Free Deadly Edge: A Parker Novel by Richard Stark Page B

house to go their separate ways, and the death of Berridge had affected them not at all. Parker left the death out for two reasons: because he knew it would disturb her, and because it raised unanswerable questions that didn’t matter but that he knew would plague her mind.
    At the end, when he was finished describing the routine to her, she said, “So it went just right, didn’t it?”
    “Mostly.”

    “If only they could all be like that. Simple, safe and finished with, and back you come.”
    “That’s right,” he said.

3
    The fourth day he was at the house, he was working on a stash hole in the basement when Claire called down the stairs, “Handy McKay on the phone.”
    He went upstairs, and she was waiting for him. “We don’t need money yet,” she said.
    “Let’s see what he’s got.”
    Parker went into the living room and picked up the phone. He identified himself, and Handy’s voice said, “Did your friend Keegan get in touch with you?” He sounded vaguely worried.
    “No. Should he?”
    “He called last night, said he had to talk to you about that time you were together last week. Said it was important, but he couldn’t say much.” Nor could Handy, not on the phone.
    Parker said, “Why should he call me? Why not you?”

    “He said he was moving around, didn’t have a place he could be reached. It was definitely Keegan, from things he said. And moving around, not having a place he could be reached, I figured maybe that meant he really should get in touch with you.” Meaning that to Handy it had sounded as though Keegan might be having trouble with the law, which naturally Parker would have to be told about.
    Parker said, “So you told him where I was?” That wasn’t the way it was supposed to work. Handy passed messages on to Parker, didn’t give Parker’s whereabouts to other people.
    Particularly not now, not Claire’s house.
    Sounding more worried, Handy said, “Your phone number. It really sounded strong. I had to make a decision.”
    “I suppose. All right.”
    “But today I thought it over, and I figured I’d better call you and make sure.”
    “Okay. I’ll handle it.”
    “I hope I didn’t louse you up.”
    “Me, too.”
    Parker hung up and went to the kitchen, where Claire was sitting reading a magazine with her lunch. He said, “Handy gave out this number.”
    She looked at him. “What does that mean?”
    “I don’t know yet. He gave it to one of the people I was on that last job with.”
    “When did he give it to him?”
    “Last night.”
    She closed the magazine. “And he hasn’t called, so that means something’s wrong.”
    “Yes.”

    “What?”
    “I don’t know yet.”
    “What do we do about it?”
    “You go to New York. Move into a hotel for a few days.”
    “Move?”
    “Just until I go talk to Keegan. That’s his name.”
    “I don’t want to leave my house,” she said.
    “We don’t know what Keegan wanted it for. Or who he wanted it for. I can’t leave you alone here.”
    She got to her feet, frowning, looking angry and irritable. “I’m not going to go away from my house. I just got this house, I’m not going away from it.” She went over to the sink with her plate and cup, turned the water on, left it on and stood there with her back to him.
    Parker walked around the table and stood beside her. “I can’t wait here for it, not knowing what it is. I have to go see Keegan. I know where he was headed from the job, I’ll go there and see him and find out what’s going on. But what if there’s trouble from somebody else, and they come here while I’m gone?”
    “Leave me a gun.”
    “That isn’t sensible.”
    Both hands gripping tight to the lip of the sink, as though she was prepared to resist being dragged physically out of the house, she turned her head and stared coldly at him and said, “I am not going to leave my house.”
    He hesitated, then shrugged and turned away. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

4
    Keegan was