Evan Hunter - Nobody Knew They Were There

“You say you checked at the depot this morning?” Hester asks.

“Yes.”

“Discreetly, I hope.”

“No, openly. I told the stationmaster that I planned to blow up the California train and was therefore interested in the time of its arrival.”

“There is no need for sarcasm, Mr. Sachs,” Hester says mildly. “We are, of course, concerned.”

“How long is the bridge?” Epstein asks.

“Two hundred yards across the ravine.”

“How long is the train?”

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t you think you should find out?”

“I fully intend to.”

“So that you’ll know when to set off your blast”

“That’s what…”

“So that you’ll get the entire train,” Epstein continues, “and not just one or two cars.”

“It would be a pity to go to all that trouble,” Raines says, “and then miss our man.”

“Yes,” Epstein agrees thoughtfully.

“I think you had better check on how many cars there are,” Raines urges.

“I will.”

“And how long each car is. You say the bridge is two hundred yards long?”

“Yes, I measured it this afternoon.”

“How?” Epstein asks.

“With a tape measure.”

“On the bridge itself?”

“Yes. On the bridge.”

“Then your measurements were fairly accurate.”

“Completely accurate.”

“Good,” Epstein says.

“When do you plan to set your charges?” Raines asks.

“The night before the train is due.”

“Will you need help?”

“Is there help available?”

“Well, we hadn’t considered..”

“I think I can manage it alone. But I'll let you know if I can’t”

“You’d better let us know well beforehand,” Hester says. “We may not be able to enlist anyone at the last moment”

“I’ll give you plenty of notice.”

“What sort of explosives will you use?” Raines asks.

I'm not sure yet.”

“Will you be able to obtain them?”

“I can’t tell you that until I know what I’m going to use.”

“What do you ordinarily use?” Hester asks, and leans forward on the hassock, watching me intently.

“It varies with the job,” I tell her.

“What have you used in the past? On various jobs.”

“Dynamite. Plastic. Even nitroglycerin.”

“Very dangerous, nitroglycerin,” Epstein says.

“Yes.”

“Volatile, extremely volatile.”

“Yes.”

“You know, of course,” Hester says, “that when we spoke to Mr. Eisler on the telephone we were not bargaining for wholesale murder. We hired you to assassinate one man, not to demolish a trainload of reporters, advisers, secretaries, assistants, and so on.”

“I realize that. This seems the best way, though.”

“To kill a lot of innocent people, along with the man we want?”

“It seems the best way, yes.”

“Because it’s safest for you this way, isn’t that so?”

“I don’t know if it’s safest for me or not. I do know…”

“Please, Mr. Sachs.”

“I do know that the odds against getting him in a crowded railroad depot are overwhelming. I think this way will work. I’m sorry if innocent people will die, but he's been responsible for the deaths of innocents as well, hundreds of thousands of them. And more to come if we don’t eliminate him now.”

“It still sounds rather cold-blooded,” Raines says.

“It is.”

“One would not guess from appearances alone,” Hester says drily, “that you are such a ruthless man.”

“I am. Either we’re serious about getting rid of him, or we’re not. Either we want an end to all of this, or we don’t. Security measures are getting tighter every day. I’m afraid that if we don’t do it now, if we don’t do it effectively, we may never get the opportunity again. If you…

“We’re all afraid of that,” Raines says.

“Fine. I want to do it this way. If you don’t want me to do it this way, say so now, and I’ll pack my bag and go home.”

“You always seem to be going home, Mr. Sachs,” Hester says, and smiles.

“You always seem to be inviting me to leave.”

“Now, now,” Raines says.

“Yes or no?” I ask.

“Of course, you must do it as you see fit,” Raines says.

“Thank you,” I answer and nod. “This is what the bridge looks like. I think I can send the whole thing tumbling into the ravine if I place my charges correctly.” I extend the lined pad to them. One after the other, they study my sketch.

“I hope you are a better dynamiter than you are an artist,” Hester remarks drily.

“I have to keep telling you, don’t I?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“That I’m an expert.”

“Oh, I believe you,” Hester says. “I believe you implicitly, Mr. Sachs.”

In the automobile outside, I ask Sara where she’d like to go for dinner.

“I don’t know where you're going,” she says. “ I'm going home.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve got an exam tomorrow. Lots of studying to do.”

“The studying can wait.”

“No, it can’t”

“Well, bring your books over to the hotel and study there.”

“I’d rather not.”

“All right, I’ll come over to your place.”

“Gwen’s home,” Sara says. “Besides, I don’t want to see you any more.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just what I said.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Gee, I don’t know how to make it any plainer. I don’t want to see you any more.”

“Why not?”

“Oh, let’s not go into it, okay?”

“No, let’s go into it, okay?”

“You’re doomed, okay?” she says.

“What’s that, some kind of teen-age shorthand?”

“I’m not a teen-ager, and that wasn’t shorthand, it was simple English. You are doomed, D-O-O-M…”

“I may surprise you. I may survive.”

“No, you won’t. What ever happens, you’re dead. If you bungle the job, you’re dead. If you pull it off, you’re dead.”

“How do you figure that?”

“You go back to your wife and seventeen kids in Larchmont.”

“I don’t live in Larchmont And I don’t have seventeen kids.”

“How many then? Fourteen? Four? Who the hell cares?”

“You do.”

“I couldn’t care a fucking whit,” she says.

“You’re a liar, Sara.”

“I’m the most honest person you’ll ever meet in your life.”

“Just between you and me, I’m getting tired of hearing young people telling me just how honest they all are. That’s usually a good time to start hiding the family silver.”

“I’m not ‘young people.’ I'm me. Sara Horne.”

“Honest Sara Horne.”

“Yes, Honest Sara Horne, who knows what’s good for her.”

“What’s good for you, Sara?”

“You’re not, that’s for goddamn sure.”

“Neither is involvement in an assassination plot.”

“Who’s involved? I’m as safe as a sparrow, I already told you that.”

“And that’s what you want to do, right, Sara? Play it safe?”

“Certainly. What am I supposed to do? Hang around with you? Why should I? What’s your future?”

“I thought your generation was the one taking all the risks.”

“We took all the risks, yes, and lost. Now it’s your turn. Go blow up your dumb bridge, if you want to. Just leave me alone.”

“The bridge is necessary, Sara. You know it is.”

“Necessary? It’s imperative. But I’m not about to blow it up.”

“Then why should I ?”

“You’re asking me? You volunteered for the job, how the hell should I know why? Listen, Arthur, when I was an undergraduate I got hit on the head often enough. If it doesn’t make you stupid, it makes you smart. Let them hit you on the head a little, see how you like it”