Eddie shook the Warden’s hand, stood up, and turned to go. “Don’t forget, Eddie, just toe the line, and you’ll be all right”
Eddie smiled back and nodded again.
Yassuh, boss, he thought, I’ll do that little thing; I’ll just do that.
When Eddie Cappen told his parole officer he intended to get a job with a garage, the lean, suspicious man arched an eyebrow and glanced over Eddie’s record. Auto theft.
“Isn’t that a little too close to your old trouble, Cappen?”
Eddie had made a calculated move, and now was the time to back it up.
“Well, sir, I don’t really know anything else but cars. I worked in the auto body shop at the Pen, and they said I was pretty good. I — I thought I’d put what talent I’ve got to good use.”
There was more talk, but finally Eddie convinced the parole officer he was best suited to the role of a mechanic, that he was sincerely interested in the garage business, and that his eventual goal was to open his own auto body and repair shop.
That week he went to work for Mickey Dalco at the little man’s garage. Mickey knew Eddie had a record, but pursuing his policy of giving ex-cons a chance, he hired Cappen nonetheless. “Just work hard and leave the till alone, Eddie, and you’ve got yourself a good job for a long time.” Mickey and Eddie shook hands on it
Later that week he met with his parole officer again, and checked in, giving him the news of the job. The parole officer was still suspicious, but it seemed Eddie was taking steps in the right direction. He smiled, and Eddie shook his hand on it
Still later that week, Eddie met with the old members of his car-heist gang. He talked to them in the back room of a beauty parlor, operated by his ex-girl friend.
They sat around, having shoved the hair driers aside, and Eddie grinned at the four men and one girl around the room.
“Benny,” he said to a dapper, thin man, “what’s the best method for grabbing a car you’ve ever found?”
Benny ran a hand through his greased hair, and replied slowly, “I use the adhesive tape. I take two rolls and lay a strip vertically down the window, with each of them, so there are like two bars on the window. I leave enough tape about the middle of the window so I can get a hold on it, then I jerk down real hard. It opens the window every time.”
Eddie interrupted. “What’re the risks?”
“They know my routine, the cops. If I’m caught with a roll of adhesive on me, they book me on suspicion.”
Eddie nodded, turned to the second man. “What’s your bit, Vinny?”
Vinny sucked in on the cigarette perpetually hanging from a corner of his slash mouth, said, “I use a jump wire on the motor. The under ‘alligator’ clip, so’s the vibrations of the motor don’t shake the jump loose.”
Eddie said again, “Risks?”
Vinny shrugged helplessly, “Same as Benny’s, but also the wire sometimes comes loose anyhow, and I stall in the middle of the street.”
Then it was the third man’s turn. Grouse answered quickly, “I use two spoons. I shove one between the rubber edgings on the little window, stick the other one in and bend it, twist the second spoon so it opens the handle of the little window.”
“Then you’re in, right?” Grouse nodded, and Eddie added, “but you’ve got the same problems as the others.”
Grouse replied, “Not only that, but it’s harder than hell to get into a car these days that way. People spot you, what can you say?”
Benny inserted, “Yeah, and with my adhesive tape method, it don’t work so well with power windows.”
Eddie looked at the last man, “And you, Tom?”
“I use a rolled-up magazine. The big, thick ones. I use it for a lever. Jack-handle it over the door handle and jerk down. I’m strong, that’s why it works.”
Then the woman spoke. “Okay, Eddie, we all know how each other make a buck. We know all the routines, and we know all the handicaps. What’s the score?”
Eddie Cappen slid back in his seat, tilted his hat back on his head and grinned widely. “Kiddies, I’ve got the pitch of the year. The only sure-fire way of getting off with a hot car.”
They grinned back at him, first dubiously, unbelievingly, but as he explained in detail, their grins grew wider, and finally …
Eddie shook hands on it.
Six months of inactivity came first. Eddie had to allay the fears and suspicions of the parole officer. He also had to get Mickey Dalco’s complete trust. Trust that would allow Eddie to say:
“Mick, I’ve got some more work to do on re-touching that ’71 Chevy’s paint job over the rust repair. Okay with you if I stay late tonight?”
Trust that would allow Mickey Dalco to reply:
“Yeah. Sure. Here’s the keys, Eddie. Lock up tonight, and just be here by eight tomorrow mornin’, so’s I don’t have to stand around in the cold waitin’.”
Trust like that took six months.
Trust like that allowed Eddie to use the tow truck. The big red tow truck with the Dalco sign on it.
MICKEY DALCO AUTO REPAIRS
CAR REPAINTING AND SERVICE
CALL: 384-8821
Trust like that was important. But finally trust like that came, and with it, Eddie’s first venture into the foolproof car-jacking system typified by the phrase “toe the line.”
Or, more correctly, “ tow the line.”
Eddie took Vinny with him on the first job. They took out the tow truck on Eddie’s lunch hour, in broad daylight.
“Mickey, I’m gonna use the tow. Want to take a run uptown, see if they got my TV installed at home. Okay with you?”
“Sure, Eddie. Go ahead. But I’ll need you pretty quick after lunch. Don’t dawdle.”
“I won’t.”
Eddie didn’t dawdle. He traveled the nine blocks to the alley where Vinny waited with the big sign. The sign had pressure-sensitive tape stuck to its back, and it fitted neatly over the Dalco advertising on the side of the truck. The new sign read
IMPERIAL REPAIRS
ALL HOURS
CALL 723-6922 FOR SERVICE
With the sign up, they went looking. The car they wanted was parked double outside an apartment building, and Eddie backed up to the Continental in accepted tow style. He got out and lowered the winch chain. He hooked the big steel hook under the front fender, noting through the locked car window that the emergency was off and the car was in park. It wasn’t really necessary; even rear-wheel drives move with their front wheels off the ground, but there was no chance of error if you were observant.
That was Eddie’s key to success. Be observant, and nothing can go wrong.
He jumped back in beside Vinny, and they took off quickly. A few pedestrians idly took notice of the big red tow truck hauling away the new Landau-top Continental, but had they been checked later, they could not have told what the men looked like who had done the towing, what the sign on the truck said, or which way they had gone after they’d turned the corner.
It was a foolproof method.
On the fifth job they learned it was better to hoist the car by the rear wheels, for two reasons: the car followed the truck better, and they had found cases where front-wheel towing was impossible due to locked brakes. It was the sort of thing experience taught, as was the incident that occurred on that fifth job.