Nobody Runs Forever Part 15

"He's not your patient now. now. You come in there," Parker said, "and you act like a little boy with a secret. You talk to Jake about what's happening-" You come in there," Parker said, "and you act like a little boy with a secret. You talk to Jake about what's happening-"

"No, no, I wouldn't!"

"You hint hint about what's happening. You hint in front of his sister. Who else do you hint in front of?" about what's happening. You hint in front of his sister. Who else do you hint in front of?"

"n.o.body! No one! I swear, I wouldn't- I need need this! I need it, you don't understand, the life I live, I need this, I don't want to die-" this! I need it, you don't understand, the life I live, I need this, I don't want to die-"

"I got that," Parker said.

"I don't want to die," the doctor said, more calmly. This time, it was a humble statement, as though he were asking permission. "If this doesn't happen," he told them, "this thing you two are doing, if this thing doesn't happen, I'm going to die."

Parker watched him. "You are?"

"I can't live. This is my last, you're my last hope."

Parker and Dalesia shared a glance. Dalesia said, "So you don't want to louse things up."

"No! No! Anything but!"

Parker said, "Stay away from the hospital."

"I will," the doctor said. "I hadn't realized, but you're right, you're absolutely right, I-"

"Stay away from Jake," Parker said.

"I will. I promise."

"No more hints."

"No."

"No more hanging around."

"No."

"Not a word out of you to anybody."

"No," the doctor said, and sat up straighter, and crossed his heart and held his right hand up like a Boy Scout. "I swear to G.o.d," he said. "Hope to die."

7.

From the rear of the Trails End Motor Inne, where Parker and the others had been placed by Jake Beckham, you could see and hear the Ma.s.sPike, just to the south, beyond a chain-link fence and a wooded gully. The sound was undifferentiated rush, steady enough to become white noise, and the constant streaming by of toy-size vehicles was soothing to watch, in its own strange way. Most of the regular customers of the motel were around on the other side, facing the local road and the swimming pool, which was still open though too cold for anybody to swim. Their three rooms were not contiguous, but s.p.a.ced apart half a dozen units or so, along the ground floor. This time of year, there were no customers at all upstairs.

The day after they'd cooled off Dr. Madchen, in the middle of the afternoon, Parker sat in the open doorway of his room, looking out toward the Ma.s.sPike, doing nothing but wait until tomorrow, when the work would be done. He'd been there for a while, empty and relaxed, when McWhitney drove slowly past in his red Dodge Ram pickup. He pointed at Parker, as though to say, don't move, wait for me, and Parker nodded. McWhitney went on, parking the pickup in front of his own room, then came walking heavily back to where Parker had now gotten to his feet.

"This woman cop of yours," McWhitney said, by way of greeting.

"What about her?"

"Describe her to me."

"Blonde, late twenties, good-looking, dresses well."

"I don't know about the 'dresses well,'" McWhitney said.

Where they stood, facing south, the Ma.s.sPike a flat barrier wall in front of them, the thin September sun shone down at them from a slant. Parker turned away from it to look more closely at McWhitney. "What do you mean?"

"I think she's tailing me," McWhitney said.

"You? Why does she even know you?"

"That's the question in my mind, all right."

"Where did you see her?"

"There's a town near here with a drugstore with a phone booth in it," McWhitney said. "A real phone booth, for a little privacy, I went there to check in with the guy who's taking care of my bar while I'm gone. On the way out, I noticed this woman, because she's the kind of woman you'll notice-"

"Sure."

"And then," McWhitney said, "coming out of the drugstore, there she was, parked across the street, looking at a roadmap."

Parker frowned. "I'd think she was smarter than that."

"Maybe she figures I'm not worth all her smarts. Anyway, I'm walking back to my truck, I see her, I remember seeing her before, and all of a sudden I'm thinking, wait a minute, I saw her before this, too. Before today."

"You're sure it's the same woman."

"Good-looking blonde, late twenties. Could be a cop, I suppose, how can you tell?"

"You can't."

"No." McWhitney scratched his head, looking aggravated. "The question is, what's she doing bird-d.o.g.g.i.ng me me?"

"Makes no sense," Parker said.

"With you there's a link," McWhitney pointed out. "She's got you through your car here, your car there. I'm not around any of this stuff, I showed up late. How come she made me me all of a sudden?" all of a sudden?"

"I don't get it," Parker admitted.

"Neither do I." McWhitney glowered back at the sun. "It's making me mad," he said. "But who the h.e.l.l am I mad at? And for what? If somebody screwed up, who was it? Nick? You? But how would you even screw up?"

"I want to see this woman," Parker said.

"Be my guest."

"Drive out again. I'll come with you."

"That links us pretty tight."

"If she's tailing you," Parker said, "she's already linked us. I just want to see what she's doing, try to figure out why she's doing it."

