The Jugger (16 page)

While he thought, she just sat there in the other chair, smoked her cigarette, and watched him. She seemed a little puzzled, and hesitated.

After a while he said, 'All right, we got a new story to tell Regan. We don't change the old story, we just add to it. You and Tiftus got here, saw a guy in the lobby, Tiftus said he knew him, went away, came back, and said the guy beat him up and threatened to kill him. When you saw me you thought I was the guy, but you were wrong. The guy was tall and built like me, but younger, and he had blond hair. And what you remember is, Tiftus told you his name. When he saw the guy in the lobby he said, "Why, there's Jimmy Chambers." You got that? He said, "Why, there's Jimmy Chambers."'

She nodded. 'Why, there's Jimmy Chambers,' she said. 'But I don't get the point.'

'Don't worry about it. I'll get something else going on Jimmy Chambers from the other side, through Younger.

'But who is this Jimmy Chambers? Is that just a name you made up?'

'No. It's a guy with a record, Regan won't have any trouble finding out there's a real Jimmy Chambers, and Jimmy Chambers did know Tiftus, so everything's going to check.'

She said, 'He wasn't really in town, was he?'

'No. Now, after—'

She said, 'I can't do that.'

'You can't do what?'

'I can't get this fella Chambers in trouble. Why don't we just make up some name, it'd be the same.'

'No, it wouldn't. Chambers is a name Regan can check. And Chambers got killed in an explosion a few months ago and nobody official knows about it, so don't worry about getting him in trouble.'

'Is that the truth?'

'Happened on a job we were both on. I don't sic the law on my own kind.'

'All right,' she said. 'When do you want me to do this?'

'Tomorrow morning.'

'They're burying him tomorrow morning.'

He had to think for a second, and then he realized she meant Tiftus. He said, 'Then Regan will be with you at the funeral. Tell him then.'

'It just occurs to me, like that?'

'No. You remembered it tonight, and you weren't going to say anything because you didn't think Regan trusted you. But you want to see your man avenged, so you're going to tell him anyway.'

'I hope he'll believe me,' she said.

'Don't worry about it.'

'Sure.' But then she brightened and said, 'I can do a real scene, a whole graveside bit. Cry and carry on and throw myself on the coffin, the whole thing. I never done anything like that before.'

He said, 'Don't overdo it, that's all.'

'Don't you worry about me,' she told him. 'You may not have realized it, but I am by profession an actress.'

'Good.' He got to his feet in a hurry to be gone.

She said, 'You got to go already? Stick around awhile.'

'Some other time.'

She gave him an actress smile. 'You want a rain cheque?'

'Yeah.'

IT was nearly midnight before Younger called back. Parker had been sitting in the dark in the living-room of Joe's house, waiting. He'd come back from seeing Rhonda a little before ten, and called police headquarters to leave a message for Younger to call him. Then two hours went by, and Parker just sat and waited, not thinking about anything in particular, not planning, not being impatient or irritable. It worked that way with him sometimes, when he knew where he stood and how the play should go from there on; he could sit alone in the dark and wait, as silent and patient as a stone.

Until finally the phone rang and it was Younger. The first thing he said was, 'You found it?'

'No. I want to talk to you.'

'What about?'

'The money, and something else. Come on over here.'

'It's late, Willis.'

'We've got to get this done tonight. You're going to Tiftus' funeral tomorrow?'

'Regan wants me to go. Him, too, he's coming along.'

'Good, come over here now, it won't take long.'

Younger grumbled, but after a while he said he'd be right there. Parker hung up and got to his feet and went around the house turning on lights. He knew other people thought it strange when he sat in the dark, and he didn't want Younger geechy about anything. He made himself a cup of coffee and went back to the living-room to wait, and ten minutes later the doorbell rang.

When Parker opened the door, Younger came in complaining. 'You know it's after midnight? This better be worth it.'

'Sit down, Younger, this won't take long.'

They both sat down in the living-room, and Parker said, 'I want you to think about something. You're looking for the guy killed Tiftus. But Regan's looking for him, too. What if Regan comes up with him first?'

'I take him right away from him. I'm still in charge, Willis, I already told you that.'

Parker shook his head. 'No. You take him away after Regan tells you he's got him. Is Regan going to tell you right away?'

'He sure as hell better.' Younger was insulted at the idea.

'Why?' Parker asked him. 'What if he holds the guy an hour, six hours, questions him a little, and doesn't say anything to you till he's done with the guy. What do you do about it?'

'I could put in a complaint against him, God damn it!'

'What would that mean to Regan? What would it mean to his bosses? Some hick little town police chief teed off because Regan didn't hold his hand and keep calling him on the phone.'

It was true, and Younger had to know it. He tried to bluster, but it didn't work. He said, finally, 'What's the point? What difference does it make?'

'If Regan gets him first,' Parker told him, 'Regan will make him spill. You know he will. He thinks there's something going between you and me anyway, He's suspicious. He won't turn the guy over to you until he finds out what's going on, and then it's too late, the whole thing's out in the open, and we don't stand a chance to get the money.'

Younger took out a cigar and fooled with it in his hands but didn't unwrap or open it. He said, 'So what can we do?'

'Get the case closed. Turn up a killer, so it gets Regan out of the picture.'

'How do we do that? You mean frame somebody? We couldn't get away with it, not even me, I couldn't get away with it.'

