"Yes, the D key. The D key. It fits the four cells in this corner."
I fumbled through until I had the key tagged D. I opened the cell with
as few clinking noises as possible. "Come on," I said. "We've got to
get out of here in a hurry."
He slipped out and pushed the door shut behind him. We headed for the
stairs and were almost there when I heard somebody coming up. Jimmy
must have heard it, too, because he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
We flattened out as best we could.
Talk about walking right into it! The policeman looked over at us and
said, "What are you doing up here, Robards? Hey, you're not...."
I stepped out and brought out one of the pistols. I said, "Easy now. If
things go wrong for us, I have nothing to lose by shooting you. If you
want to live, play it straight."
He apparently believed me, because he put his hands where I could see
them and shut up.
I herded him into Jimmy's cell and let Jimmy do the honors with the
loaded sock. We taped him up and while Jimmy was locking him in, I
heard somebody in one of the cells behind me say, "Shut up, there," to
somebody else. I turned and said, "Do you want to get shot?"