and looked along the car roof at Baker. He was using his friendly grin, gold tooth and all.
`How you doing?’ he said. `Sleeping in a public place, around here you could get arrested for vagrancy.’
I grinned a friendly grin right back at him.
`Highway safety,’ I said. `They tell you don’t drive if you’re tired. Pull off and take a nap, right?’
`Come on in and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee,’ he said. `You want to wake up, Eno’s coffee should do it for you.’
I locked the car. Kept my hand in my pocket. We crunched over the gravel and into the diner. Slid into the end booth. The woman with the glasses brought us coffee. We hadn’t asked. She just seemed to know.
`So how you doing?’ Baker said. `Feeling bad about your brother?’
I shrugged at him. Drank my coffee left-handed. My right hand was wrapped around the Desert Eagle in my pocket.
`We weren’t close,’ I said.
Baker nodded.
`Roscoe still helping the Bureau out?’ he said. `Guess so,’ I said.
`And where’s old Finlay tonight?’ he asked. `Jacksonville,’ I said. `He had to go to Florida, check something out.’
`Jacksonville?’ he said. `What does he need to check out in Jacksonville?’
I shrugged again. Sipped my coffee.
`Search me,’ I said. `He doesn’t tell me anything. I’m not on the payroll. I’m just an errand boy. Now he’s got me running up to Hubble’s place to fetch him something.’
`Hubble’s place?’ Baker said. `What you got to fetch from there?’
`Some old papers,’ I said. `Anything I can find, I guess.’
`Then what?’ he said. `You going to Florida too?’
I shook my head. Sipped more coffee.
`Finlay told me to stick them in the mail,’ I said. `Some Washington address. I’m going to sleep up at Hubble’s place and mail them in the morning.’
Baker nodded slowly. Then he flashed his friendly grin again. But it was forced. We finished up our coffee. Baker dropped a couple of bucks on the table and we slid out and left. He got into his patrol car. Waved at me as he drove off. I let him go ahead and strolled over the gravel to the Bentley. I rolled south to the end of the dark little town and made the right turn up Beckman Drive.
TWENTY-SIX
I had to be very careful about where I put the Bentley. I wanted it to look like it was just casually dumped. But it had to be left so nobody could get past it. I inched it back and forth for a while. Left it at the top of Hubble’s driveway with the wheels turned away. It looked like I’d driven up in a hurry and just slewed to a stop.
I wanted the house to look like I was in there. Nothing is more obvious than an empty building. That quiet, abandoned look is a giveaway. There’s a stillness. No human vibrations. So I opened the front door with the key from the big bunch Charlie had given me. Walked through and turned on some random lights. In the den, I switched the television set on and left it at a low murmur. Same thing with the radio in the kitchen. Pulled a few drapes. Went back outside. It looked pretty good. Looked like there might be someone in there.
Then the first stop was the coat closet off the main hallway. I was looking for gloves. Not easy to find in the Sunbelt. Not much call for them. But
Hubble had some. Two pairs, lying neatly on a shelf. One was a pair of ski gloves. Lime green and lilac. Not much good to me. I wanted something dark. The other pair was what I wanted. Dressy things in thin black leather. Banker’s gloves. Very soft. Like a second skin.
The ski gloves made me look for a hat. If the Hubbles had taken trips up to Colorado, they’d have had all the gear. I found a box of hats. There was a kind of watch cap in there, some sort of a synthetic fibre. The bottom part rolled down to make earflaps. The hat was printed up in a dark green pattern. It would do.