Hit List

said.”
    “I think he made a few calls before he got to me. I think guys who do what you do are getting harder to find, and I don’t think it’s because of a dramatic elevation in the moral climate of the nation. I think this son of a bitch has been running around the country shooting the shooters, and I think his strategy’s working. There are fewer of you guys around.”
    “And more work for him.”
    “More work and more money.”
    “Dot, what could he possibly need with it? There’s plenty of work to go around.”
    “There’s less than there was five years ago.”
    “I’m working as much as I ever did.”
    “Maybe because this guy’s thinning the ranks. He’s doing you a favor, if you want to look at it that way.”
    “I don’t think so. Dot, how much money does he think he needs?”
    “For some people, the phrase ‘enough money’ is as meaningless as the sign he held up in Louisville. There’s no such thing as enough.”
    “What’s he going to do with it?”
    “Buy something he couldn’t afford otherwise. Keller, you sink a lot of dollars into your stamp collection. Are there stamps you can’t afford to buy?”
    “Are you kidding? There are stamps, plenty of them, that run into six figures.”
    “And that artist you didn’t kill. Niswander. Did you ever buy one of his paintings?”
    “No.”
    “But you thought about it. You could have bought one if you wanted to, couldn’t you?”
    “Sure.”
    “Suppose you wanted a Picasso.”
    Or a Hopper. “Okay,” he said. “I get it.”
    “The guy’s a pig,” she said. “The more he gets the more he wants. He wants to be the only hitter out there so he can get all the money. What the hell’s the difference why he wants it? That’s not the question. The question is what are we going to do about it.”
    If somebody was trying to kill you, what you did was kill him first. That much seemed obvious.
    But how? Keller killed people all the time, it was what he did, but it was easier when you knew who they were and where to find them. The whole operation was fairly straightforward. It demanded resolve and ingenuity, and it helped if you could think on your feet, but it wasn’t rocket science.
    “I keep thinking he’s from Louisville,” he said, “but he probably flew there himself, same as I did. You know, that may not have been him at the baggage claim. He could have given some mope ten bucks to hold up a sign while he was over to one side, keeping his eyes open.”
    “There has to be a way to find him.”
    “How?”
    They were silent, considering the question. Then Dot said, “How would you do it, Keller?”
    “That’s what I can’t figure, and—“
    “No,” she said. “Suppose you were him. You want to be the Microsoft of murder and wipe out the competition. How would you go about it?”
    “Oh, I see what you mean. How would I even know where to start? I don’t know anybody else who does what I do. It’s not like there’s an annual convention.”
    “That’s good, because I’d hate to see all you guys in funny hats.”
    “He doesn’t know anybody, either,” he said. “That’s why he has to stand around airports. But how does he know what airport to stand around in? You know what I’d do, Dot? Turn down work.”
    “How’s that?”
    “I get a call, can I do such and such a guy in Omaha. I find out all I can about the job and then I make some excuse, why I can’t do it.”
    “Your grandmother’s funeral, that’s always good.”
    “A conflict, a prior commitment, who cares what. I tell the man he’ll have to hire somebody else and then I go to Omaha and see who turns up.”
    “And wait until your replacement does the deed before you take him out. Why wait?”
    “So nobody knows. Say he takes me out that first day in Louisville. Say instead of looking for Ralph he just plants himself outside my door, and when I show my face he gives me my two in the head. Right away, the client knows.”
    “And after the job?”
    “The best thing to do,” he said, “is follow me home.”
    “Which he did, but he went to the wrong room.”
    “No,” he said. “Follow me all the way home. Follow me back to New York, find out who I am and where I live and take me out at leisure, while I’m living my life.”
    “Seeing a movie,” she said. “Pasting stamps in your album.”
    “Whatever. That’s how he worked it with the guy who died in his sleep. Followed him home and bided his time.”
    “But with you he