“They’re awful fast,” added Bud Schwartz.
“Oh, please,” said Molly McNamara, shaking her head. Even Danny Pogue picked up on the sarcasm.
“We didn’t know there was only two,” he said. “We thought there must be a whole bunch in a box that size. That’s how come we wasn’t so worried when they got away—see, we thought there was more.”
Molly started rocking a little faster. The rocking chair didn’t squeak a bit on the varnished pine. She said, “I’m very disappointed in the both of you.”
Bud Schwartz helped his partner limp to an ottoman.
All he wanted was to get the money and get the hell out of this spooky old house, away from this crazy witch.
“Here’s the really bad news,” said Molly McNamara. “It’s your truck—only about a thousand people saw you drive away. Now, I don’t know if they got the license tag, but they sure as hell got a good description. It’s all over the TV.”
“Shit,” said Bud Schwartz.
“So you’re going to have to keep a low profile for a while.”
Still breathing heavily, Danny Pogue said, “What’s that mean?”
Molly stopped rocking and sat forward. “For starters, say goodbye to the pickup truck. Also, you can forget about going home. If the police got your tag, they’ll be waiting.”
“I’ll take my chances,” said Bud Schwartz.
“No, you won’t,” said Molly. “I’ll give you a thousand dollars each. You’ll get the rest in two weeks, if things die down. Meanwhile, I’ve arranged a place for you boys to stay.”
“Here?” asked Danny Pogue in a fretful, pain-racked voice.
“No, not here,” Molly said. “Not on your life.”
She stood up from the rocker. The pistol disappeared again into a fuzzy pocket of the blue robe. “Your foot’s going to be fine,” she announced to Danny Pogue. “I hope I made my point.”
The bafflement on the two men’s faces suggested otherwise.
Molly McNamara said, “I chose you for a reason.”
“Come on,” said Bud Schwartz, “we’re just burglars.”
“And don’t you ever forget it,” Molly said.
Danny Pogue couldn’t believe she was talking to them this way. He couldn’t believe he was being terrorized by an old lady in a rocking chair.
“There’s something else you should know,” said Molly McNamara. “There are others.”
Momentarily Bud Schwartz’s mind had stuck on that thousand dollars she’d mentioned. He had been thinking: Screw the other nine, just grab the grand and get lost. Now she was saying something about others—what others?
“Anything happens to me,” Molly said, “there’s others that know who you are. Where you live. Where you hang out. Everything.”
“I don’t get it,” muttered Danny Pogue.
“Burglars get shot sometimes,” Molly McNamara said. “Nobody says boo about it, either. Nobody gets arrested or investigated or anything else. In this country, you kill a burglar and the Kiwanis gives you a plaque. That’s the point I was trying to make.”
Danny Pogue turned to Bud Schwartz, who was staring down at his partner’s swollen foot and wondering if it was too late to make a run for it. Finally he said, “Lady, we’re very sorry about your animals.”
“They’re not my animals,” said Molly, “any more than you are.”
THREE
At half past ten Joe Winder went down to The Catacombs, the underground network of service roads that ran beneath the Amazing Kingdom of Thrills. It was along these winding cart paths, discreetly out of view from visitors, that the food, merchandise, money and garbage were moved throughout the sprawling amusement park. It was also along these secret subterranean passageways that the kiddie characters traveled, popping up suddenly at strategic locations throughout the Amazing Kingdom and imploring tourists to snap their picture. No customers (“guests” was the designated term) ever were allowed to venture into The Catacombs, lest they catch a glimpse of something that might tarnish their image of the Amazing Kingdom—a dog rooting through a dumpster, for example. Or one of Uncle Ely’s Elves smoking a joint.
Which is what Joe Winder saw when he got to the bottom of the stairs.
“I’m looking for Robbie Raccoon,” he said to the elf, who wasn’t particularly jolly or gnome like.
The elf belched blue smoke and asked which Robbie Raccoon he was looking for, since there were three.