Free Parker16 Butcher's Moon by Richard Stark

Snyder to you."
    "A message?"
    "As he did with Frankie," Walters said.
    Lozini frowned at Faran. "What message?"
    Faran licked his lips and adjusted himself again in the chair. "He said to tell you what he was taking was interest on the debt, and didn't count against the principal."
    "He did, huh." Grunting, Lozini looked again at Walters. "Same with the night watchman?"
    "He didn't get to give the message," Walters said, "since Snyder had apparently never heard of you. He can't remember the name of the thief used, except that he's sure it began L-o."
    Ted Shevelly and Harold Calesian both grinned slightly. "Anonymity," Shevelly said. "What do you think of that?"
    "It's about time," Lozini said. Anonymity was what he wanted, though he'd had damn little of it the last ten years or so. There was always something or other in the newspapers, all hedged around with words like "alleged" and "putative" so a lawsuit could never be launched to put a stop to it, and it was hell on the family. Newspaper people had no sense of decency. Fortunately, Lozini's six children were all daughters, all now grown and married and with other last names, but there was still his wife, and other relatives scattered around the state.
    Walters was saying, "Snyder seems none the worse for his experience. After the last time, when some of our own people roughed him up a bit, he was given the job at the brewery."
    There was a comic-opera touch here that Lozini didn't like. He wanted to get past it, get on to other things. "What do we do for him this time?" he said.
    Walters shrugged. "A few weeks off with pay. He hasn't the slightest idea what's going on, or even that anything is going on. He's your true innocent bystander."
    "We oughta put a plaque on him," Lozini said. "Anybody else?"
    "One man at the garage," Walters said. "He got hit on the head, apparently by Parker. His name is Anthony Scoppo, and he was released from the hospital this morning."
    "He one of ours?"
    Walters pursed his lips. "I wouldn't know about that," he said. He kept himself as ignorant as possible of the actual work Lozini's people did.
    Lozini looked over at Shevelly. "Anthony Scoppo. Ours?"
    "I think I remember the name," Shevelly said. "He drove a car for us a couple of times, but he gets too nervous. We haven't used him for anything for a while."
    To Walters again, Lozini said, "Another message to me?"
    "No, Parker didn't mention you at all. Apparently he assumed you'd understand without his saying anything, since that was the third operation of the night."
    Lozini gave Harold Calesian a glum stare. "Where do you suppose the cops were?" he asked.
    Calesian grinned sympathetically, undisturbed by Lozini's implied accusation. He had the easy assurance and humorous arrogance of the long-time cop, combined with the calmness and quietness that comes from being on the inside, one of the masters. He always spoke quietly, with small expressive hand gestures, and nothing ever ruffled him. "The cops were on the street, Al," he said. "By three o'clock this morning we were saturating the streets."
    "That goddam garage," Lozini said, "is on London Avenue, the brightest street in the city."
    "We had a car in the area," Calesian said. "You had two cars there yourself, Al, there was almost trouble between them and the patrolmen. What happened to your people?"
    "They're not trained cops."
    "Then why put them on patrol?"
    Lozini waved it away like a buzzing fly. "That isn't the point," he said. "The point is this son of a bitch Parker. Where is he, and how do we stop him?"
    "I don't know where he is," Calesian said, "any more than Ted does. Remember, Al, we came in this late. If you'd talked to me yesterday, or even the night before when he called you, I might have been able to do something by now."
    "Who knew he was going to move like that?"
    Calesian shrugged. "We've been on it for six hours," he said.
    "Do you have a make on him yet? Who is he, where's he from?"
    "We don't have any helpful