Enchanted Isle Read Online Free PDF

crucify you in court. It makes sense, what she says. I say let her go.”
    “OK, Beautiful. Go.”
    So I walked up to the motel, went in, and paid. When I came back, Bud said, “Let me look at you, kid.”
    “Right in the eye, Mr. Bud. You see something shifty?”
    “OK.”
    “I want that coat.”
    “I said OK.”
    Bud asked, “Are we set?”
    “There’s just one thing, sir.”
    That was Rick. Pal said, “OK, Chuck, what is it?”
    “This money, this dough we’re supposed to get, how’s it going to be split, Mr. Pal?”
    “...Why, four ways, of course.”
    “And when?”
    “Soon as we switch cars. On a thing like this we use two to throw off whatever’s on our tail. Once in the second car, we can stop and make the split—put Beautiful’s share, and yours, in your bag, our share in our bag, which we have in the first car. Then we set you two down, you flag a cab and go with Beautiful, help her pick out the coat. You still don’t know us, who we are, to tell any tales, and likewise we don’t know you. Fair enough?”
    “I guess so. OK, sir.”
    “Beautiful?”
    “I already said. I’m in.”
    “Let’s go.”

5
    H E PICKED UP MY bag and led to the parking lot, the one in back of the coffee pot. He took keys from his pocket, unlocked a black sedan, then handed the key ring to Rick, telling him, “O.K., Chuck, let’s see how you handle a car.” But Bud cut in: “Not him, the girl. When we wind up that heist I want this car to be there.” So Pal took the ring from Rick and gave it to me, first picking out the key I would want, and told me, “Get in there, take it away.” So I did, slipping the key in the ignition and starting the motor, then lifting the door locks so he and Rick and Bud could get in on the other side. He got in beside me, Bud and Rick behind. Back of me, upended on the back seat, was a zipper bag like mine except bigger, while on the floor in front of it was a wastebasket, a metal thing chocolate brown in color, with slots in the sides. Pal put my bag on the seat between him and me, then snapped all the door locks down, except the one back of me was already snapped down. “OK, Beautiful, when you get off the lot, turn right, then run straight ahead till I tell you to turn. You’ll be taking a right.”
    “Right, straight ahead, then right?”
    “That’s it, take it away.”
    So I turned onto the street, which was called Wilkens Avenue, and right away Bud chirped up, “She’s OK, she drives like we want.”
    And Pal explained to me, “What he’s talking about, Beautiful, is that signal you gave. Strictly speaking, you didn’t have to, from a parking lot to a street, but you did anyway, from habit, which is what we want. Because on something like this it’s the little things that can trip you. You line all the big things up, and then you go through a light, or park next to a fire plug, or don’t stick that flipper out—and a cop flags you down. But you do stick it out, so OK. Keep it up, you’re doing fine.”
    We passed Colypte, and he said, “Take it easy, also slow down for a couple of blocks so you get the run of this street. This plant, it’s part of this job we’re pulling.”
    “We passed it last night on our walk.”
    “Then get straight how it ties in.”
    He said today, being the fifteenth of June, was payday at the plant, “and they pay off by check. But every one of those people, the people who work in the plant, take their check to the bank, that one beyond the light. ...”
    “We passed it on our walk too.”
    “And the bank cashes them. So what does it get for being so nice about it? It gets that some of those people, after they cash their checks, deposit some in their savings accounts. But to meet that heavy demand, the bank has extra cash, over a hundred grand, that’s sent out from downtown—it came out last night, we checked, so everything’s in order. ...OK, there’s your light. Now drive on past the bank. It’s a branch of the Chesapeake