The Hunter (1962) by Richard Stark

Author:Richard Stark [Stark, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Detective and Mystery Stories, General Interest, Mystery & Detective, Hard-Boiled, Fiction, Criminals, Suspense, Suspense fiction, Crime, Parker (Fictitious character)
ISBN: 9780226770994
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Published: 2008-09-01T04:55:32+00:00

Mal had a better idea. It had just come to

him, just that minute, and it excited him, nerved

him up, gave him goose-bumps. He'd originally

planned just this much, the way it was going,

setting Ryan on Parker so it didn't matter which

one survived. He'd be in the background waiting

to finish the other.

But now all at once he had this idea, and he

didn't stop to analyze it, to think about how it

was more complicated, more risky, more

dangerous. He just knew it was the way to do it,

the way it had to be done. When things hit him

that way, his mind was closed, there was no

longer any possibility but the one idea strong in

his head.

Lynn. Lynn Parker. The bastard's wife, the

butt-twitching, high-breasted, long-legged wife.

From the minute he'd seen her first, in the

cab in Chicago when he recognized Parker and

braced him for the proposition, he'd had hot

pants for that bitch. He'd looked at her, and

wanted her, and because she was Parker's he

couldn't go near her. And that made him want

her all the more.

She'd do the job for them. She herself, she'd

do it. It came to him, and he knew it was

perfect.

"Lynn," he said. "She does the job for us. It's perfect."

Ryan frowned ponderously. "Lynn? She's his

wife, Mal."

"I know that. She's the only one could catch

him off-guard. You know the bastard, Ryan. You

want to brace him with him ready and eager for

you? The hell with that."

"How you gonna get Lynn to do it? It don't

make sense, Mal."

"We tell her the score. She either takes care

of him or she's dead. We put it to her that way.

We let her know we mean it – it's her or him."

Ryan thought slowly into it, a worried

expression on his face. "I don't know, Mal," he

said laboriously. "Lynn, she's his wife, I don't

know-"

"You don't want to brace him, Ryan."

"Yeah. Yeah."

"It's worth a try. If it don't work, we

regroup, that's all."

Ryan frowned harder.

"We don't have a hell of a lot of time," Mal

said quickly. "We've got to make our move

before he makes his."

"Yeah," said Ryan. "Okay. We try it."

On the way down the hall, Ryan stopped off

in Sill's room for a minute. That left only Parker

to be taken care of.

There was a bathroom between each pair of

bedrooms, connected on both sides. They went

into the bedroom next to the one occupied by

Parker and Lynn, and waited by the slightly

open bathroom door.

She finally came through the door on the

other side, nude, and they grabbed her the

minute she closed the door, and hustled her into

the other bedroom. Ryan showed her the knife,

darkly smeared, and Mal his gun, and she knew

better than to shout.

"We got something to tell you," Mal said,

talking low and quick. "Listen close.

Somebody's going to die in the room next door

tonight, and you got the choice. It can be you, or

it can be Parker. If you want, it can be both.

Which is it?"

She stared up at him, shaking her head. "I

don't know what you mean. What is it, Mal? I

don't know what you mean."

"I told you," he said. "Somebody's going to

die in there. It's you or Parker.

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