Parker 09 The Split by Richard Stark Read Free Book Online Page B

intermittent naps Parker felt the need for fresh air and a quiet walk. They were out of cigarettes and they would need beer soon after breakfast or whatever meal this was Ellie promised to make him, so he got dressed and went out, and he was gone ten minutes.
    It was a last ten minutes, and the time since then had been fast too. Ellie was dead, the suitcases were gone. Parker had had a brawl with a couple of cops and he'd been trailed by a thirty-seven-dollar moocher and he'd been shot at by person or persons unknown who hadn't killed him but who had killed the moocher as a consolation prize.
    It was time to start pushing back.
    PART TWO
    One
    Parker looked at the pistols scattered all over the kitchen table. He'd taken them out of all his pockets to decide which ones he wanted to carry.
    There were four of them: a Colt Cobra .38 Special revolver with the two-inch barrel and a hammer shroud to keep it from snagging in a pocket, a Smith & Wesson Terrier .32, also with a two-inch barrel, a Colt Super Auto .38 automatic, and an Astra Firecat .25 automatic. It was the Terrier he'd fired last night; all the others still carried full loads.
    Four guns was twice as many as he needed. He chose the two Colts, checked them to be sure they were full, and carried them over to where his topcoat was draped over a chair. He put the guns in the pockets, then carried the other two into the bedroom.
    Dan was no different this morning, no better and no worse. From the night he'd obviously had with Janey, just holding his own was already a medical miracle. He looked up from the tea Janey made him drink between bouts, and said, 'You ready to talk now?' He had practically no voice at all this morning.
    Parker said, 'You heeled?'
    'Not so's you'd notice.'
    'You better be. You want these two? This one's been fired once.'
    Kifka shrugged. 'Why not? Stick 'em under the pillow.'
    Janey said, 'Keep them out of the bed. Put them on the night table if you have to.'
    Parker looked from her to Kifka. Kifka shrugged again, and Parker put the guns on the night table. Then he said, 'How much does she know?'
    'Enough.'
    'About the operation?'
    Kifka nodded. 'My part in it, and what it was. And about Ellie being killed.'
    Parker dragged a chair over closer to the bed and sat down. He told Kifka about the ambush last night, and about the dead clown. Two police cars and an ambulance had been around the block with screaming sirens last night, about half an hour after Parker had gone back upstairs, so the clown was long gone. Parker said, 'You can figure cops knocking on the door today, routine questions, did you hear anything, see anything.'
    Kifka said, 'Janey can take care of it.'
    'I better get dressed,' she said. She was still in the sweatshirt, or in it again.
    Kifka told her, 'Slick around.' To Parker he said, 'I think I know the clown. Morey, his name was. A real loser.'
    'Any connection with Ellie?'
    'New, not Morey. He was mucho married.'
    'Did he know her?'
    Kifka shook his head. 'Different circles, man. Morey I knew from work, Ellie I knew from play.' He grinned and winked at Janey, who said, 'Big man.'
    Parker told him, 'If Negli or Feccio or any of the others had done it, he would of handled the whole thing different. He wouldn't of killed Ellie unless he absolutely had to, and then he wouldn't of used that stupid sword. He might of tried to tie me up with the law, but just to give himself extra time to clear out. He wouldn't of hung around to take potshots. If one of the boys had the cash now, he'd either be playing it cool and quiet right where he's supposed to be hiding out anyway, ready to get all surprised when he hears how the dough's gone, or he'd be in Arizona or someplace by now.'
    Kifka nodded. 'I know. It rings like an amateur.'
    'There's two possibilities,' Parker told him. 'First, one of us in the job talked too much, and somebody he talked to decided to go after the dough. Second, it was somebody who went there to kill Ellie for the main