Rare Coin Score by Richard Stark

Author:Richard Stark [Stark, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Eight

IT HAD been a good fire, just exactly right. The outer office of Diablo Tours was smoke-streaked and waterlogged, the inner office was badly charred and burnt. The desk in there was a blackened shell, and the rear wall had been badly damaged by the fire. No one would be working here for a while, not until the place was redone, which wouldn't start happening until after the insurance adjusters and fire department investigators were through, which was unlikely to take less than a week.

Parker and Carlow and Mainzer arrived a little after two in the morning. The door had been locked and a piece of plywood nailed over the hole in it where the firemen had knocked out the frosted glass panel, but the lock was an easy one and they went through it practically without stopping. Parker had previously worked out the best route in here, trying it by day, going through the hotel, up to the roof and through a corridor window into this building, which was several stories taller than the hotel. From there it was simple to come down the stairs and through the locked door into the wreckage of Diablo Tours, which smelled inside of dampness and charred wood.

When they entered the inner office, Mainzer looked around and smiled in satisfaction, saying, "Nice job. Admit it, Parker, it's a nice job."

"You did fine," Parker said, both because it was true and because there was the necessity to keep Mainzer happy. There was always the necessity to keep people happy, that was why Parker seldom got along with people away from work. When a job was at stake he was willing to make the effort, but otherwise he wasn't.

They couldn't use any light of their own in here, not even a flashlight, but the same streetlight that illuminated the ballroom in the hotel next door also shone in the window here, its bluish-white light softening the effects of the fire, making the room like a small stage setting before a performance.

The wall was plasterboard, and the fire had exposed some of the lines of separation between the panels. Parker went to the corner of the wall farthest from the window and felt along the edge of the panel there. "This will do," he said.

Car low had brought along a small toolkit, which he now put on the desk. They got screwdrivers and pliers from it and went to work on the plasterboard panel, removing all the nails holding it to the supports, not worrying about gouging the wall. While Carlow worked on the left side and Parker on the right, Mainzer removed the molding from the bottom of the panel and then stood on a chair to remove a narrow strip of wood where the wall met the ceiling.

It took fifteen minutes to completely free the panel, which was four feet wide and ran from floor to ceiling. When they were done, they leaned the panel forward slightly and slid it to one side, then rested it back against the wall beside the new hole.

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