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just squinted.
    The plastic surgery Parker had had done seemed like a good idea at the time, but it made for complications. Nobody knew him any more. He stood outside the screen door and said, "I'm looking for a room."
    "Sorry," said the bald man. "We're all full up right now."
    Parker looked up. There was a light over the door in a complicated fixture supposed to look like a lantern. He said, "I see you got that fixed."
    "I did what?"
    "The last time I was here," Parker told him, "Eddie Hill got drunk and took off after that girl of his and shot that light all to hell. Remember?"
    Now the bald man did lower his glasses to his nose, and peered through them at Parker's face. "I don't remember you," he said.
    "One time when Skimm was here," Parker said, "he buried a wad of dough out back some place. If you haven't looked for it, you can now. He's dead."
    "You know who you sound like?"
    "Parker."
    "Be damned if you don't."
    A new voice, from inside the house said, "Invite the gentleman in, Begley."
    Begley pushed open the screen door. "Maybe you ought to come inside."
    Parker went in and saw a man in the entrance to the parlour. He was holding a gun, but not aiming it anywhere in particular at the moment.
    "Hi, Jacko," said Parker.
    Jacko was chewing gum. He said. "You got the advantage on me, friend. I don't seem to recollect your name."
    "Parker."
    "Crap."
    Begley had been leaning close, squinting up at Parker's face, and he now said, "No, now – wait a minute, Jacko. I be damned if it ain't Parker! He's had one of them face jobs, that's all."
    "Oh, yeah?" Jacko frowned, chewing his gum. "Okay, who worked that Fort Wayne payroll job with you, back in '49?"
    "You did."
    "Sure. Just the two of us?"
    "Bobby Gonzales drove. Joe Sheer worked the safe. The inside man was named Fahey or something like that. He tried to run out with the boodle and you took him up to Lake Michigan and threw him in."
    "Where'd we hide out after the job?"
    "In a trailer camp outside Goshen. It isn't there any more." Parker turned to Begley. "Let's go sit down. I want to talk. You too, Jacko."
    "I'm not satisfied yet," said Jacko.
    "Then go to hell!"
    Jack laughed. "Maybe you're Ronald Reagan with the FBI. How do I know?"
    "You're scared of guns, Jacko, so you got no cartridge under the hammer. You'll have to pull that trigger twice before you get any action, and I can move faster than that. Put it away, or I'll take it away from you."
    Begley laughed then, and said, "Nobody but Parker can irritate people so quick."
    Jacko put the pistol inside his jacket, looking angry. "One of these days, Parker," he said, "I've got to check you out. Nobody's as mean as you talk."
    "Maybe not." Parker went on past him into the parlour, where there was a sofa and three rocking chairs. He picked one of them, sat down, and said, "I want to talk anyway."
    The other two came in and sat down. Begley said, "You want a room now?"
    "No. Two weeks from now."
    "You got something lined up?" Jacko asked him. "You want a hand, maybe?"
    "No. I want to tell you a story." He told them quickly about his trouble with the syndicate. Jacko sat impassive, chewing his gum. Begley listened, fascinated, blinking behind his spectacles.
    "So I'm going to settle this thing with the Outfit once and for all," Parker finished. "That's why I'll need a room in a couple weeks."
    "Why tell me?" asked Jacko.
    "It's a chance for you. It's a chance for all the boys. The Outfit is full of cash, all untraceable, and they can't call in the law if they get taken. We've always left them alone, and they've always left us alone. Now they're making trouble for me. If you hit them, they'll blame me." He turned to Begley. "I want you to spread the word, anybody else drops in. Now's the time to hit the syndicate."
    "For you?" demanded Jacko. "Why should I do anything for you, Parker?"
    "Not for me. I don't want a cut or anything else. I'm just spreading the word. You know of any syndicate operation that would be an