101 Mystery Stories

40 This One’s on Me Edward Hunsburger

Sam Banner paused in the doorway to knock a thick frosting of powdered snow from his boots. As Green River’s Chief of Police, he knew it was important not to “track up” the scene of a crime. It made no difference to Sam that the crime was a minor one which had already been solved or that the cafe’s worn, brown linoleum floor obviously held no clues. He liked to do things by the book.

Banner was a big, broad-shouldered man with a sand-colored beard and a head as smooth and hairless as a riverbed rock. He pulled an old Dunhill pipe and a tobacco pouch out of the pocket of his sheepskin coat, and began to load the briar. “Well, Tom,” he asked. “What happened here?”

Tom DeBaer grinned. “Just what I told you on the phone, Chief. It’s a clear-cut case: assault with intent to rob.” He pointed to a thin stranger in a shabby overcoat who was sitting at the counter with his hands cuffed behind his back. “I was just coming in the door, when the suspect practically fell into my arms. He had socked Mr. Panzer on the head, scooped up a handful of coins, and he was fleeing the scene when he ran right into me. It couldn’t have been any neater if I planned it myself.”

Sam looked at DeBaer with bewilderment. “Mr. Panzer? Coins? You mean to tell me that this man committed assault for a handful of change?”

DeBaer’s grin widened. He was really enjoying himself. “Not just ordinary coins, Chief. Rare coins. Mr. Panzer is a rare coin dealer from St. Paul.”

Now Sam understood. “Nice work, DeBaer.”

“Thanks, Chief. But it was just luck, to be honest.”

Sam bit into the stem of his pipe. He wished DeBaer wouldn’t call him Chief. It got on his nerves. Everyone else, from the mayor on down, called him Sam. But DeBaer was new to the force, in fact new to Green River itself. He had left the Chicago Police to come to work in Green River, a town of less than 10,000 people. That was two years ago. Since the day of his arrival, DeBaer had made Sam uncomfortable. Time hadn’t helped the situation. Sam could fire him, but DeBaer was a good cop and Sam was a fair man. You didn’t fire a man just because he made you uncomfortable.

“How about witnesses?” Sam asked.

“Jake was coming out of the kitchen when it happened. He saw the whole thing. Then, of course, there’s the victim himself.”

The two men looked across the empty cafe to the rear booth where Jake, the owner, was carrying on a low-voiced conversation with a well-dressed, elderly man.

“That’s Panzer, Chief. I’ll have to take him down to the station so that he can file a complaint, I hope he doesn’t mind riding in the same car as the prisoner.”

The old man seemed to sense that he was being talked about. He slid out of the booth and hurried over to where Sam and DeBaer were standing.

“Lock the door! Don’t let anyone out,” he shouted His whole body was literally dancing with agitation. “The Lafayette Eagle is missing!”

Sam laid a restraining hand on the old man’s arm. “Calm down, Mr. Panzer.”

“I will not calm down!” He looked at DeBaer. “Officer, I insist that you lock that door immediately.”

“Mr. Panzer,” Sam began. “I’m Sam Banner, the local chief of police. I don’t know how it is in your pan of the country, but in Green River you don’t order my men around. Now, what seems to be the problem?”

The admonishment had the effect of a cold shower on Panzer. He slumped into the nearest booth and looked at the two men pleadingly.

“I’m sorry, Chief Banner. I guess I got carried away. I thought I had recovered all of the coins involved in the incident But I was mistaken. My Lafayette Eagle is still missing, and it has to be somewhere in this room.”

Sam nodded to DeBaer, who went over and locked the front door. “From your excitement, I take it the coin is a valuable one?”

The old man paled visibly. “Valuable? The Lafayette Eagle is one of the rarest coins I’ve ever had the pleasure of handling and I’ve been in the business for over 40 years.”

“What makes this particular coin so valuable?” Sam asked.

“The Lafayette Eagle is unique. The coin was minted by Henry Voigt, the chief coiner of the U.S. Mint, in 1794. It’s a small gold piece with an eagle on one side and a profile of the Marquis de Lafayette on the other. Only six coins were ever minted.”

“Why only six?” Sam asked with growing interest.

“Politics,” Panzer grumbled. “What else? When the coin was struck, the French were at the midway point in their ten-year revolution. President Washington had declared a position of neutrality in 1789, but popular sentiment was strong, both for and against the French cause. Voigt minted the Lafayette Eagle to honor a hero of our revolution. What he didn’t realize was that Lafayette was no longer a hero in France. He tried to advocate moderation to the mobs and was forced to flee to Flanders for his life. So, in the interest of diplomacy, the coin was never minted for circulation. Of the six gem specimens struck, only two are known to be in existence today, and one of them is in this room.”

