“Who’s calling please?”
“Tommy Dancer.”
There was a slight pause then the woman’s voice said, “Just a moment and I’ll see if she’s here.”
She was. She said: “Tommy, I find that I’ll be able to meet you after all.”
“Where?”
“Let’s see. How about right at the end of the Strip where Beverly Hills starts, at the bridle path. In about an hour and a half?”
“I’ll be there.”
“Good.”
Tommy hung up the receiver and scowled at the phone. How much punishment could a man take? Tommy asked himself the question and answered it grimly. A lot! If it was the right woman. For Tommy there had never been another woman. He did not think there ever would be. He walked slowly out of the building and suddenly grimaced as he saw Louie standing on the sidewalk near the beige-colored coupe. He had forgotten about him.
“A little stepping out tonight, huh?” Louie asked. “I hope you make it a good place. A fellow gets tired of hanging around dumps, you know.”
“I’m getting damn tired of having you hang around!” Tommy replied angrily.
“As to that,” Louie replied, “I’m not having so much fun myself. It’s a job. That’s all.”
Tommy stalked away from him and went to his car. He got in and, making a U-turn, chugged along to Hollywood Boulevard. A few minutes later he got out in front of the Lehigh Apartments on Whitley.
It was probably the Filipino’s afternoon off; for Trent himself answered Tommy’s ring. “Getting to be a regular visitor here,” Trent greeted him.
“Look, Tommy said, I’m not enjoying this any more than you are. And I’m fed up with that gorilla of yours tagging around after me wherever I go.”
“Louie? He hasn’t been bothering you, has he?” Trent shrugged. “I’ll call him off.” A faint smile flitted across his features. “Until tomorrow anyway.”
“Speaking of tomorrow,” Tommy said. “Let me look at those keys.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve been thinking of the one that I said got blurred and I don’t believe it got as blurred as I thought at first. Maybe I can touch it up enough before I go back to the bank.”
“You mean you might be ready to make the haul on the next trip?” Trent asked, excitedly.
Tommy nodded.
Trent reached into his pocket and brought out the two white metal keys. Tommy took them from his hand and stepped to a light Trent followed, his eyes intently on the keys in Tommy’s hand as if afraid Tommy would make them disappear or attempt a substitution. Tommy gave one of the keys only a perfunctory examination but held the other one up to the light and studied it. “I’m sure it will be all right if I just touch up this little nipple here in the second valley. You don’t happen to have a file around, do you? Any kind of file.”
Trent grunted. “How about a nail file?”
“All right. Let me have it.”
“You serious?” Trent looked suspiciously at Tommy but produced a nail file from his pocket.
Tommy took it and ran it across one of the valleys of the key two or three times. He did a little scraping then and applied the file once or twice more.
“There, I’m sure it will work now.”
“Then we can make the big try tomorrow instead of waiting until next week?”
“I don’t see why not.”
Trent drew a deep breath and exhaled heavily. “Whew! I hadn’t counted on pulling it so soon, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t.” He frowned heavily, “If I can only get up nerve enough to go through with it”
“I don’t see where you’ll have to display any nerve,” Tommy said. “It’s me who’ll have to do the dirty work.”
“I still have to be in the bank with you.” Trent took the two keys from Tommy’s hand and studied them. “We’ve got to map it out, every step.”
“You’ll need a suitcase to carry two hundred thousand dollars,” Tommy said.
“Don’t be silly. It’s in a safety deposit box. Whatever the amount is it can’t take up more room than the box. I was thinking of one of those canvas sacks that cashiers carry to and from the bank. Or maybe a little Gladstone bag.”
“How about a brief case?” Tommy asked quietly.
“Will it be big enough?”
“You haven’t any idea how the money will be, large bills or small?”
“I suspect it will be large bills.”
The doorbell whirred and Trent looked at Tommy in surprise then shrugged and walked to the door. He opened it, revealing Earl Faraday. The man whose business was women entered the apartment.
“Am I interrupting something?” he asked mockingly.
“You were,” Trent retorted. “But you’ll be glad to sit in on it, I’m sure.” Trent held up the two safety deposit box keys. “We’ve got them and we’re ready to pull the job.”
Faraday’s eyes narrowed to slits, “When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Faraday took the keys from Trent’s hand and examined them. “You’re sure they’ll fit?”
“They’ll fit,” Tommy said.
“When did you get them?”
“I made the impressions this morning and filed down the keys during the day.”
“But you haven’t tested them. Are you sure they’ll fit?”
“I’m sure.”
“Don’t worry about Tommy,” Trent said. “If he says they’ll fit, they’ll fit. We were just talking about how we were going to manage it tomorrow. Tommy’ll need a bag of some kind. Do you think a brief case will hold all the money there’s likely to be in the box?”
“Two hundred thousand?” Faraday asked. “Let’s see. A stack of a hundred bills, if they are more or less new, is about an inch thick. If they’re hundred dollar bills they’ll run about ten thousand dollars to an inch. In other words the two hundred thousand will make a pile about twenty inches by three by five.” He shook his head. “I don’t think a brief case will be big enough. But what about one of those little leather cases, a Boston bag?”
“Just the thing. What’s more I’ve got one right here in the place. Wait a minute.” Trent strode into the bedroom.
As Trent left the room Faraday surveyed Tommy with a cold eye.
“So now you’ll be a big shot,” he said mockingly.
“Does a bankroll make a big shot?” Tommy retorted, just as coldly.
“It helps. I suppose you’ll buy yourself a big yellow convertible — and find yourself a blonde to match it.”
“I’ve got the girl who’s got the yellow car.”
Faraday moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue. “If you’re insinuating...”
“I’m not insinuating. I’m telling you.”
Faraday took a quick step toward Tommy. “Why, you cheap punk...” He took a wild swing at Tommy. The latter ducked neatly under it and planted his fist in Faraday’s stomach. Faraday grunted as the wind was driven from him and he folded over forward. Tommy stepped back to land a haymaker on the other man’s chin, but before he could deliver it, Willis Trent rushed out of the bedroom.
“Cut it out!” he cried. He sprang in between the two men and caught Tommy’s fist. “Damn you two, can’t you be left alone even a minute?”
“He swung first,” Tommy said sullenly.
By that time Faraday had regained his breath. “I’ll kill you for this,” he choked. “I’ll kill you if it’s the last damn thing I ever do.”
“Make another move at me and it’ll be the last thing you do,” Tommy snarled.
Trent jerked savagely down on Tommy’s arm, half swinging him away from Faraday. “After tomorrow I don’t care what you two do to each other, but you’re not spoiling this job just when it’s ready to spring.”
Tommy exhaled and drew away from Trent. “All right,” he said, “I’ve played along this far, I’ll see it through.”