Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Vol. 35, No. 4, September 1974

Without Music by Carl Henry Rathjen

She knew every detail of their plan to rob the bank — though she had never met the men, and was too far away to see much...

“Operator, get me the police! Hurry!”

“Your number, please.”

“888–112... No, sorry, I’m excited, stammering. It’s 888-1202. It’s Shortley’s Music Store. I’m Miss June Patterson and—”

“Police, Sergeant Macauley.”

“Officer, the bank at the corner of Ninth and Orchard is going to be held up.”

“How do you know, Ma’am?”

“Because I heard one of the robbers talking about it. In fact he’s in a car right outside my store now. I can see him as I’m talking to you. And from what he said there are others somewhere all waiting to—”

“How did you hear him say he was going to rob the bank? Were you out there, or is the front door open so that you could overhear—”

“No, the door is closed, so much dust until there’s paving over the new sewer line. And I haven’t been out of the store. I can’t leave, not while Arnold, he’s the manager, is out to lunch...”

“You’re calling from the store, Ma’am?”

“Of course. Where else?”

“What store would that be?”

“Shortley’s Music Store. I work here. I demonstrate the organs and pianos, give lessons. It’s just down the street from—”

“I know where it is, more than a half-block from the bank at the corner. So tell me, Ma’am, if you haven’t been out of the store and the door is closed, just how could you have overheard what this alleged bank robber—”

“But I did overhear him!”

“—and you haven’t been near the bank, then how do you assume—”

“I’m not assuming anything, Officer. I know. Because I heard him. He was talking into a little box and every word he said—”

“He was using a walkie-talkie?”

“Yes, yes, that’s what I mean. And that’s how I overheard—”

“Oh, I getcha, Ma’am. You’ve got a radio turned on in the store and it picked up—”

“No, I haven’t. We don’t sell radios. Only organs and pianos... Hello? Sergeant? Hello?... Operator, I was talking to the police and the connection must have been broken. Will you get them for me again? Hurry. Didn’t you write down my number when I gave it to you before? Well what became of the other operator? Oh, I see. Whichever operator is available plugs in and... Yes, my number. You do need it, don’t you? It’s 888-1202.”

“Police, Sergeant Macauley.”

“Officer, aren’t you being remiss in your duty when a bank robbery is being reported and you hang up and—”

“The hell I hung up! Sorry, Ma’am, but it was you who broke off while I got on the horn to dispatch units to—”

“Oh, thank you. Then you do believe me that the bank is—”

“Let’s just say, Ma’am, I’ve got to swallow everything that comes, in over this line until proved otherwise. And you’d be surprised at some of the way out stuff that—”

“Sergeant, I’ll have you know that I am not way out. Of course, to please potential customers when I’m demonstrating have to play some of this way an electric organ or piano I out cacaphony, with all the dissonances that pass for music nowadays. That’s what I had to play on the new Lowry a little while ago and then forgot to—”

“What was that word you used, Ma’am? Car-what?”

“Cacaphony.”

“That’s a good one. I’ll have to pull that on my kid with his over-amplified guitar.”

“Officer, I heard you correctly, didn’t I? You are taking steps to save the bank?”

“I hope it also saves my neck. If I sent units on a phony call, and if it wasn’t phony and I didn’t—”

“I am not making a spurious telephone call to you. I distinctly heard this man, who is still outside my store, checking that his confederates were where he wanted them to be. Then he told them that something had been grounded so it wouldn’t operate at the bank.”

“He must have meant the silent alarm system, Ma’am.”

“I assume so. I have a nephew who insists on watching all the crime on TV when with a little judicious selection there are many worthwhile—”

“I still can’t figure, Ma’am, how you overheard him if—”

“I hope that doesn’t mean, Officer, that you were... er, phonying to me when you said you have ordered other police to—”

“They’re on their way, Ma’am.”

“I should hope so. The man’s getting out of his car. He’s walking toward the bank. So I guess the ten minutes must be up.”

“What ten minutes?”

