The Black Ice Score

by Richard Stark

  I said you people were going to hit the place at two this morning, that you were going to kill everybody and then set the place on fire to cover up. I said the place was so isolated nobody would know about the fire until at least tomorrow sometime. And I said that afterwards you weren't going back to Gonor's apartment, you were coming here to this unused museum.

  I told him the reason you were coming here was you didn't know if there'd be any casualties or not, you weren't sure what shape you'd be in afterward, and there was this empty apartment on the top floor. That you'd laid in first-aid supplies up here, and fresh clothing, and you were going to stay here overnight and then hide the diamonds somewhere in the museum tomorrow and go on about your business.

  He didn't have any clear idea how to go about hijacking you, so I made him some suggestions. I told him it would be too tricky to try anything out at the estate on Long Island, even if he could find it. There was no point going into the middle of somebody else's battle. Also, it wouldn't be a good idea to try anything with you people in your car on the way back. I said in the first place, I didn't know what car you were going to use, and I didn't know what route you were going to use. But even if they did find you on the road somewhere, if they tipped their hand then you might be able to get away from them and then you'd change your plans because you'd know your security was shot, and after that there was no telling where you'd go or what you'd do.

  I told him I wanted to help him figure out a good plan because I didn't want him to go up against you people and lose. I wanted my woman back too much for that. That made sense to him, so he listened to me.

  I said his best bet would be to come here. I said they shouldn't come before you got here because they'd have to break in, and that would leave marks you people would see. But I was pretty sure you planned to do some drinking when you got back here, and in any case none of you would be alert—you'd be feeling the after-effects of the tension of doing the thing out on Long Island—so the thing for them to do was get here after you'd been here maybe an hour. I told them the front door would be easy to get through, and none of you would hear them because you'd be four floors up.

  He thought that should work out, and he told me to go back to my hotel room and wait. Maybe they'd try my idea, maybe not, but one way or the other they'd go for the diamonds tonight, and once they got them they'd give me a call and tell me where to meet them. Then I would go to the place they said, and they'd tell me where to find my woman.

  I don't know if she's alive or not. I think there's a chance she is, because they know they don't have anything to be afraid of from her. But I do know they plan to try to kill me. That's the only reason to have me meet them after they get the diamonds. If they were going to tell me where she was and let it go at that they could do it over the phone.

  That's why I told them the story I did. And after I left Marten I went to the hotel in case he had anybody following me, and then I got out again and went to his place on Riverside Drive, an address I got from Hoskins a while ago. I wanted to know for sure what Marten would do. I thought Marten was sure he had me mousetrapped, but I didn't want to take any chances.

  I went to his place and I saw the other two get there. What I would do if I was Marten at that point, I'd come stake out the museum and wait for you people to show up. Just to be sure Parker wasn't setting me up for something. And if that's what they'd done, I would have had to try to take them alone some way. It would have been early enough, before you people were here.

  But Marten must be sure of himself. Or sure of me. Anyway, he stayed there, all three of them stayed there. I waited around as late as I could, wanting to be sure they weren't going anywhere, and then I came over here. I wanted to get here before you left, but I didn't want to butt in till your caper was over, so I waited up by the corner for about fifteen minutes. Then the shooting started and I saw something was wrong, so I came on down.

  The reason I came was, I figured you people had gotten me into this situation, you could work with me to get me out of it again. I figured we'd let Marten and the other two break in here, then we'd grab them. You people are good at asking questions; you could ask them where my woman is. After that you could do whatever you wanted with them. Put them down in the basement with the Kasempas. Anything you want.

  I didn't figure on the mess Hoskins made. I was counting on Gonor, and we could have used Manado. But the situation's still the same. They're coming here at five o'clock, ten minutes from now. I want you to help me.

  4

  There was a little silence, and then Major Indindu said without expression, “I see.” Standing there in the middle of the room, the saucer held on the palm of his left hand, he finished the last bit of coffee in his cup and said, “Bara, if you would be so kind—another cup?”

  Formutesca obviously didn't want to leave the room. He looked at Parker, then at the Major, and reluctantly said, “Of course, sir.” He took the cup and saucer and left the room.

  The Major said, “Ten minutes, you say. That doesn't leave us much time.”

  “Enough,” Parker said.

  “Perhaps. There are a few things I would like to say.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “I believe—how can I best phrase this?—I believe you have made some false assumptions.”

  “Such as?”

  The Major looked troubled. “We have to be realists, Mr Parker,” he said. “And realistically, we owe you nothing. You were hired to perform a specific task for us. You did so, very well, and you received full payment. We have no more call on you, and you have no more call on us.”

  “All right,” Parker said. “You better take Manado with you.”

  Surprised, the Major said, “I beg your pardon?”

  “They're coming here. In seven minutes. I have to make a try for them; I don't have any choice, and this is the place where I'm doing it. They're going to want the diamonds, so if I lose out to them they'll look around. If they find Manado they may want to wake him up and ask him some questions. So you better take him along.”