McWhitney considered. He was angry, and wanted to relieve his feelings somehow, but couldn't figure out how. "f.u.c.k it," he said. "Come along."

Parker closed his room door and walked with McWhitney down the row of closed green doors, past his own Dodge and Dalesia's Audi to the pickup. He slid in on the pa.s.senger side, and McWhitney said, "Anywhere in particular?"

"Do your drugstore run again."

"Fine."

They left the motel, and McWhitney took his time on the local roads, constantly checking his rearview mirror. "I don't know where the h.e.l.l she is," he said.

"She'll show up."

McWhitney stopped at a stop sign, took his time, looked all over the place, started through the intersection, then looked down to his left and said, "Son of a b.i.t.c.h, there she is! Parked down there, see? Here she comes."

Parker looked past McWhitney's jutting jaw and saw the car down there pulling away from the shoulder, saw the blonde at the wheel. "I see her," he said.

"So?" McWhitney's belligerence was increasing, now that she was actually there, hanging discreetly back in his mirror. "What do you think now?"

"Head back to the motel," Parker said. "I think you and Nick and I have to talk."

McWhitney gave him a quick look. "Why? Something wrong? What is it? Isn't that your cop?"

"No."

"I give up," McWhitney said. "Do you know her? Who is she?"

"I've seen her," Parker said. "Her name is Sandra. She was a friend of Roy Keenan."

8.

We don't need this," Dalesia said.

"Well, we got it," McWhitney growled. Now that he'd found out the one he should be mad at was himself, he sat hunkered, beetle-browed, as though waiting for a chance to counterattack.

The three sat in Dalesia's room, the door closed against the evening view of the Ma.s.sPike. There were two chairs, flanking the round fake-wood table, and Dalesia and McWhitney sat there, each with an elbow on the table, while Parker stood, sometimes paced, sometimes stopped to watch one or the other face.

"That's a few hundred miles," Dalesia complained. "From Long Island to here. But you never saw her before today."

"I think I did," McWhitney said, and beat the side of his fist gently on the table. "I think I probably saw her, maybe a few times. What do you think to yourself when you see that? 'There's a good-looking blonde.' Not, 'There's the good-looking blonde I saw yesterday.' You aren't looking looking in that kind of way." in that kind of way."

Dalesia, as though grudgingly, said, "That's true, I guess. Good looks can make a woman anonymous." He grinned at McWhitney, apparently deciding to make nice. "Anybody looks at an ugly beak like you you two days in a row," he said, "they're gonna notice." two days in a row," he said, "they're gonna notice."

Parker said, "What does she want, that's the question."

"Good," McWhitney said, rather than have to answer Dalesia. "You tell us. What does does she want? She can't still be waiting for her partner to show up." she want? She can't still be waiting for her partner to show up."

Dalesia said to Parker, "You saw her before, when Keenan braced you, but you didn't talk to her."

"No, Keenan used her as a decoy to get me in position where he could suddenly show up. Then she left. He said her job was to be somewhere around, out of sight with a three fifty-seven Magnum."

"Christ on a crutch," McWhitney said.

Dalesia said, "So that's what happened. Keenan went into Nels's bar, and this Sandra woman stayed outside as backup. Didn't help him much, but there she is."

As though reluctant to say it, or to say much of anything, McWhitney told them, "He had a walkie-talkie in his pocket."

Parker said, "But he didn't use it."

"He didn't get the chance."

Dalesia said, "That was at night. What, around eleven?"

"A little earlier. That bar doesn't get a late-night bunch, not even on weekends."

Dalesia said, "All right. Whatever happened between you and Keenan happened that night. Then what? In the morning, you came out to look for me?"

"Yeah, I went to Stratton first, and got you from him. Told him I wanted to bring you in on a job."

Dalesia laughed. "You sure did."

Parker said, "When you leave there, does anybody else live in the building?"

"No, I've just got this guy comes in to open and close the bar, run the place. He's got a home to go to."

"So when you left," Parker said, "this woman followed you until you landed somewhere, until she could leave you for a while, and then she went back and tossed your place. What did she find?"

"Nothing!" McWhitney looked as though he might get insulted.

Parker shook his head. "Come on, Nelson," he said. "This woman's a pro, she's at least as much a professional as Keenan was. She went into your place when it was empty. She didn't have a lot of time because she had to get back in position behind you, but she spent a little time, and what did she find?"

McWhitney furrowed his brow, thinking. He wasn't thinking about what the woman had found; he was thinking about what he would say. "All right," he said. "She found some patted-down dirt in the cellar. And she found some empty acid bottles. That's all."

"She didn't find any walkie-talkies, any wallets."

"I'm not a complete idiot," McWhitney said. "You want to find those things, you have to walk into Long Island Sound."