“I got it,” Rafer said loudly, hitting his fist against his palm. He paused significantly, his chest expanded again. They all looked at him, all except Grogan. The fist hit the palm again and Rafer said, “They were hired by someone who knows about—”

But just then Grogan looked at Rafer. And Corey thought, That look—it’s like pressing a button that shuts off the noise!

Rafer stood there stiffly, blinking hard and swallowing air. Grogan went on looking at him. Some moments passed and then Grogan turned away and moved toward the table, sat down and muttered aloud to himself, “I swear I don’t know how I manage. What I have to put up with. The people I have around me.”

“I didn’t say nothin’,” Rafer tried to make repairs. “All I said was—”

Grogan looked at him. Some of the men squirmed uneasily. Rafer had his mouth clamped tightly, his features twisted in a straining grimace as he made the effort to remain quiet.

“You want me to really do it?” Grogan said very quietly to Rafer. “You want me to pull your tongue out with pliers?”

Rafer opened his mouth. He started to say something; then forced it back, and his lips locked again.

One of the men said to Grogan, “Whatever it is, you can tell us. After all, we’re on the payroll.”

“That’s right,” another put in. “It ain’t as if we’re Outsiders.”

And a third one said, “There’s somethin’ happenin’, we’d like to know about it.”

“You want me to tell you?” Grogan murmured.

“Sure.”

“Well, I’m not gonna tell you.”

“But look, Walt—I mean, after all—”

“I’m not gonna tell you,” Grogan said.

“That closes it,” Rafer barked importantly. He came over and stood at Grogan’s side. Again his chest expanded with authority as he scowled at the five men grouped near the table. One of them started to say something and Rafer said, “Cut it, and don’t bring it up again.”

They didn’t talk back. A few of them shrugged. One of them sighed resignedly. It wasn’t that they were afraid of Rafer. It was simply that they all drew weekly paychecks from Grogan and they needed the employment. They had wives and children, and they couldn’t afford to risk getting fired.

Grogan lifted himself from the chair. For a moment he looked thoughtfully at the two corpses. Then he said, “All right, now here’s how we handle this. We’ll hafta call the law and show them what we got here. We tell the law they tried for a heist. They wanted money and that’s all they wanted. Not a word about them wanting me.”

“That understood?” Rafer frowned sternly at the five men. “You say it just like he tells you to say it.”

“They got it,” Grogan murmured. He gave Rafer a weary look. “Go on, make the call.”