’t it, John?” she said.
    â€œThat’s a terrific description,” he agreed, and poked a couple more pictures toward her, saying, “Here’s another thing. On the directory here. You know how companies of the same kind always hang out together in this city? All the garment makers in one place, all the diamond merchants in one place, like that. Well, what we’ve got in this building is a lot of importers and wholesalers from Asia, tons of them all over the building, people that deal in jewelry and ivory and jade and all this very valuable stuff, that they’ve got right there with them. Maybe almost ten percent of the tenants are like that, in with all the regular doctors and lawyers and accountants. So besides the Frank Ritter private army up on the top, we’ve got the whole building is security conscious.”
    May sighed. “John,” she said, “you’ve been very conscientious about this.”
    â€œWell, I said I’d do it.”
    â€œYou told me you’d do it,” May reminded him. “I know that’s the only reason you’re even trying, and I know you’re giving it every bit of your attention, but I guess I’m willing to go along if you say it can’t be done.”
    Instead of smiling with relief, as she’d half-expected, he frowned more deeply than ever, glaring at those photographs. “I don’t know, May,” he said. “I hate to admit defeat, you know what I mean?”
    â€œIt’s been five days, John, and you aren’t getting anywhere.”
    â€œI don’t like to believe,” Dortmunder said, “there’s a place I can’t get in and back out again.”
    â€œJohn,” May said, “if you decide it can’t be done, all I ask is you go back and tell those nuns about it, so they don’t go on hoping.”
    Dortmunder sighed. “Well, I’ve got to give them back this cane anyway,” he said. “I don’t really need it anymore. But I still don’t want to have to walk away from this thing, not unless I absolutely have to.”
    â€œIt’s your decision,” May assured him. “I won’t push at all.”
    â€œI tell you what,” Dortmunder said. “Andy’s up there now looking into the question of burglar alarms, electronic responses, all that. If there’s a way to cut the building out from city services for a while, maybe, I don’t know, maybe I could figure something.”
    May smiled at him in admiration. “You mean, take over