Sam relit his pipe. He had been so engrossed in the tale that he hadn’t noticed it go out. “Mr. Panzer, you say the coin is valuable. Just how valuable?”

Panzer took a deep breath. “I was carrying the Eagle with me because I was on my way to sell it to a client for two hundred thousand dollars.”

“Two hundred thousand dollars!”

The voice, like an echo, seemed to come from the second row of booths along the opposite wall. Everyone turned toward the area.

A red-faced man sat slowly upright and blinked his eyes. “Morning, all. Did I just hear someone mention a rather large sum of money?”

“What are you doing here?” Sam demanded.

Carl Stranger, reporter for the Green River Sentinel, smiled. “I felt a touch of vertigo after eating one of Jake’s blue plate specials so I just stretched out for a little nap. What’s going on, Sam?”

“Vertigo, my foot,” Jake growled. “I thought he had walked out without paying again.”

Sam laid a restraining hand on Jake’s shoulder. The reporter’s presence was going to make the search for the missing coin just that much harder. Sam always thought of Carl Stranger as a part of Green River’s local color. He drank a little too much, gambled a little too much, and went around getting people’s backs up far too much. Basically he wasn’t a bad man, he just rubbed people the wrong way. Sam took him aside and briefly explained the situation.

“That’s terrific,” Stranger said after Sam had finished the story. “It’s the first scoop I’ve had since the mayor’s wife brained him with the Christmas tree last year. I’d better phone it right in.”

“Hold it, Carl. I’m afraid I can’t let you do that just yet. If you phone the paper there’s going to be a mob down here within minutes. If, on the other hand, we keep this quiet for a few hours, we can conduct the search without being disturbed. Either way, you still get your scoop. Okay?”

Stranger looked wistfully at the old wooden phone booth in front of the cafe and then back at Sam. “Okay, provided that I get to help with this glorified egg hunt.”

Sam nodded his agreement. He asked Jake to pull down the shades and put the “closed” sign in the front window. Everyone gathered around Green River’s Chief of Police, except for the prisoner, who had fallen asleep with his head resting on the lunch counter.

“I think we all have an interest in helping Mr. Panzer recover his missing coin. If any one of you doesn’t want to help with the search, he can leave... after he’s been thoroughly searched by Tom and myself.” Sam paused to let the words sink in. After a moment of silence everyone agreed to help look for the missing Eagle.

Sam looked at the elderly coin dealer. “Mr. Panzer, it might make things easier if you told us exactly what happened.”

“Well, I was sitting in the back booth with Mr. Lyons,” he nodded in Jake’s direction, “showing him a few items I thought he might be interested in...”

“I didn’t know you collected coins, Jake,” Sam interrupted.

“Only in a small way, Sam.”

Mr. Panzer cleared his throat. “As I was saying... I was showing Mr. Lyons some coins. I had about a dozen out of the envelopes and spread out on a small velvet examining board I use, when the thief walked by the table on his way to use the restroom. Foolishly, I mentioned the Lafayette Eagle to Mr. Lyons. I guess when you make the acquisition of a lifetime it’s difficult not to boast about it. He asked to see it, and I saw no reason not to show it to him. I had just placed it on the board when,” Mr. Panzer glared at his slumbering aggressor, “that man tried to rob me.”

“How exactly did he go about it?” Sam asked.

“He stepped out of the restroom and hit me on the head with his fist. Mr. Lyons jumped up, the man shoved him back in the booth. Then he scooped up the coins from the board and bolted for the front door, where,” the old man smiled, “he ran right into Officer DeBaer.”

“And then?” Sam prompted.

“Your officer realized the situation immediately and grabbed the man. During the scuffle the thief dropped the coins. By the time Officer DeBaer had the man handcuffed, Mr. Lyons and I were sufficiently recovered to pick up the scattered coins. We brought the coins back to the table while Officer DeBaer phoned you. I didn’t realize the Eagle was still missing until you arrived.”

Sam looked at Jake who nodded agreement. “One other thing,” Sam said. “Has anyone entered or left here since the incident took place?”

“Only you, Chief,” DeBaer said, smiling.

“Okay, it’s probably someplace up front. Let’s divide up that area and start looking.”

