Chapter 4
One man was sleek and dark, the other bald, chunky, and of no particular shadings. The dark man was younger by at least ten years and, even though he seemed not to enjoy it, did everything the older man said.
He came back to the car and put his head inside. "They picked up another car here, just like you figured, but there's four ways out of town. So which way would they pick?"
Scarpo rubbed his hand over his bald head, hating the heat, the mugginess, hating having to sit in it with the air conditioner turned off while the big car was parked at the curb. He said, "They been coming on south all the time. Stands to reason they'll keep on that way. The broad is smart, though, she thought if she turned in the rental car here, that we'd figure she was at the end of the line and start chasing around this goddamned hot town looking for her."
The other man stood up again, looked up and down the street. "Cost us a whole day, anyhow. What now?"
Rubbing a handkerchief over his head, Scarpo said, "Geech, we just keep going. Next big town, we got it all to do again, check out the agencies. She can't leave that car in no little town, only one big enough for rental cars." He grunted and climbed out of the Continental, a wide, rumpled man obviously uncomfortable in the climate. "I'll go in the bus station and call north, have 'em check out the broad's background some more, see if they can't tell us about where she'll land when she stops running. You sit in the car."
"Okay," Geech said, "I can take the heat out here."
Scarpo looked at him. "We don't find Mrs. Luther and her kid sister, there's going to be some heat we can't take, from the Company."