He cut my ankles free.
“Stand up and turn round.”
Benno came to the door, a snub-nosed automatic in his hand. He kept me covered while
Ricca freed my hands.
“Okay,” Ricca said, pulling a gun from his hip pocket. “Let’s go.”
I went first and he followed. We walked down the four flights of stairs. Drawn up outside
the front door was a dark-blue Packard.
“You drive, Johnny. I’ll sit at the back. And snap into it. I don’t imagine Benno will keep
his hands off her for long. She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
My sick fear for her turned to cold, vicious rage against him. I didn’t say anything but
drove fast until I reached Roosevelt Boulevard. Here the traffic was heavy, and it took me
some minutes to weave the car to a standstill outside the Safe Deposit building.
A guard came over.
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“I deposited a suitcase here this morning. I want to pick it up.”
“You know the way, sir? Mr. Evesham will look after you.”
I said I knew the way, and went up the steps with Ricca at my heels.
The princely Mr. Evesham looked surprised when he saw me, but he remembered his
manners and stood up and bowed.
“My partner’s arrived unexpectedly,” I said, waving to Ricca. “I’ll want the suitcase for a
couple of days.”
“Certainly, sir. Shall I come up with you?”
“That’s okay. I know my way.”
“I’ll have the receipt for you to sign when you come down.”
“Thanks,” I said, and walked over to the elevator.
Ricca stood beside me, smiling, as the elevator took us to the fifth floor.
“They arrange things well here,” he said. “Might be an idea to have something like this at
the casino.”
I didn’t say anything. When the elevator stopped, I walked down the corridor with him just
behind me.
The guard came out of the guard house.
“Let me have the key to room 46,” I said.
He studied me, then went away. After a moment or so he returned and handed me the key.
“Third door on the right, sir.”
I continued down the corridor and stopped outside room 46.
“Without your co-operation,” Ricca said, “it would have been impossible to get the money.
What a sensible young man you are.”
I unlocked the door and pushed it open.
“Quite luxurious,” Ricca said, looking in. He made no move to enter. “I think I’ll wait here.
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Bring the money to me.”
But I wanted him inside with the door shut.
“The door has to be closed before the safe will open,” I said, entering the room. “Wait
outside if you like.”
He looked up and down the empty corridor, then pulled out his gun.
“In that case I’ll come in with you. I don’t trust you out of my sight, but don’t make any
false moves.”
I had no qualms about killing him. Ginny’s life and mine were worth a lot more to me than
his. I knew the sound of a ‘22 wouldn’t be heard outside the steel-lined room.
I stood beside the safe and began to spell out the combination. I was calm and my hands
were steady. I kept thinking of Ginny along with Benno. I knew I mustn’t make the slightest
slip.
The safe door swung open.
“Better keep back,” I said. “There’s a gadget somewhere that photographs when the safe is
opened.”
“They seem to have thought of everything,” Ricca said. I could tell by his voice he wasn’t
suspicious. “Is the money there?”
“What do you think?” I hauled out the suitcase and dumped it on the table. There wasn’t
room for him to come around and stand by my side. He faced me. I snapped back the locks
and threw open the case. The open lid was towards him. He couldn’t see what was inside the
case. I tossed a bundle of bills on the table as he began to move forward. He paused and
looked at them, an oily smile spreading over his face. That gave me the opportunity to pick
up the .22 lying in the case.
I aimed through the lid of the case at his belly. A little gun like a -22 hasn’t much stopping
power, but I knew a slug in his gut would paralyse him. I waited until he began to move forward again, then looking right at him, I squeezed the trigger.
The gun went off with a noise like the breaking of a dry stick. Ricca reared back, his face
contorted with agony, his hands clutching at his fat paunch. Then he folded forward as if he
had a hinge in his back. His gun dropped out of his hand, and he fell across the table, his face
hanging over the upraised lid of the suitcase.
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I gave the top of his head a hard shove, and he slid off the table on to the floor.
I was breathing heavily, and I began to shake as I watched him squirm about on the floor,
his hands pressed to his belly, blood oozing out between his fingers.
I picked up his gun. Holding it by the barrel I bent over him. We stared at each other. There
was a film forming over his eyes, but by the way his mouth twisted into a snarl I knew he
could still see me. I hit him very hard in the centre of his forehead. The heavy butt of the gun
crashed down, breaking the akin and driving a little hollow into the broad expanse of bone.
He stopped squirming and stiffened out. For perhaps a second or so I stood over him, then
sure I had taken care of him I straightened up and stepped away from him.
I wiped the sweat from my face, dropped his gun by his side and shoved the .22 into my hip
pocket. I shut the suitcase and snapped down the locks. Then without looking at him, I
stepped to the door and opened it. The corridor was still empty. I locked the door, dropped
the key into my pocket and walked quickly to the guard room.
The guard appeared.
“I’m checking out,” I said. “My partner’s going through some papers. He may be some
time. Don’t disturb him, will you?”
“That’s all right, sir.”
“He has the key. He’ll give it to you when he leaves. What time do you shut?”
“Six-thirty, sir.”
I looked at my wrist-watch. It was now a quarter to four. I had nearly three hours in which
to get clear.
“He’ll be through by then.”
I rode down in the elevator. Mr. Evesham was waiting for me.
“My partner’s working up there. I’ve fixed it with the guard.”
“Quite all right, sir.”
“I’m taking the case. Do you want me to sign anything?”
He gave me a couple of forms. I signed where he indicated.
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“I’ll be back in a couple of days.”
“You are very welcome, sir,” he returned with a stately bow.
A guard opened the door of Ricca’s car as I came down the steps. I slung the suitcase in the
back and got in under the steering-wheel.
“Thanks,” I said as he closed the door.
I drove fast to Franklin Boulevard.
II
I parked the car outside the back entrance of 3945 in a narrow alley that ran parallel with
Franklin Boulevard. I put the suitcase in the boot of the car, then pushed open the garden gate
and entered a wilderness of trees, shrubs and overgrown flowerbeds. I made my way from
tree to tree until I was within sight of the back of the house.
Against the wall, built between two steel shafts, was an outside dumb-waiter, which
tradesmen used to haul up the groceries to the various apartments. I planned to haul myself up
to my apartment in it, and take Benno by surprise.
The chances were he was still in the front room with Ginny. If he was, and I could get into
the apartment without him knowing, I was sure I could take him. There could be no shooting
in that house unless I wanted a hoard of policemen swarming around me, and I didn’t.
As I stood looking up at the windows, a big white cat came out of the shrubbery and rubbed
itself against my leg. It belonged to the janitor, and used to come up to my apartment when