Эд Макбейн - Let’s Hear It For The Deaf Man

Never let it be said that policemen look with prejudice upon citizens who have previously been convicted of a crime.

Of the four guests in the Deaf Man’s room at the Devon Hotel, three had previously been convicted of crimes. The fourth was a plain-looking woman in her late thirties, and she had never so much as received a parking ticket. The hotel was one of the city’s lesser-known dumps, furnished economically and without imagination. There was only one easy chair in the room, and the men had graciously allowed the lady to claim it. They themselves sat on straight-backed wooden chairs facing a small end table that had been pulled up and placed within the semicircle they formed. A child’s slate was propped up on the end table. The Deaf Man had served drinks (the lady had politely declined), and they sat sipping them thoughtfully as they examined the chalked diagram on the slate.

“Any questions?” the Deaf Man said.

“I’ve got one.”

“Let’s hear it, John.”

John Preiss was a tall slender man with a pock-marked face. He was the only man in the room who had not dressed for the occasion. The others, as though attending a church social, were all wearing jackets and ties. John was wearing a cardigan sweater over an open-throated sports shirt. “Where’s the alarm box?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” the Deaf Man answered. “It’s not important. As I’ve told you before, I expect the alarm to be sounded.”

“I don’t like it,” John said.

“Then this is the time to get out. None of you yet know where the bank is, or when we’re going to hit. If anything about the job doesn’t appeal to you, you’re free to pass.”

“I mean,” John said, “if the damn alarm goes off...”

“It will go off, it has to go off. That’s the least of our worries.”

“Maybe you’d better explain it again, Mr. Taubman,” the woman said.

“I’d be happy to, Angela,” the Deaf Man replied. “Where shall I begin?”

“The beginning might be a good place,” one of the other men said. He was portly, partially balding, chewing on a dead cigar. His name was Kerry Donovan.

“Very well,” the Deaf Man said, and picked up a pointer from the end table. “This is the vault. Forget about getting into it any other way than through the door. The door is opened at eight-thirty every morning, and is not closed until the employees leave at close to five in the evening.”

“What time do we hit?” Rudy Manello asked. He was younger than any of the others, a narrow-faced man, with brown hair combed straight back without a part. He was smoking a cigarette, the ash dangerously close to spilling all over the floor.

“I’ll let you know the time and place as soon as we’re all committed, Rudy.”

“Why all the secrecy?” Rudy asked.

“I do not intend spending any amount of time in prison,” the Deaf Man said, and smiled. “Whereas I trust you all implicitly, I must take certain precautions at this stage of the planning.”

“So let’s hear the plan again,” Angela said, and crossed her legs, a move that had no visible effect on any of the men in the room. Angela Gould was perhaps the least attractive woman the Deaf Man had ever met. Long-nosed, thin-lipped, bespectacled, blessed with curly hair in an age that demanded sleekness, dumpy, with an irritating, whiny voice — impossible, utterly impossible. And yet perfect for the part she would play on the last day of April.

“Here is the plan again,” the Deaf Man said, and smiled graciously. He did not much like any of the people he was forced to deal with, but even the best football coach needs a team to execute the plays. “On the day of the robbery, Kerry will enter the bank, carrying a rather large case in which there will be architectural plans and a scale model of a housing development for which he needs financing. He will previously have made an appointment with the manager, and he will be there ostensibly to show him the plans and the model.”

“Where do we get this stuff?” Kerry asked.

“It is being prepared for us now. By a legitimate architectural firm that believes it to be a bona-fide land-development project.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

“Once inside the manager’s office, you will explain your project and then put your plans and your model on his desk, asking him to come around to your side of the desk so that he can read the plans better. You will do this in order to get him away from the alarm button, which is on the floor under his desk, and which he will be unable to reach from your side.”

“I thought you expected the alarm to go off,” John said.

“Yes, but not until we have the money.”

“The money that’s in the vault.”

“Yes. As I’ve already told you, there will be five hundred thousand dollars in payroll money in the bank’s vault. It will be necessary for Kerry to get into the vault...”

“That’s the part I don’t like,” Kerry said.

“There will be no problem about getting into the vault, Kerry. The moment the manager comes around to your side of the desk, you will put a gun in his back and inform him that a holdup is in progress. You will also tell him that, unless he escorts you to the vault immediately, you will blow his brains out.”

“That’s exactly what bothers me,” Kerry said. “Suppose he says, ‘Go ahead, blow my brains out.’ What do I do then?”

“The bank is insured. You will rarely find heroic bank employees nowadays. They all have instructions to press the alarm button and sit tight until the police arrive. In this case, we are depriving Mr. Alton — that’s the manager’s name — of the opportunity to sound the alarm. I can assure you he will not avail himself of the alternate opportunity — that of having his brains blown out. He will escort you to the vault, quietly and without fuss.”

“I hope so,” Kerry said. “But what if he doesn’t? Since I’m the only guy inside the bank, I’m automatically the fall guy.”

“I will also be inside the bank,” the Deaf Man said.

“Yeah, but you won’t be holding a gun on any manager.”

“I chose you for the job because you’d had previous experience,” the Deaf Man said. “I assumed you would have the nerve to...”

“Yeah, I got caught on my previous experience,” Kerry said.

“Do you want the job or don’t you?” the Deaf Man asked. “You can still get out. No hard feelings either way.”

“Let me hear the rest of it again.”

“You go into the vault with Mr. Alton, carrying your leather case, the architectural contents of which are now in Mr. Alton’s office.”

“In other words,” Angela said, “the case is empty now.”

“Precisely,” the Deaf Man said, and thought, Impossible . “As soon as you are inside the vault, Kerry, you will transfer the payroll to your case, and then allow Mr. Alton to escort you back to his office...”

“Suppose there’s somebody else in the vault when we get in there?”

“You will already have informed Mr. Alton that should anyone question your presence, he is to say you’re there to test the alarm system. Presumably, that is why you are carrying a big black leather case.”

“But suppose somebody’s actually in the vault?” Kerry said. “You didn’t answer the question.”

“Mr. Alton will ask that person to leave. The testing of an alarm system is not something normally open to casual scrutiny by insignificant bank personnel.”

“Okay. So I’m in the vault transferring all that money into my case...”