The search lasted for a little over three hours. It yielded an overdue library book, four pocket combs, a cigarette lighter, and fourteen coins. All of the coins were contemporary and they amounted to a dollar and fourteen cents. The Lafayette Eagle was still missing.

“Well, we covered every inch of this place twice over,” Sam said. “If it’s all right with you, Jake, I’d like to try again tomorrow.”

“Can you make it tomorrow morning? I’d like to be able to open by ten if I can.”

“Sure, Jake. I’ll bring my men over around seven.” Sam made an elaborate ritual out of loading and lighting his pipe. What he had to say next he wanted to get right. It wasn’t an easy thing to say.

“Except for Mr. Panzer,” he began, “I’ve known most of you a long time. I don’t want anyone to take this the wrong way. I think you’re all honest men, but the fact of the matter is that the coin is missing. Before we leave we’ll all have to search each other, myself included.”

There was a murmur of protest from the group, but finally everyone agreed. “While we’re at it,” Jake said, “would anyone like a cup of coffee?”

“On the house?” DeBaer asked quickly.

“Yes, on the house, Tom.” Jake served coffee to everyone, including the prisoner, who had been awakened for the personal search.

The “on the house” business was another thing about DeBaer that irritated Sam. Sam respected a man who knew the value of money, but Tom DeBaer was so tight-fisted it made Sam angry. He never socialized with the other men on the force or contributed so much as a quarter to the department’s camp program for underprivileged kids. Sam had even known him to go out of his way just to save a dime. Still, it was up to DeBaer to do what he wanted with his own money.

It took almost an hour to search everyone thoroughly. Sam watched as Jake locked the cafe door behind them. That coin, Sam thought, is somewhere inside that room. Why can’t we find it?

At ten o’clock that night, Sam was sitting in his oversized easy chair trying to relax. He had a bourbon and water on the sidetable and a book of Conrad’s sea stories on his lap. But it just wouldn’t work. Every time he started to read he would end up thinking about the missing coin.

There were too many possibilities. Any one of the men could have rehidden the Eagle in an area that had already been searched. Any one of them could have swallowed it with his coffee. Or two of them could have gotten together and passed it back and forth during the personal search.

What about motive? Two hundred thousand dollars was enough to tempt the most honest man. DeBaer liked money too much not to try it. Stranger, with his gambling and drinking, was always in debt. Jake collected coins and he was the one who suggested the coffee. Sam didn’t know Mr. Panzer very well, but the coin was insured. So if he could collect on the insurance money and later sell the coin on the quiet? Then there was Bradford, the prisoner. He tried to steal it in the first place; why not again? If there was only a clue that pointed in one direction.

The phone rang and Sam answered it. It was Jake checking to make sure Sam would be there tomorrow morning at seven. Sam assured him that he would and hung up, irritated at having his chain of thought interrupted.

Sam picked up the book again and started to read. Then suddenly, he had the answer. He tossed the book down and headed for the door.

The sound of someone breaking the back door lock came at 3:10. Sam slipped his luminous dial wristwatch off and put it in his pocket. His legs were cramped from over four hours of sitting almost motionless in the back booth of Jake’s cafe. He rechecked the position of his gun and flashlight on the table and then sat back to wait for the thief’s next move.

A small pen flashlight went on at the other end of the darkened room. After a few minutes Sam heard the sound of metal against metal, then a snapping noise as something gave way, followed by the jingle of coins. He smiled to himself, took up his gun and flashlight, and started across the room.

“Okay, don’t make any sudden moves!” As Sam spoke he clicked on the flashlight. The glare blinded Tom DeBaer as he stood in the phone booth with the coin box in his gloved hands.

“What... how...” DeBaer sputtered.

“Just put the box down and hand over your gun and badge. You know me well enough not to try anything funny.”

DeBaer complied silently. Sam handcuffed him and told him to sit down in one of the booths. He went over and brought the coin box back to the table.

“I don’t understand how you figured it out,” DeBaer said quietly.

“It was easy.” Sam emptied the box out on the table. In the pile of silver a small gold coin glowed. Sam inspected the Lafayette Eagle and then # slipped it into his shirt pocket. “You gave yourself away,” he said, after a moment’s silence.

“But how?”

“You’re a tightwad, DeBaer. You never spend a dime on anything you don’t have to. But you did today. You called me without leaving this room. You used the pay phone in here when you could have walked out to the curb and called me for free on your car radio.”

“I want to talk to a lawyer.”

“Sure, you can phone from here if you want to.” Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out a dime. He slid it across the table to DeBaer. “Go ahead. This one’s on me.”