  “Just a moment,” the Major said. “You go too fast.”

  “We have seven minutes. And they could get here early.”

  “Yes, I understand that. But you didn't take my meaning. I didn't mean you wouldn't be helped.” The Major stopped, looking confused. It was clear he was used to a world in which more words did less, where the sentences were long and full and didn't move very far forward. Having to say the whole thing at once was turning out to be difficult.

  Parker prompted him. “What did you mean?”

  “ I simply meant—” The Major made vague hand motions, then gathered himself together and said, “What I meant was that you have no call on our services. Only young Formutesca is left to help you, and since you have no call on us I could not order him to work with you. But if he is willing to, I certainly would not stand in his way. The morality of the situation, it seems to me, is clearly on the side of—”

  “What about you?”

  The Major stopped his speech and said, “Me? I don't understand.”

  “You can stay, too,” Parker told him. “That ‘major' on your name means you're a military man, doesn't it?”

  The Major shook his head in astonishment. “Me? That's out of the question!”

  “Why?”

  “Mr Parker, if all goes well I will be the next president of Dhaba. I cannot afford to risk myself in a gun battle here; it would be pointless and ridiculous.”

  Formutesca had come in with the fresh coffee while the Major was speaking.

  Parker said, “In other words, you're too valuable.”

  Formutesca, holding the cup out, said, “Sir?” He was looking slightly confused.

  “Thank you.” The Major took the cup, then looked levelly at Parker. “If you want to phrase it that way, yes. I am too valuable. I believe Formutesca here will agree with me on that.”

  Formutesca, looking at the two of them, said, “Too valuable for what?”

&n
bsp; The Major said, “Mr Parker wants us to stay here and help him against the three that are coming here. I told him if you wanted to stay it would be your own choice, I couldn't order you to do it. He wanted me to stay as well, and I told him I could not afford to risk myself in such a way. I believe that I am too valuable.” He turned to Parker. “To Dhaba, Mr Parker. Not to myself, to Dhaba.”

  “Of course, sir,” said Formutesca. Turning to Parker he said, “The Major is the only hope we have, Mr Parker. If anything happens to him, there won't be anyone to stop Goma. Colonel Lubudi can't last long, not now, and if the Major isn't there to step in and take his place, General Goma will walk right in and take over the country.”

  Parker said, “A General. A Colonel. A Major.”

  With a thin smile, the Major said, “Do you mean we're all alike, Mr Parker?”

  “I don't know anything about your politics,” Parker told him. “Or anybody's politics. It's four minutes to five. Formutesca, I could use you. If you want to stay.”

  “Well, sure,” Formutesca said. “Naturally.”

  “Good,” Parker said. “Major, you'd better get out of here. You have a car out front?”

  “Yes.”

  “Formutesca, help him move Manado.”

  The Major said, “Is it necessary? It would be better—”

  “We might lose,” Parker said. “Leave him here if you want.”

  “No.” The Major looked more and more troubled.

  Parker turned back to Formutesca. “Where are the bodies?”

  “In the basement. We just stacked them there, and some things that got bloodied. We were going to come back tomorrow night and bury them.”

  “They had guns?”

  “They're down there, too.”

  “All right. You people use the elevator, I'll use the stairs. Formutesca, when you're done helping the Major I'll be on the first floor. Leave the lights on up here.”

  Formutesca nodded. “I will.”

  Parker headed for the door, but the Major said, “Mr Parker.”

  He turned. “What?”

  The Major was having trouble compressing his thoughts again. “I-” he said, then shook his head and started again. “I do appreciate, I understand your position. I sympathize with your position. I want you to know if there weren't so many other factors to consider, I would—”

  “That's good,” Parker said. “It's three minutes to five.” He left the room.

  5

  Parker looked at the armaments on the display case. The ground-floor lights were off, but illumination came in the barred windows from a streetlight just out front. To Parker's right, through an archway, was the main entrance foyer, with a long rectangle of white light on the floor from the open doorway.

  The display case contained knives and axes, mostly of stone. On the glass top Parker had put all the guns he'd found downstairs: six pistols, two machine guns, one shotgun with the barrels sawed off back to the stock. Parker looked at them and then looked at his watch. Five o'clock. Formutesca was still outside with the Major.

  Were Marten and the others on the scene? It wouldn't change anything in their minds for them to see the Major and Formutesca carry Manado out of the building. They could incorporate that into the story Parker had given them with no trouble: Manado must have been wounded during the battle on Long Island, too seriously to be left in the museum. With the fourth-floor lights burning, that must mean Gonor was still upstairs.

  The only problem was, would they jump the gun? Would they decide to go for Formutesca out there on the street? They shouldn't; they should prefer to keep things quiet outside and make their move in the privacy of the museum. Also, if they attacked now they would have to believe that Gonor would be alerted to their presence, and it would be better for them to get into the building undetected.

