Free with These Hands (Ss) (2002) by Louis L'amour

perfect, see? Her parents gone, all the servants on vacations. The two girls were going to Atlanta-on a surprise visit. All we had to do was take them off the train at the next stop, return here and move in, a safe hideout for at least thirty days."
    "Looked good, didn't it?" I said. "Until Blubber Puss followed the girl out of that bar."
    His eyes hardened. "Was that you who beat up on Buckley? I might have known it." Then he nodded. "Yes," he said ruefully, "that was the bad part. We've got the sixty grand the boys lifted on the payroll, but it's hot money. Using it would be a dead giveaway. There was a little money on the girls, but my boys eat. So I sent the babe out with Buckley in order to pick up some cash."
    "Winding up," I said dryly, "by knocking off Seagram."
    "You know about that?" He looked at me thoughtfully.
    "You know too much."
    Right then I wouldn't have sold my chances of getting out of this mess for a plugged nickel.
    I wasn't kidding myself any about Candy Chuck. Take the wiping out of those killers back East. Nobody had ever tumbled that those killings weren't just like they looked- accident, suicide, and gunfight. Candy Chuck knew all the answers.
    "There's no end to it," I told him. "You got in a bind and let Seagram learn too much. So you knocked him off.
    That got the police stirred up. Now you've got me on your hands. Are you going to knock me off too? Don't you see?
    It just leads from one to another. You got sixty grand in hot money, and for all the good it does you now, you might as well have none. You've got a lawyer with a lot of bonds, but you haven't any cash to work with. The trouble with you, Marvin, is that you figure it all your way. Just like when you were so sure I'd throw that Williams fight because you threatened me."
    Candy Chuck Marvin's eyes narrowed and his mouth tightened. "You'd have been smart to let me forget that," he said. "I dropped ten grand on that fight."
    "You're not the kind of guy who forgets anything," I said. "And you're in the spot, not me."
    This hoodlum with the rod is standing by taking it all in. Most of my talk has been as much for his benefit as for Candy Chuck's. I knew Marvin liked to hear himself tell how smart he was. I knew he would keep on talking. The longer he talked, the better chance I had for a break. One was all I wanted, brother, just one!
    The hoodlum was beginning to shift his feet in a worried fashion. He was getting ideas. After all, he and his pals were right in the middle of a strange city, the cops were on their trail, they didn't have any money, and they were trusting to Marvin to pull rabbits out of a hat.
    Marvin was good. He had hostages. He was living in one of the biggest, finest homes in the city, the last place anybody would look. Tarrant Houston wouldn't peep for fear of getting the girls killed. Nobody was around to interfere, and soon Houston would be cashing in a lot of bonds.
    "Think of your men, Marvin," I said. I turned to the hood. "What do you think will happen to you guys if the cops move in? You guys get sold down the river. You take the rap, and the smart boy here has his pretty lawyer to get him out of it. If you ask me, you guys are just losing time from your getaway to let Marvin use you for a fast take-if it works."
    "Shut up." Marvin was on his feet.
    "Y'know, the guy's got somethin'."
    The voice was a new one and we all turned. I jumped inside my skin. Whit Dyer had a rep like Dillinger's. He was no smart Joe, but he had a nickel's worth of brains, a fast gun hand, and courage enough for three.
    "I never did like this setup," Dyer went on.
    "Don't pay any attention!" Marvin snapped. "Where would you be, Dyer, if I hadn't brought you here?"
    "Search me." Dyer admitted. "But not being here might be good. After all, there's just one way in and out of this yard, as you know. One way in, one way out. If they block those, we're stuck."
    Then I saw something. Little things jump to your mind in a spot like that. There was