The Big Caper | Page 6

North. Hell, you don't need nothin' but a roof."
Jim Dexter was being paid for his work, and so he didn't say much one way or the other, but it was obvious that he thought Frank was wasting his time.
Frank had tried to explain it.
"You see," he'd said, "I'll probably get a little repair work now and then, and hell, the gas station just isn't big enough for it. I figure I can bring a car or two out here and this old barn will be a nice place to work on them in my spare time."
"But why bother to close it in?" Sam asked. "All you gotta do is keep the rain off of 'em."
Frank told him that he'd just feel safer if the cars were locked up when he wasn't around. And so he had gone ahead, following the plans that Flood had given him, and rebuilt the ramshackle barn into a tightly closed garage that would hold three cars and a good-sized workbench. There were double overhead doors and only one small window, high up in the back. Even Jim squawked about that.
"Boy," he said, "you'll roast to death working in here. You gotta have air in this country. Wait till you try and come in here in the summer."
But Frank had gone ahead anyway and let them think he was stupid. Flood wanted the garage in back of the house, and what Flood wanted he was going to get.
Kay and Frank passed the doors of the garage and then circled around the left side of the building. There were two folding lawn chairs and a weather-beaten redwood table under a large rubber tree a few yards from the building, and they sat down there.
"No," Frank was saying, "I've never met him. But I know all about him. He's the best torch in the business. Flood wouldn't have him if he weren't the best."
"But Frank," Kay said, "you should see him. Doesn't look as though he could get out of his own way. And his eyes. He looks insane. There's something sick, unhealthy, about him. He gives me the creeps."
"Look, kid," Frank said, "of course he gives you the creeps. What the hell, the guy's a maniac. If Flood wasn't paying him to do it, he'd do it anyway. That's how he gets his kicks. He likes to see 'em burn."
A shiver went through her and she shook her head. "Well, thank God, he's your problem," she said. "But you better get him sobered up and out of those smelly clothes before you start taking him around town. The way he looks and smells, he could be locked up on general principles."
"Don't worry about him," Frank said. "He'll be all right. I'll let him rest up and take him around this afternoon. It'll have to be this afternoon. Paulmeyer gets in tomorrow and I'll have to drive down to Fort Pierce and see him. I want to take him the plans and go over the details."
"Paulmeyer?" Kay said. "He's the... "
"He's the dynamiter," Frank said.
Suddenly he turned in his seat so that he was facing her. His face was very sober and there was a petulant expression in his eyes.
"Goddamn it, baby," he said, "I wish you didn't have to go to Palm Beach: I wish you didn't have to see Flood tomorrow."
She reached quickly for his hand and squeezed it. She tried to be easy and casual about it, to keep the undercurrent of worry out of her voice.
"Don't worry about Flood," she said. "I can handle him all right."
"Nobody can handle him," Frank said. "I know.. My God, I've been around him enough."
He looked down at the ground between his feet, his eyes half squinted and worry lines around his mouth.
"What I still can't get is his sending you down here with me. He might have figured--"
"Not Flood," she interrupted. "You know how he figures. Nobody would ever have the guts to take anything from him. He's not used to losing."
"I know," he said. "He keeps 'em until he's tired of 'em and then he throws 'em out."
She took her hand away suddenly and her eyes held a hurt, unhappy look.
"We weren't going to talk about it, Frank," she said.
"O.K. O.K., we won't. But I can tell you one thing: The second this job is over and done with, I'm through. Through for good. Then we cut and run."
She looked over at him and again her hand found his.
"That's right, Frank," she said. "We'll both be through. So don't worry about him. It won't be long now. Just until Saturday. Nothing can happen until then. You know Flood. He won't let anything, anything at all, interfere with this one. This is his pet, the big one. The job means more to him than anything else."
He leaned