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"I don&039;t know Doc didn&039;t look too happy They promised to take care of her, but I don&039;t trust &039;es resolved the better, otherwise Sullivan promised to dump her in a field"

"Where are they?"

"I&039;ll tell you that when I see you"

"You&039;ll tell et the pause

"Angela? I know this sounds fishy as hell, but this is all I&039;ve got to play with"

"Then it&039;s not enough For all I know, Doc and Opal are dead and you&039;re setting up a trap for Sullivan to get ela Use your instincts, you must know I&039;m not that kind of a player"

"Mister, I don&039;t knoho the hell you are You talk a good line, but ht me that those are the ones to watch out for more than any of the others"

"And any other ti, on your terms, wherever you want"

"Over the phone or nothing at all"

"No can do"

"Heme jackshit All he&039;s done for me is keep er that&039;s going to last if you don&039;t want to listen to-"

"I can listen right here and now"

Had to stop, take a breath and let it out slow I knew she&039;d be stubborn about a , but hadn&039;t anticipated that she&039;d be so irritating as well "Look, I&039;ll tell you what I told Sullivan: I&039;et out of this with a whole skin He was the one who decided I should be the go-between so you two can settle your differences before things get even more out of hand than they are"

"This after he raids my place and shoots Opal?"

"On his ter his iven the chance"

"I&039;ll tell you what I&039;ll do to that-"

"And I&039;renades, but they&039;re not the answer to everything Just give me the chance to tell you what he has in o ahead"

"In person, sweetheart, in person It&039;s too risky on a phone The copsin and we&039;ve said much too much already""Then find another phone to call froive ive away your location"

"So wouldyou directions on where to find me"

"Okay, okay How about I just leave the hotel and start walking? You can have someone pick me up while I&039;m on the move I won&039;t kick a fuss"

"No thanks, you&039;re too anxious to deal, Fleood spot not to be! I got two unconscious cops up here, two et past, Sean Sullivan ready to scrag me if I screw this up, and you&039;ve already told ht I&039;m anxious!"

"Then why not leave town, disappear?"

I shutbetter and better "You wouldn&039;t believe ed What&039;s this ht call to Sullivan about?"

"It&039;s so I can let hi to find out if you wanna play ball with hionna affect Opal and Doc

The way things are going now, they&039;re both gonna end up in a field with no headstone"

"I figured that already" She didn&039;t sound like it mattered all that much to her, either "Okay, if you&039;re not in his pocket, why should he pick you for this job?"

"I had to do so to stay alive, so Ibetween us"

"You and h"

"Sweetheart, you&039;re hurting s with this talk"

"And I&039; up, too"

"The idea was to helpto keep it working So coether and-"

"It&039;s not gonna happen, Fle If you can&039;t do business over the phone-"

"What about Opal and Doc?"

"You&039;re so worried about &039;e It&039;s in your hands"

"You&039;d let &039;em die?"

"If I have to Sullivan wants to play tough, then that&039;s the way it is"

Jeez I wasn&039;t talking to a hu, I&039; ht ahead"

"But they&039;re the ones who-" but I cut the rest off No point talking in circles

She&039;dto throo lives to keep froarenades around her backyard, but to stick her neck out in the cold on purpose was soain Too bad for Doc and Opal I&039;d have to stop pushing the personal-interview stuff and try a different angle

"Okay, Angela, there&039;s gotta be a e can work soet Opal back, without her the books are useless"

"The books I wondered when you&039;d get around to them That&039;s what this is all about, isn&039;t it?"

"Sullivan mentioned them, yes"

"Well, he&039;s out of luck He&039;s not getting the to buy them from you"

"What&039;s his offer? I can use another laugh"

"Enough to put you and your father up in style Enough to allow you to afford the best head doctors in Europe to treat hi silence for that one I let her think it over

"Europe?"

"Maybe take hiot et your father help-real help-for what&039;s happened to him"

"And when he&039;s better he&039;ll have nothing to coone, sold for a song by onna do that to hi for it than the road you&039;re on now"

"What&039;s that supposed to mean?"

"It&039;s stuff I heard at Sullivan&039;s The New York bosses think you&039;re too flashy and dangerous Even if you dump Sullivan down a drain, they&039;ll just send out someone else to take his place and another one after that and another, until you end up on a slab and your father is wrapped tight in a straitjacket in some state institution for what&039;s left of his life"

"No! You shut the hell up!"

"That&039;s how the world works, you can&039;t change it, but if you&039;re s pretty, play it dumb and everyone loses, especially your father"

"No!"

"If soonna take care of hiuy spoon-feeding hi sessions-"

" No!" A real shriek She didn&039;t hang up, but did sla Several times

As Escott could have said, I&039;d touched a nerve Asounds and her language It was a few long minutes before she came back At least she had a chance to rant and blow off stea like a dog on a short leash tied to a bo" She sounded breathless

"Yeah?"

"God damn you to hell" Now she sounded tired Very tired

"No doubt"

"Fleht here"

"What&039;s what&039;s that bastard&039;s offer?"

Bowed et too hopeful "I don&039;t know, but the two of you can negotiate it, set up a delivery"

"Why should he even bother paying me off?"

"Because it&039;s not as noisy as a war and a lot less expensive The boys in New York don&039;t like that kind of noise"

Pause on her end A long one I tried not to fidget

"Fleet Doc and Opal out?"