'We don't have to have a body,' Parker told him, 'just a name. What you got to do, you got to go straight down to headquarters and send off a teletype request to Washington, you want any information on a man named Jimmy Chambers, known to be an associate of a man named Adolph Tiftus.'

'Jimmy Chambers? What the hell for?'

'Shut up and listen to me.' Younger looked insulted again, but he didn't say any more, and Parker went right on, not noticing any looks Younger gave him. 'Today, this afternoon, I told you something I'd been holding back. I told you something Tiftus said to me when I saw him in the street before he got killed. Remember my story with Regan I saw Tiftus twice, the first time when he came to my hotel room and a little while later on the street.'

Younger nodded. 'I remember.'

'All right. What he said to me when I met him on the street, I saw he'd been in a fight and he said to me, "Jimmy Chambers roughed me up." I said to him, "I didn't know he was in town," and he said, "I guess he came here for the funeral." That's all. You got it?'

Younger repeated the dialogue, and said, 'What's the point? Who the hell is this Chambers?'

'You'll get the answer tomorrow from Washington.'

'Then what happens?'

'Then you decide Chambers killed Tiftus, and you thank Regan for helping, and you send him home.'

'Just on your say-so?'

'No. There'll be more evidence, don't worry about it.'

'What evidence?'

'Wait for it. You want to be able to act surprised when you get it. The important thing is, you send that request out tonight, as quick as you can get downtown, and you tell Regan about it first thing tomorrow morning. You got that? The first thing you see Regan tomorrow morning, you tell him about Chambers. It's important you do it right away.'

'All right, all right. Is that all?'

'Yeah. Then, with Regan out of the way, we can look for the money and the killer ourselves.'

'Yeah,' said Younger, 'what about the money? I'm getting closer to the killer all the time, I found the shovel and everything, but what about you? You're just sitting here.'

'I've gone through this place,' Parker' told him. 'Tomorrow afternoon, after Regan's out of the case, I think we better go down to Omaha, take a look at Joe's apartment there.'

'I've already been through that apartment, Willis. If the money was there, I would have found it.'

Parker shook his head. 'I want to look at the place myself. You want me to go alone?'

'Not on your life,' Younger told him.

Parker shrugged. 'Then we'll go together. We'll go in your car, that'll be best. Pick me up here around three o'clock.'

'You think Regan will be out of the case by then?'

'Why not? You put a rush on the request to Washington, You get an answer tomorrow morning, Regan is out by noon.'

'If he's out,' Younger said, 'I'll come by. If he isn't I won't. That's the best I can say.'

'That's good enough. Get downtown now and send that request off. You can tell Regan you sent it off this afternoon.'

'Sure, I already got that.'

Parker let him out, waited five minutes, and then went out the back door and down behind the houses again. He was going to need a gun tomorrow, and now was the time to get it.

Downtown was silent and deserted. Electric clocks were aglow deep within the stores along the main street, a few red neon signs here and there were left on all night, and the railroad station and hotel made a little island of light in the middle of it all, but there was no traffic on the street, there were no pedestrians on the sidewalks.

Parker found a sporting-goods store on a side street, half a block from the main drag. A rear window was butter under his hands, and he prowled through the fourth-rate stock, mostly rifles and scopes, and finally picked out a pistol for himself, a snub-nose Iver Johnson Trailsman .22. He grabbed a box of ammunition and went back out the window again, adjusting things behind himself to cut down the chances of the theft being noticed right away.

He went back to Joe's house, sat at the kitchen table, and took the gun apart. After he cleaned the oil off it he put it back together again and loaded it. He slept with it under his pillow.

IT was Regan at the door. Parker said, 'Come in.'

Regan looked curious and displeased. He nodded, stepped into the house, and said, 'I wanted to talk to you.'

'Sure.' Parker shut the door. 'Official business?'

Regan made a disgusted mouth. 'Unofficial,' he said. 'I'm not connected with the Tiftus killing any more.'

'I didn't know that. Come in and sit down.'

Regan moved on into the living-room, but he didn't sit down. He was wearing a cheap topcoat, and his hands were in the pockets. With his grey crewcut and eyeglasses and hard mouth and the topcoat he didn't look like a college teacher any more, he looked like what he was; a hard, smart cop, smelling something wrong and not wanting to let go.

Parker stayed on his feet, too. He said, 'You found out who killed Tiftus?'

Regan said, 'You'd know more about that than I would.' He glanced around the room. 'I wish I'd met Joseph Shardin,' he said. 'He's the key to this whole thing.'

Parker said, 'Why would I know about it?'

'You were the one solved it,' Regan told him. He was being sarcastic, but quietly, not pushing it. 'You gave us the clue we needed.'

'You mean about Jimmy Chambers?'

'That's who.'

'He did it, then, huh?'

'It looks that way. Abner's convinced.'

'But you're not.'

Regan shook his head. 'No, Willis, I'm not. It doesn't make any difference; I'm not in charge.'

'You want to ask me something,' Parker told him, 'go right ahead. I mean to co-operate.'

'Why?'

'Because I don't want you down on Charles Willis.'

Regan frowned studying him. 'I even think that's the truth,' he said. 'And I don't get it. Why'd you wait so long to tell about Chambers?'

'At first, I figured he couldn't of done it. Then, nobody else turned up that might of, so it had to be him. I figured to begin with if I told about him, you and Younger would grab him and not look anywhere else, because he's served time. But if he really did do the job, I won't want to cover for him. Did you get him yet?'