"Westlake, Donald E as Stark, Richard - Parker 12 - The Sour Lemon Score 1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westlake Donald E)

He hit the dirt, rolled some more, and wound up against the side of the barn and out of sight of the house. He reached inside his coat, and his hand closed on an empty holster.

Where was it? There were no more shots from the house. Parker stood there a few seconds more, his hand still touching the empty holster, and then he moved up to the edge of the barn and cautiously looked around.

A bullet whistling by made him duck back again, but not before he saw his revolver lying in plain view in the dirt outside the window. It had come out when he'd landed.

Uhl hadn't seen it yet -- he'd had too much else to think about so far -- but he would. And when he did he'd come out of that house and hunt Parker down.

Andrews must be dead. And Weiss was definitely dead.

Parker moved away from the corner of the barn. If he could get inside this structure, get into one of the cars, be ready to run Uhl down with it when Uhl came in, there'd be a chance. But the only window on his side was high up in the wall, too high to reach. The only ground-floor openings into the barn were on the two sides Uhl could see from the house.

It was no good. He couldn't fight Uhl. With all this open ground around the barn and house he couldn't sneak up on Uhl.

The only thing left to do was get away from here.

On this side of the house the land fell away again into woods. There was maybe forty yards of open ground, and then the trees. Heavy woods covered the entire valley on this side.

"Parker! You left your gun behind!"

Parker moved away from the barn. He began to run down the hill.

"Parker! Come back for your gun!"

Parker bent low, and just before he reached the trees shooting started behind him. He heard the bullets snicking and scratching through the leaves over his head; like most people, Uhl was aiming too high when firing downhill.

It was cooler, damper, dimmer in under the trees. Almost like the smell and feel of the air inside the barn. There were a lot of bushes, but it was possible to work your way through. The bushes made him hard to see, and the tree trunks made him hard to hit.

He veered to the right as he went on. The shooting had stopped again, and after a minute he stopped too. He listened and heard nothing.

Would Uhl come down here to get him? It would almost even the odds, the two of them in the woods. He might get behind Uhl, he might get the edge on him. Or he might even get out of the woods with Uhl still in them, get back up the slope to the house, get one of the other guns in there. If Uhl wasn't carrying all four guns with him.

Parker moved again. He still could hear nothing from Uhl. He headed back at a sharp angle so he'd come out far to the right of where he'd gone in. He wanted to know what Uhl was up to. He had to know what Uhl was up to. Could he afford to leave Parker alive, could he take a chance on that? Or would he think it a bigger chance to come in here after Parker? Which chance would he want to take?

Ahead, through the trees, Parker could see the grassy slope. He moved more cautiously, bent forward, his suit and shoes the wrong clothing for this place and this kind of stalking. But he needed to leave the suit jacket on -- the white shirt would be too obvious a target. And black street oxfords were still better than no shoes at all.

He heard the car start. He went forward to the edge of the woods, looking up, and saw Uhl back his Chevy out of the barn. He left the motor running and hurried into the house, and a minute later he came out with two small cardboard suitcases. They'd had four of those, one for each of them to carry his share away in, but it had apparently taken only two to transport the entire haul.

Uhl put the two cases in the trunk of the Chevy and then came by the side of the barn to look downslope at the woods. He didn't see Parker, and Parker couldn't make out the expression on his face. After a minute he turned and went back into the house.

Go up the slope? Try to get to the car? It looked too much like a trap, left out there running with the money in it. Parker waited.

Uhl came running back out. Why running? He suddenly seemed to be feeling much more urgency than before. He ran around the Chevy and into the barn.

What was he up to? Parker's hands were closed into his fists, but there was nothing he could do; he could only stand and watch and wait to see what Uhl did next.

Smoke. Curling out the broken windows of the house.

The son of a bitch had set the house on fire.