  Still, Formutesca was taking a long time. Parker was about to go out after him, when a shadow lined out on the rectangle of light in the foyer, and a second later Formutesca came into sight, peering around into the darkness.

  Parker called, “In here. Shut the door.”

  “Oh! Right.”

  The rectangle disappeared, and in greater darkness Formutesca came in and stood beside Parker. The weapons on the display case glinted in the patch of light from the streetlight.

  Formutesca said, “The Major feels bad, you know. He's afraid you don't understand the—”

  “It doesn't matter to me,” Parker said. “Where can we stash some of these under lock and key?”

  “There's a closet—”

  “Good. Put them away, all but those two pistols. I checked; they're both loaded.”

  Formutesca touched one of the machine guns. “You don't want to use these? Or that shotgun? At close range you can—”

  “I want at least one of them alive. I want to shoot to wound, not kill. For that we can't use those things.”

  “All right.” Formutesca filled his pockets with pistols, picked up the machine guns and the shotgun, and carried them away.

  Parker went over to the window. It was the deadest part of night: no traffic, no pedestrians. Down to the left at Lexington Avenue a brightly lighted bus rolled slowly by, nobody in it but the driver. Up to the right and across the street was Hoskins' car, its key now in Parker's pocket. Hoskins himself was with Gonor and the Kasempas in the basement.

  It was going to be tough for the Major and his people to keep this thing hushed up now, with Gonor dead. The others could have disappeared with nobody to notice—particularly once Colonel Lubudi was no longer president—but Gonor was a known official; his absence would have to be accounted for somehow.

  Well, that wasn't Parker's problem. The Major would do it, or he wouldn't do it.

  Formutesca came back. “Done,” he said.

  From the window, Parker said, “There's a gun for you on the case there. Take it and go into the room on the other side of the entrance. Wait till they're all the way in before you start to shoot and then aim low. Aim for the legs; we want them alive. And remember I'm over here, so wait till they're a little past you and you can shoot at an angle. I don't want one of your bullets coming over here and getting me.”

  Formutesca was regaining some of his natural manner. “I don't want it either,” he said. “I don't want to be alone in here with that bunch. If they show up. What time is it?”

  “They've shown up,” Parker said. “Get on over there.”

  Formutesca, looking startled, ran from the room and across the foyer as Parker looked out the window at the three men coming up the walk.

  6

  They took a long time getting through the door, and they were very slow and very loud. Parker was about ready to go over and open it for them, when at last they did pop it and come in.

  Now they turned pro. They moved well, taking their time, not moving in very far until the door was shut and the foyer back in darkness. Then they went in quick dashes, bent low, almost silent. It implied military training at some time or other.

  It also made it difficult to see them and hit them. Parker, against the wall beside the doorway, felt around till he got the light switch for the room he was in and switched it on.

  The three of them were bunched at the doorway at the back of the foyer. No direct light from Parker's room reached them, but enough indirect spillage touched them to do the job. Parker fired at their legs, and a second later he heard a shot from Formutesca on the other side.

  One of them went down, falling straight down as though the floor had been yanked out from under him. A second recoiled against the wall, white-faced, his arms shooting up in surrender. The third spun around, ducked low, and ran for the door.

  Parker snapped off a quick shot at the running one, but missed. He came out into the light, but then he couldn't shoot because Formutesca had come out too and was directly across the way. They stared across at one another in a frozen second that seemed to go on for years.

  The running man reached the door, slammed it open, and leaped t
he front steps, landing on all fours on the walk. He was up like a sprinter, hurdled the wrought-iron fence, and was away down the street to the left.

  Parker ran out the front door and saw him jump into a car down there. It was too late to do anything about it. He turned and went back into the museum, shutting the door after him.

  He switched on the foyer light. The one with his hands up was still standing there, round-eyed, terrified, looking sixteen years old. He had a huge automatic in his right hand shaking up there above his head. He'd obviously forgotten he was holding it.

  The other one was doubled on the floor clutching his left thigh. Over and over he was saying, “Jock. Help me, Jock.”

  Neither one was Marten. Marten was the one who'd gotten away.

  Parker went over to the standing one. “You're Jock?”

  A spastic nod.

  “You're holding a gun, Jock. Open your hand and let it drop.”

  Jock abruptly looked twice as terrified as before. He opened his hand, making a little pushing movement, and the automatic fell in an arc. Parker caught it in his free hand and put it in his hip pocket.

  These were the other two who'd been with Marten back at the beginning when they'd tried to muscle him out of working for Gonor. Jock here had been the phlegmatic one by the door. The other one, now lying on the floor, had been the one who had shown the hardware that first time.

  Parker said, “Jock, I want some fast answers. Is she still alive?”

  “Yes!” the word was shouted as much in surprise as anything else. Jock stared at Parker with astonishment now mixed with the fear. “What do you think we are?”

  “Where is she?”

  The one on the floor said, “Keep your trap shut, Jock. Don't tell him a goddam thing.”