"Westlake, Donald E as Stark, Richard - Parker 09 - The Split (The Seventh) 1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westlake Donald E)

Mutt nodded, but Jeff made an obvious effort to show a poker face. He wasn't giving anything away, Jeff wasn't.

Parker said, 'When I came back I knocked on the door, and when I didn't get any answer I knew something was wrong.'

Jeff, the sharpie, said, 'How?'

Parker looked at him. 'Because she was in here and all right when I left, and I was gone ten minutes, and there wasn't any reason for her not to be in here and all right when I got back. If she didn't hear me knock on the door, that meant there was something wrong.'

Jeff waggled the gun in a gesture that was supposed to be scairy. 'Go on,' he said.

Parker said, 'I knocked twice, and then I kicked the door in. I came in here and saw her like that and phoned for you guys. Then I waited.'

Mutt looked at his partner. 'It sounds okay,' he said.

Jeff wasn't so sure anymore. He said to Parker, 'You search the place?'

'Not the living room. I only got as far as here.'

'Watch him,' Jeff told his partner, and took his gun away to go search the living room.

While Jeff was gone, Mutt apologized for him, saying to Parker, 'Don't mind him. He's new on the force.'

'Sure.'

Parker was distracted, trying to figure a graceful way out of here. He could only sweet-talk these cops for so long, and then it didn't matter if they were stupid or not. Anybody in the vicinity of a crime, innocent or guilty, is going to be asked questions, routine questions about name and residence and occupation and what are you doing here now, and there wasn't a question those cops could ask that Parker would be able to answer.

He had to ditch them. He had to get his goods and clear out of here.

Jeff came back and shook his head at his partner. He actually thought he was Humphrey Bogart.

Mutt said, 'We better phone in.'

Jeff said, 'What about the closet?'

'I looked in there,' Parker told him. 'It's empty.'

'You never can tell,' Jeff said. 'Sometimes a man can hide in among the clothing; you won't even see him there.'

Parker shook his head. 'There's nobody in there.'

'I'll lake a look.'

Parker watched him, cursing him. He'd open the door to the closet, and he'd see the guns and the suitcases full of money, and that would be the end of it. Parker backed up to the dresser.

Jeff opened the door and looked in and said, 'What the hell is this? Machine guns!'

Parker picked the wooden jewellery box off the dresser and threw it at the back of Jeff's head. Before it landed, Parker had taken a quick step and drop-kicked Mutt into the wall. Mutt bounced back, holding his stomach, and Parker clubbed him across the jaw with a hard right and turned to see how Jeff was doing.

Jeff was being comical, without trying. The jewellery box had hit him in the back of the head and driven him into the closet, where his head and arms had got mixed up with the clothing hanging there and his feet had got tangled up with shoes and guns. He was backing out of it all now, shouting something that was muffled by the clothing all around his head. He'd dropped his own gun when he'd been hit, and it was down on the floor now with the others.