Читать книгу Call in the Feds - Gordon Landsborough - Страница 6

CHAPTER TWO

TIME-LOCK

He was Alan Ladd again. He stood in the warm sunshine, with his back against the wall of the bank. The brim of his hat was low across his eyes, and his hands were thrust deep inside his belted gabardine.

Inside the car Gino Lucci, stick-up man, said, “Fer Crissakes, he don’t have to look like he’s gonna rob a bank, does he?”

Eddy Eitel growled, “The dope.... It’s them movies he lives in.” He moved impatiently. These last three minutes were going slower’n hell, though the other two didn’t seem to be affected by the waiting.

There was Bright, back of the car. He had another name, but Bright suited him because he wasn’t more than half-bright. He was a cretin, with high cheekbones and hair-tufted warts and eyes that looked uncertainly two ways at once. Just now, as always, his thin-lipped gash of a mouth was twitching back from broken teeth, baring them into a crazy, half-witted grin.

But Bright could use a gun if only someone was at hand to tell him when to shoot. And that kind of loon is useful in a stick-up gang.

The driver, Maxie Christman, just sat behind the wheel, a huddled, silent, brooding question mark, his eyes apathetically looking along the main shopping street of this suburb of Freshwater.

The tall, lean man in the gabardine moved slightly now. His eyes almost hidden between narrowed lids, he was looking into the bank. He could see the bank janitor, close by the door—a clock that gave less than a minute to closing time. And the clerks and customers beyond.

And today there weren’t many customers. There never were on Fridays, for some reason, a fact which Gino had soon noticed when he’d started to watch this bank. No more than six or eight in there right now, and that wasn’t too many to handle.

The spotter stiffened as the janitor looked up at the bank clock and then started to cross to the door. He had a big bunch of keys in his hands. At once the man in the gabardine turned and walked into the bank.

Gino got out of the car and crossed the sidewalk. He got in the way of the janitor and held him up for a second, and that gave Eddy Eitel and the cretin Bright time to get out and follow him.

The janitor was surprised at the last-minute flood of customers—and they were strangers. He looked at the clock again and opened his mouth to say something about the time, but Bright, his face grinning like a dog’s drooling with distemper, slammed something hard into his ribs and that shut him up.

Eddy grabbed the keys, quickly pushed the door to and locked it. A heavy, middle-aged man with an unhealthy face saw it happen. He had a handful of greenbacks of small denomination. He called, uncertainly, “Hey, what’s the idea?” scenting something was wrong.

Four guns came out at that.

Gino and the man in the gabardine were already at the grill. Gino shoved his gun through and snapped, “That alarm button on the floor. I know it’s there. But just try usin’ it. Go on, try it!”

But none of the bank employees did. They looked at the guns, they looked at each other, then they silently put their hands above their heads. Gino said, “You guys got brains. Cover ’em an’ if they move, blow them brains out for ’em, Alan Ladd!”

The man in the gabardine crouched behind his gun, a figure tense and menacing. The clerks stood, taut and staring. They knew that here was a man who would use his gun...might even be wanting an opportunity to use it. And they didn’t intend to give him an excuse.

The handful of bank customers stood rigid close against the heavy, polished counter. They were all middle-aged, unprepossessing, tradesman types. And by the way they looked, they all knew what a gun could do.

Bright was covering them from by the door, Eddy Eitel having gone forward; and Bright was disconcerting, because his eyes seemed able to watch up and down the room simultaneously.

Gino went round the counter. He didn’t hurry. There was no need to. He had watched this bank so long he was pretty sure he’d got it thoroughly cased by now. It was bank closing time, and with that door locked behind them they were safe from unexpected interruption.

He pulled off the wires leading to the two alarm devices, then prodded his gun into the side of one of the clerks. The man gasped as it took the wind out of him. Gino liked the sound and prodded again.

“Over to that safe,” he ordered. “You others follow.” When they were inside the safe—so big, in reality it was a strong room—he said, “We want all the bills up to a hundred dollars. The rest you can have for yourselves. Now, stick ’em into this sack here.”

Eddy Eitel went swiftly over the customers and removed the cash they had just drawn from the bank. It didn’t amount to much, and he muttered “Pikers,” contemptuously, and then started to shove them round the counter. The unhealthy-looking bank client looked bad and was breathing labouredly through lips that were going blue.

Gino looked round when he found the mob of middle-aged tradesmen treading on his heels. He wagged his gun and growled, “Hold it, punks. I ain’t ready for you—yet.” The tradesmen didn’t like the way he came out with the last word.

For that matter they didn’t like Gino. He looked what he was—scum. Something out of Italy, formless with soft fat—greasy-skinned, large-pored, a fat, flat, sallow face with a smear of moustache across it. He was a dandy with his rings and the silk scarf tucked into his shirt collar, though he hadn’t got round to shaving that day. That was like Gino—lazy. That was why he had taken to crime—working seemed tedious to the Italian immigrant.

He and Eddy Eitel were running this gang between them, though neither had brains amounting to anything. They were just a pair of crude guns able to organise a stick-up....

Bright came shoving his drooling, grinning, half-witted face round the corner. “I ain’t killed nobody so far. Ain’t nobody gonna be killed on this job?” he mouthed. Bright had killed a few men in his time, so he’d told them. He had been vague about the details, so they weren’t sure. Gino had picked him up recently because they’d lost a fellow when a mechanic in a filling station they were sticking up unexpectedly came at them with a gun. For a bank robbery it was safer to have four guns and a driver.

Some of the tradesmen thought he was kidding, because it seemed too crude, that speech about killing someone. Then the loon fanned them with bad breath from between grinning, broken teeth and they saw the wildness in his wandering eyes and they weren’t so sure.

Gino just grunted and said, “I got it all.” He took hold of the sack that had been stuffed with notes.