"Maybe I could"

"Then you do that I&039;ll deal with Sullivan on condition I get theive you Opal Not willingly He needs her to decode the books"

"Doc, then I&039;ll trade Doc for the books and the payoff As a sign of good faith"

I didn&039;t want to trust her That little double back she&039;d pulled on the stairway tonight left a bad taste in my mouth "You&039;ll stick to any deal you strike?"

"Not just any deal, this is only if I get enough cash"

Words were easy to say, and neither of us hadin the roadhouse basement, either She probably didn&039;t want to re there, though it was a surety that she&039;d run out and try to pick it up before the dust settled

"Get Doc released, and I&039;ll hand over the books for the money," she said

"It&039;ll take ti roo clock went

"I&039;m in no hurry"

"And I&039;ll need a better way to contact you than to keep co et Doc out, he&039;ll do that for you He knohat places to find et Doc and he&039;ll take care of it; otherwise, no deal That&039;s all you need to worry about"

It was uns?"

I thought about it Asking for theht put me next to her "What if I do?"

"Then I&039;d tell you where to go to get theirl "Nah, I&039;ll be fine without"

"What&039;ll you say to Sullivan when you call hi to deal, but it won&039;t be easy I&039;ll ood"

"I don&039;t need your help for that, and you&039;re dah up enough ht on his hands"

"I&039;ll make sure he understands"

"You do that And one other thing, Fleer, like it was fro cute, Iyour carcass froht next to Sullivan&039;s You won&039;t be able to hide from me; no matter how this turns out, I&039;ll come after you and make it happen Take that as a promise"

"I believe you, lady," I whispered

Calloake finally, sort of, if you didn&039;tan open-eyed cataleptic fit Before I could call Sullivan I had to have his stooge up and ready to talk I got tired of waiting for him to come around naturally and tried the cold-water-in-the-face routine along with so and a few face slaps They worked just fine, and while he was still in a highly receptive state for it I gave hi in the chair by the phone, quiet as a cat and ready to do a bit part in White Zous ave instructions on exactly what I wanted from hiht raise, but the effort had given me one hell of a headache

It felt like so it too tight I vanished once to see if that would o away, but it didn&039;t seem to have much effect, which was a disappoints like cuts and bruises pretty fast; er period No tiht yet, but I didn&039;t want Sullivan to get the sweats waiting He&039;d seemed confident when I&039;d left, and I wanted to bolster that feeling with an early report of success

I dialed the nus and he answered Low voice, as well modulated as a radio announcer, very civilized

"Yes?"

"It&039;s Fle Is Opal okay?"

"She hen I last saw her"

"What&039;s that supposed to mean?"

"Just what I said"

"Did you bring in a real doctor for her?"

"She&039;s being carefully looked after in a very safe place, I assure you"

Didn&039;t kno much of that I could believe, if any Sure I&039;d been able to give hiht direction, but was uncertain whether it&039;d taken a solid enough hold in his h "I&039;ve talked with Angela You want your boss to hear the news?"

Apparently he did The next one on the line was Sullivan

"What have you to say?" Cultured, with that flat Boston accent A Boston roach

He was probably a real pip scuttling around the football field Or ot a deal for you"

"You only think you have it?"

"I&039;ll know for sure once I meet with the lady She&039;s pretty skittish after all the fireworks tonight She wants your guarantee you&039;ll lay off for the ti, call a truce"

"So she has a chance to hit back?"

"At the ot very little to hit you with and no idea where you are I&039; a fuss about letting ot fleas onone over to your side"

"Nice girlfriend you&039;ve got"

"It&039;s the saht have Would you let one of theanization? Didn&039;t think so She&039;s soft for al"

"I&039;ve always thought so No about calling off Calloway so I can get some work done?"

"What sort of work?&039;

"I&039;onna meet her at some place on the road in Indiana No one else knows about it No address, I just kno to get there It&039;s gonna take a while, too; I won&039;t be able to call until "

"She&039;s a stubborn gal I&039;et her to cos If I&039;lewith you et out of it alive"

"Sounds like you&039;re trying to skip"

"I&039; to-"

"Put Calloway on"

"But-"

"Put hirowled for effect, then passed the receiver over Calloway pressed it against his ear No worry from me He was my creature, I owned him His voice sounded perfectly normal, but his face was still quite blank Creepy

"Yeah, Mr Sullivan?"

"What&039;s this deal about hiela?"

"I listened to both sides, he&039;s on the up-and-up with it far as I can tell She wants to see him, but I still don&039;t trust him He needs to be watched"

"Of course he does, but froht be better Can you trail him?"

"Yeah, I can do that"

"Very well Don&039;t be caught or things could get complicated"

"I won&039;t"

"Put him back on"

He handed it over

Sullivan sounded reassuring, like a teacher with a not too bright student "I got things straightened out with the lieutenant, so you won&039;t have any trouble from him now"

"That was easy Maybe too easy He sed that without any choking"

"He knohat&039;s good for hi you do as well"

"We both want the sa, Mr Sullivan You hold to your part and I&039;ll hold to mine and then everyone&039;s happy But if Calloway screws this up for s If I really did have a ela, Sullivan&039;s orders to Calloway could get us both killed

"He won&039;t"

Why did I even bother to hope he&039;d smarten up and play square? Okay, to hell with hiht I&039;ll call in thearound ten"

"That late?"

I gave a snotty chuckle, the sort he&039;d expect froentleela&039;s a pretty hot little twist I ht o&039;clock, Fle tone

"Hey, I can&039;t-"

"Eight, no later" He hung up Probably thought he&039;d scored a point or two Fine, far be it from me to disillusion him By this time tomorrow, if I had any luck at all, he wouldn&039;t even remember my name