The beams kept strafing. The windowpanes flickered. A black amp; white passed the building. Two fat cops yawned.
Dwight counted watch minutes. The second hand crawled. The windows stayed dark for a forty-eight-count. Okay, that’s it.
He watched the lobby. There they are. The laundry bags are bulging. Go out the door. Get the van and take off.
The other three walked ahead. Karen stood on the sidewalk and faced him. He kissed his fingers and touched the windshield. Karen raised a clenched fist.
SHOCK WAVES FROM SOUTHSIDE ROBBERY-MURDER
COMPLEX PORTRAIT OF VICTIM EMERGES FROM INVESTIGATION
Lionel D. Thornton, 51, the president of the Peoples’ Bank of South Los Angeles, died a horrible death Monday night. Returning from a viewing of the Ali-Frazier boxing match at a popular local taxicab stand, he was waylaid outside the bank and forced inside. He was subsequently robbed of his cab-stand receipts, tortured and killed. Preliminary investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department has revealed that the robber-killer or killers went through the bank in a fit of rage, perhaps looking for a hidden vault or perhaps currency secreted by Mr. Thornton on the premises. Sadly, the crime may have derived from never-substantiated rumors pertaining to Mr. Thornton himself.
“I’ve got nothing but good things to say about Mr. Thornton,” the lead investigator, Sergeant Robert S. Bennett, told reporters at a hastily called press conference Tuesday afternoon. “He’s been a mainstay of the local black community for many years, as one can feel in the outpouring of grief over his death and in the number of glowing tributes we have heard since the news broke this morning.”
Sergeant Bennett, 49, is overseeing six full-time detectives charged with solving the case and bringing the suspect or suspects to justice. “I personally believe Mr. Thornton to have been a blameless individual,” he told reporters. “That stated, I believe that this crime stems from the long-held southside rumor that perhaps Mr. Thornton had organized-crime ties and was hoarding laundered money on the bank’s premises. I do not believe the rumors. I believe that the crime stemmed from persistently held misinformation. The tragedy is that Mr. Thornton gave his life for $2,000 in cab receipts, and that the suspect or suspects killed him and decimated the bank interior in a search for something that was not there.”
The investigation continues. Sergeant Bennett and his six-man team will spearhead the drive to apprehend the slayer or slayers of Lionel D. Thornton. A backup investigation will be fielded by the
Los Angeles Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, supervised by Special-Agent-in-Charge John C. Leahy.
DH: Good morning, Sir.
JEH: It is decidedly not.
DH: Sir?
JEH: The Resident Agency in Media, Pennsylvania, was burglarized Monday night. A great many files were stolen.
DH: Is it secured, Sir? And forgive my ignorance, but I don’t know where Media is.
JEH: It’s a two-man office space near Philadelphia. The file bank holds overflow from the New York, Boston and Philadelphia offices. The break-in occurred while local police officers were at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor, watching replays of the Cassius Clay-Smokin’ Joe Frazier Battle of the Apes.
DH: Sir, is it secure?
JEH: It is. The break-in was discovered by the agents themselves. They bypassed the Media PD and called the Philadelphia SAC. Media has not yet made the media.
DH: The files, Sir?
JEH: Bland, by your Los Angeles Office standards. Damning by the standards of addlepated civil libertarians. We lost adjunct surveillance files, tap files and
DH: It’s a shocking breach, Sir.
JEH: You are muddle-headed and swoony with emotion today, Dwight. Extended stays in sanitariums undermine strong people. They confuse their emotional states with the world.
DH: Yes, Sir.
JEH: That’s better. The old “Enforcer.” Hard-edged and submissive.
DH: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Better yet.
DH: Yes, Sir.
JEH: I’m sure we’re thinking along similar lines. Which lunatic fringe group will claim credit? Will they release the files? Which treasonous leftist rag will they release them to?
DH: How many agents are on it, Sir?
JEH: Forty-six, full-time. Of course, there are no witnesses and the thieves left no physical evidence.
DH: I’ll query my informants, Sir.
JEH: Do that. Offer cash incentives and employ your generally intrusive methods with my full sanction.
DH: Yes, Sir.
JEH: I have sent out a general memo to all our field offices. The file sections are being security enhanced at this very moment.
DH: Yes, Sir.
JEH: Do not underestimate my resolve to forestall future break-ins. Do not underestimate the robust state of my health. My physician, Dr. Archie Bell, considers me to be an outstanding specimen.
DH: Yes, Sir.
JEH: President Nixon is mentally ill. He refuses to inform me that he will reappoint me as director after his fait accompli reelection next year. I’m telling it like it is, Brother Dwight. Tricky Dick has asked me to black-bag the major Democratic candidates, which I have declined to do. I’m dragging my heels. Nixey boy is starting to sweat.
DH: I can dig it, Sir.
JEH: I’m sure you can. And your mental health? Have you regained your brusque grasp of life?
DH: In spades, Sir.
JEH: We lost some files, but we will prevail in the end. The files in my superbly secure basement would bring down the world.
DH: Right on, Sir.
JEH: Good day, Dwight.
DH: Good day, Sir.
RMN: Good evening, Dwight.
DH: Good evening, Mr. President.
RMN: It’s been too long, my friend.
DH: I agree, Sir.
RMN: Are you keeping busy?
DH: I certainly am, Sir.
RMN: That’s the ticket. Keep going until your hat floats.
DH: That is very sage advice, Sir.
RMN: It is. On that note, I would have to say that you-know-who must be very busy fretting over that break-in.
DH: He is, Sir. We were discussing it this morning. May I ask if he was the one who informed you?
RMN: The attorney general called me. He said, “The old girl may have her dick in the wringer.”
DH: May I be blunt, Sir?
RMN: By all means, Dwight. Why mince words? I only call you when I’ve been belting a few and I’ve got a yen for bluntness.
DH: The burglars will or will not claim credit and may or may not leak the files. Parenthetically, I would add that Media, PA, is the Siberia of file holes and that all the data in the files pre-dates your administration.
RMN: I like that.
DH: I thought you might, Sir.
RMN: Here’s my fear. I’m thinking what’s-her-name may be infirm to the point where she’ll deploy her files on me to keep her job.
DH: You’ll be reelected next November, Sir. Inauguration Day 1973 sounds like a good time to cut your losses.
RMN: I like that.
DH: I thought you might, Sir. And please let me add that should the break-in be claimed and the files go out resultantly, it will make you-know-who quite circumspect about releasing files in any sort of derogatory manner.
RMN: Dwight, you my main man.
DH: Thank you, Sir.