Comeback (1997) – Mysterious Press

A Parker Job (#17)

___Parker said, “It was his idea?”
___“Absolutely. The guy’s a civilian, I only know him two years, and he’s tied to the parole board. Am I gonna say, ‘Hey, Tom, let’s pull a number’? No way.”
___“But you went along.”
___Liss shook his head. “Not at first. One of the few big words I know is entrapment. So at first I’d just nod and say well, that’s a real bitch, Tom, and all this. And when he finally came out with it—’Hey, George, let’s do it together, you with your expert background and me with my inside information’—I told him no, I told him I’m retired, it isn’t I’m reformed I just don’t want to go back inside. ___Which was almost the truth, by the way.”
___Parker nodded. For a lot of people, that was almost the truth almost all the time.
___“Also,” Liss said, “I told him I didn’t much care where money went that didn’t come to me, whether this money fed Archibald or fed some other people made no difference to me, and he said he understood. He understood for me it would be more of a business proposition. So he suggested we split fifty-fifty, and I’d put my share in my pocket and he’d give his to the poor.”
___“Us poor,” Mackey said.
___Parker knew what Mackey meant. Glancing at him, “If,” he said.
___“Naturally.”
___Liss went on, saying, “Finally I said I’d pass him on to somebody who was still active in the game, but he said no, he wouldn’t trust anybody but me, so then I figured I could take the chance. If he was out to trap somebody for the law, he wouldn’t care who he brought in, right? He’d let me pass him on to somebody else, work his number just as good. Since he didn’t do that, then he probably wasn’t pulling anything. So then we started to get kind of serious, talking it over, him giving me the details about the money, and I saw how maybe it could be done. And here we are.”
___Parker said, “And the theory is, the inside guy takes half, and we split the other half. However many of us it is doing the thing.”
___“That’s the theory.”
___“Does he buy it?” Parker shook his head, rejecting his own question, rephrasing it: “What I mean, does he believe it?”
___“That he’ll get his half?” Liss did his lopsided smile. “That’s the big question, isn’t it? He’s kind of hard to read since he changed, you know. Used to be, he was an easygoing guy, now he’s all tensed up. Relaxed guys are harder to fool, but tensed-up guys are harder to read.”
___“Anyway, Parker,” Mackey said, “what’s he gonna do if he doesn’t believe it? We’re the takers, not him. Is he gonna take it from the takers? No way.”
___Parker ignored that. He said to Liss, “How many parole guys does this fella have beer with?”
___Liss half-frowned; that face of his took some getting used to. He said, “You mean, he puts together a backup crew to take it away after we get it? But what’s the point, Parker? If he’s afraid we’re gonna cut him out, what’s he gonna do about the second crew? Come up with a third?”
___“What I think it is,” Mackey said, “I think the guy bought his own story. He’s not buying from us, he’s buying from himself.”
___Parker said to Mackey, “You meet this wonder?”
___“Not yet.”
___“That can be arranged,” Liss said. “Easiest thing there is. I’ll call him tonight, say we’re—”
___“No,” Parker said. “You say he goes out with this preacher on his crusades. When’s the next one?”
___“Couple weeks. I figured that’s when we could pull it.”
___“No. Where they gonna be? The whole tour.”
___Liss’s face went out of whack again. He said, “Beats me. I guess I could find out.”
___“Good,” Parker said. “Then somewhere along the way, without any invitations or planning or setting things up, we’re there, and we say hello. Mackey and me.”
___“And Brenda,” Mackey said.
___Parker looked at Brenda. “Naturally,” he said.