The Score by Richard Stark

Adapted and illustrated by Darwyn Cooke – where Parker lets himself get talked into a robbery of a mining town by an amateur against his better judgement.  It takes too many men, it’s too close to a state cop station, it’s too risky.  But he agrees when three other thieves he knows are in on it.  They rent a panel truck to haul the men and the loot.  They buy guns, food, cots, and clothes with masks.  The amateur has a girl with him.  That almost gets the job called off.  She gets parked at a motel in another State.  They wait until the company town’s curfew and hit the police department, the fire department, and the phone company first to control the town.  At each place, they leave one of the crew to watch over the place.  Then they hit the three banks, the jewelry stores and finally, the mine.  But the amateur, left to guard the police station turns out to be the ex-police chief who was expelled from the town after one scandal too many.  He kills the policemen and proceeds to set the town on fire.  At the mine, his last grenade causes a wall to fall over on him.  The rest of the crew get away as fast as they can and manage to miss being caught by the cops.  They had found an abandoned part of the mine a few miles away and hid their cars in sheds and the truck at the bottom of a ravine.  One of Parker’s top men brought a girl from the phone company.  She’s seen their faces and can identify them.  Parker tells the man he will have to kill her and bury her deep.  The man refuses, so Parker interviews the girl.  He decides it’s the other guy’s problem.  They lay low for four days.  One of the guys goes stir crazy and demands to get his share so he can leave.  Parker doesn’t let him.  The guy runs his car backwards, too fast down the road to the bottom of the ravine and falls off the road, crashing and burning up in the bottom of the ravine.  The crew has to bury the car, with him in it.  When the waiting period if over, the split the money evenly amongst the remaining men, less the expenses that were financed up from plus the vig.  Parker drives into the other State and visits the amateur’s girl.  She has no where to go, so she settles for Parker.