Eddy said, quickly, “How much d’you reckon?”

Gino shrugged. “Maybe twenty gee. Maybe more.” Then he wagged his gun at the crowding, silent bank customers. “Inside, you!” he ordered.

They looked surprised. The bank clerks had started to come out of the big safe, but Gino’s gun stopped them. The four gangsters backed away and covered the little group with their guns.

“Get inside,” Gino ordered, “else I’ll sic my dawg on you.” He indicated Bright, open-mouthed and expectant behind his gun. Bright with his finger straining eagerly at the trigger. And they understood and shuffled back hurriedly. The blue-lipped man was having to be held up; he was in pretty bad shape. Eddy saw the janitor and one of the bank employees in front of the big safe and said, “you, too,” and they stepped back quickly.

Bright shambled forward a pace, disappointed. “Don’t we kill just one?” he pleaded. There was no doubt he meant it. It made Eddy Eidel look quickly across at Gino, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by it.

The squat, shapeless Italian stepped forward when they were all inside the strong room. He put his shoulder to the massive door and started to close it. The men inside in the strong room panicked at that.

“You can’t do that,” shouted one of the bank employees, probably the manager. “My God, you don’t know what you’re doing. There’s a time-lock on that door. If it’s closed, we can’t get out till eight tomorrow morning.”

Gino said, casually, “That, brother, is the idea,” and moved the door faster.

There was frenzied commotion at that. Suddenly every man inside the strong room found his voice. Above the commotion they heard the janitor’s voice suddenly appealing.

“There’s a mighty sick man here. You gotta do something for him....”

Bright slavered eagerly, “Let’s kill’m. Jes’ one shot, huh?”

But Gino rushed the door to. There was a metallic, clicking sound, and immediately the bank was quiet. The door must have been soundproofed.

Gino looked round. He scooped the small change out from the tills, put it in his pocket and then changed his mind and took most of it out again. It was chicken-feed and weighed too heavily in his coat.

Then they walked across to the street door and Eddy briskly opened it. They came out into the sunshine in a group, Gino calling over his shoulder, “Sure, sure. And thanks a lot, bud. We won’t make it so late next time.”

That was for the benefit of the few passers-by. It looked good, natural, and no one gave more than a glance at the stick-up men. The door shut and locked automatically behind them.

They got into their car and Maxie drove steadily away. There was no hurry. Properly handled, a daylight bank robbery is a comparatively simple affair, and this was probably a better hold-up than most. Probably it would be several hours before the alarm was raised—it might not he until the following morning, in fact—and long before dark they expected to be within the friendly jungle of New York’s East Side.

So they tooled steadily along the seaside resort’s tree-lined boulevard, obeying every traffic law like good citizens; and they felt at peace with the world because they had a sack full of notes that were probably untraceable because of their small value.

Gino preened and felt himself a big-shot mobster. This was better than sticking up filling stations, with crazy mechanics running loose with guns.

Only Bright was disconsolate. He said, vaguely, “We didn’t kill no one. You said to be ready to kill, Gino, but no one did nothin’ wrong. Ain’t we gonna have some excitement?”

Eddy shot out of the corner of his mouth, “By cripes, Gino, the buzzard means it. Where in hell did you dig him up? He’s dangerous, that guy.”

Gino was picking his teeth—the car was tooling along as smoothly as all that. They were coming out of the town now, and feeling better with every minute of that lovely afternoon that passed. He sucked a tooth clean and then said back, “Aw, Bright’s all right. He ain’t quite bright, maybe, but what the hell do you want on a job like this? Einstein?”

Eddy muttered, “You can’t tell, with these bird-brains. You never know what they’ll do—”

Maxie Christman ceased to he a living question mark over the driving wheel. His body straightened as he stood on the brake pedal, became instead an exclamation mark.

They found themselves crashing forward as the car’s momentum was suddenly zeroed, heard Maxie’s voice bellow back at them, “A trap!”

Just round the bend where the road joined the river valley a car was pulled across the highway. Men were climbing out. They wore uniforms.

“Cops!” snarled Eddy, but there was bewilderment in his tone. How could the cops have got to know of the bank hold-up so quickly? Then he leaned forward. Speculation could be left till later; just now they were in a jam and had to get themselves out of it.

Eddy could act quickly. Now he grabbed Maxie’s shoulder and rapped, “Ram that car, then turn and go back!”

That was the programme. No good trying to turn here, within eighty yards of the cops. Those cops carried guns, and anyway, long before they’d got their car pointing back into Freshwater the cop car would have swung round and caught up with them.

Put the cop car out of action—and hope to God it didn’t put their car out, too! That was the programme.

Maxie opened up instantly and the heavy gang car leapt into violent acceleration. They saw the cops scatter, and it was obvious that the move was unexpected and they were thrown off their stride.

Then the mobster’s car crashed head on into the side of the sleek, speedy police car. Glass splintered, metal tore. Above the noise Eddy shouted, “Back, Maxie. Reverse....”

The car tore itself away from the shattered cop car, and went plunging recklessly in reverse. The police lugged out guns and started to fire. Eddy heard a crack close to his ear and saw a cop grab his stomach and go down.

“What the—?” he swore and turned and looked into Bright’s tight-grinning face. Heard Bright saying, “Gee, I did for him. Right in the belly. Gee, bet he don’t feel so good with that in him.” His eyes were going all over the place in excitement.

Eddy snarled, “Goddam you, you don’t kill cops like people. Cops is different. It’ll make ’em mad, and we ain’t in no position to make cops mad.”

Not at this moment, turning the car in the only direction they could go, back into Freshwater. Freshwater—a town at the end of a line, as New Yorkers called them.

A trap, if all roads out were watched, and they guessed they would be.