At opening time I drove my own car into a dealer's yard and told the man I needed a sale that morning. That was my first mistake. He walked around it slowly, lifting a finger to a dent I had stopped noticing. Yesterday that dent had meant nothing beyond an old scrape. Now he made it worth several dollars. I named a price that would pay Frank and leave something toward Bruno's truck. The dealer shook his head before I finished. He knew time belonged to him.
He offered less than I could bear to hear. I got behind the wheel and started the engine, intending to leave. Then I pictured Leo listening for footsteps beyond the inner door. I shut it off again. 'Look under it,' I said. 'Drive it.' The dealer obliged, making me wait beside a puddle while he took the car around the block. When he returned, he increased his offer a little. It was still low, but enough for Frank's demand with a narrow remainder. I asked for an hour.
Outside the dealer's I found Paul trying to start the car the dealer used for errands. The dealer had gone inside. Paul had never had much trouble persuading anybody to let him behind a wheel. "Get in, Nico." I stayed on the curb. He turned the engine off. "I gave Walt a ride that day. I didn't fire the shot." For months I had imagined what I would do if he said it. What I did was pull the passenger door open and sit down beside him, as if we had another pickup. He'd known which van Walt was using. He'd told him who I had coming for us. Danny would have carried any of us home.
"Walt's gone to the garage," he said. "Frank figures Bruno will put him in the ground if he comes outside without a prisoner." I could run and bring Bruno; I could already hear the kind of meeting that would make. Instead I asked Paul whether he still had the key to Leo's room. He put his hand over the key in his pocket, a boy guarding his fare. He hadn't offered to turn it. He wanted to know that if it came out, I'd stand there with him. It was the worst man I could think of to put my trust in and the only one who could open that room from the inside.
I sold my car. It got me into Frank's office dressed as the fool he expected, with the amount he had named in my pocket. It didn't buy one hinge on that door. The dealer removed my plate, and Paul went back on foot ahead of me. I stood by the empty space a minute, long enough to be sure that if Paul sold me again I'd have neither a way out nor the money to buy one. I went anyhow.
At Frank's garage I put the demanded amount on the workbench but kept my hand over it. 'Open the door first.' Frank looked at the money and said Leo would stay until Bruno agreed there would be no interference afterward. I gathered the notes back together. My knees felt loose. Paying had been the one action I could see ahead of me all morning. Now he wanted my word to reach beyond the release, and I had none left to spend for another man.
'You named a price,' I said. Frank told Paul to take the money. Paul came close enough to see the shaking in my hand. I stepped away from the bench. If I left, Bruno would come; I said that plainly, not as a threat I controlled. 'You can open it while we're standing here, or keep waiting for men who won't ask you.' Frank swore at me. Behind the inner door Leo struck once, a dull blow that stopped our talking. Paul looked toward the sound.
I slid the envelope away from Frank. At the far end of the passage Walt came out between us and the locked room. His coat was open and his eyes were on the inside door. I couldn't tell whether Frank had bought time for him or whether Walt had come on his own. I could see the piece of blued steel just clear of his lapel. I knocked the bench over. Walt and I went into the wall together. His gun discharged into the bench; boards sprang up between us. Frank dived away from the noise. Paul had a clear path back through the yard. He ran the other way. I heard the key grate in the lock and Leo say Paul's name as if he'd never heard it before.
Walt had a hand in my hair when Leo pulled me clear. Paul held the door open with his shoulder; the key was still in his hand. I got my coat round Leo. My envelope lay under the splintered bench. I left it where it lay. Frank and Walt were both on their feet when we stumbled into daylight. Bruno was already out of his car. When he saw Paul with the key he swung round so quickly that the driver behind him had to jump clear of the open door.