“The ten minutes I heard him mention before I called you. He said to them, his confederates on the walkie-talkie, I mean, he said, ‘Ten minutes to countdown zero when the sacks will be ready for Brinks.’ ”

“That would be the shipment to branch banks. Why didn’t you say that first, Ma’am? I would have believed you right off, even though I still can’t figure how you—”

“I’ve been trying to tell you. I’d been demonstrating a— There’s the Brinks truck going by-now. It will stop out front of the bank, double-parking as usual, I suppose. Creating a traffic problem. I know, because I’ve been caught in it sometimes on the days when I go to lunch early. Arnold, he’s the manager, and I alternate on going for early or late lunches and... Hello? Sergeant? Hello?”

“Okay, Ma’am. I was just making sure units were ready and ordered others to create roadblocks just in case. You were explaining to me—”

“Yes, after the demonstration I’d forgotten to—”

“Hang on, Ma’am. Gotta get on the horn again.”

“Hello?... Hello?... Hello?...”

“Okay, Ma’am, I’m back. We got ’em! Redhanded! In the act!”

“Oh, good! But I’ve been wondering, Sergeant. I didn’t hear any shots, screaming, sirens.”

“Don’t believe everything your nephew watches on TV, Ma’am. And now, will you please get my curiosity off the hook about how you were able to tip us off. You were alone in the store...”

“Yes, it was Arnold’s turn, he’s the manager, to go to lunch early and—”

“I know, I know. Just getting my facts straight. One little step at a time. You were alone. You didn’t go out of the store, nowhere near the man in the car outside, nowhere hear the bank to possibly spot his waiting pals. Yet you got the low-down on their plans to hit the bank in ten minutes—”

“Yes, I’d been giving a demonstration and—”

“Ma’am, please, let’s just stick to the question of the attempted bank hold-up.”

“But that’s what I’m trying to explain to you, Sergeant.”

“Okay, okay, do it your way. I’ll try to stay with you.”

“As I’ve been telling you, I gave a demonstration of the new Lowry electric organ, and also a Hammond, a Thomas and—”

“Huh-huh! That would be before you overheard about the bank.”

“Of course. I couldn’t conscientiously do something else if I were aware a Crime was about to be committed and I could possibly prevent it.”

“Right on, Ma’am. Continue.”

“Well, after the customer left... I think he was just killing time, wasn’t really interested in possibly buying an organ, well, then I came back here to the office and a few minutes later I began overhearing the man in the car out front as he—”

“Hold on, Ma’am. You were way at the back of the store, the door was closed, you had no radio on, yet you claim to have overheard him speaking into the walkie-talkie. Now just how the devil—”

“But I told you, I’d forgotten to turn off the Lowry.”

“Huh? The organ?”

“Yes. Maybe you’re not familiar with electric organs. But they’re all, the newer ones, transistorized, with a main speaker and Leslie, stereo hook-up, tape recording. It’s an amazing maze of electronics. I’m just a music teacher and it’s all way over my head.”

“You got company, Ma’am. Am I right in thinking you’re trying to tell me that the electric organ picked up his walkie-talkie?”

“Of course. His voice came out of the speakers right here in the store because I’d forgotten to shut it off. It isn’t the first time it’s happened when Arnold, he’s the manager, or I have forgotten to turn an organ off. Arnold could probably explain it to you, but I can’t. Anyway, we’ve been startled when, when waves or something are just right, and an electric organ that isn’t being played has picked up radio telephone calls from passing cars or trucks. Sometimes we’ve even heard officers talking in a passing police car.”

“Well, I’ll be damned, Ma’am. I understand now how you overheard the guy on his walkie-talkie. There’ll be officers in soon to complete their report with you. But let me thank you in advance for calling, Ma’am. If there were more citizens like you, there would be sweet music in police ears, though I’ll admit that at first I thought your call was a lot of... what was that word again?”

“Cacaphony.”

“Yeah. That’s a honey. Maybe I’ll drag my boy down sometime and you can get him off that stuff.”

“I’ll be glad to, try, Sergeant. It’s been a pleasure talking to you. Goodbye.”