The Lock and the Key

Chapter Eleven

At the first intersection he turned right and continued on to La Brea, four or five blocks away. At La Brea he crossed the street to a filling station, intending to telephone for a taxi, but just then one came up and Tommy hailed it.

He got in and five minutes later stepped out a half block from Highland and Hollywood Avenues. He strode past the bank, turned into Hollywood Boulevard and a half block away entered a luggage shop where he bought a brief case for twelve dollars and fifty cents.

Carrying it under his arm he walked back to the bank and, entering, approached the Safety Deposit window for the fourth time that week. The attendant looked at him curiously as he filled out the little slip. At least Tommy thought she was looking at him with more than ordinary interest. But it may have been his guilty conscience.

The woman went through the usual business of unlocking his box and it seemed to Tommy that she hesitated a moment or two before leaving him alone in the vault, but he had gone this far and nothing could deter him.

He took his safety deposit box out of the compartment and deposited it on the high table just inside the door.

Then he stepped up to Box 294 and unlocked it with the keys he had made that morning. They worked perfectly but Tommy had no time to gloat over good workmanship. He carried the box to the stand, whipped open the brief case and in almost the same movement raised the lid of Paul deCamp’s safety deposit box.

The sight that met his eyes brought a gasp from Tommy’s throat. The box was crammed to the top with packets of money. Each packet bore the figure “100” on the top bill.

In frantic haste Tommy grabbed up handfuls of the packets and dumped them into the brief case. It took him only moments to transfer the contents of the box to the brief case but it seemed to Tommy that he would never finish the task. At last it was done and he slammed down the cover of the box and returned it to the compartment. He closed the door and turned away. At that moment the attendant of the Safety Deposit vault entered with a middle-aged woman who had a sheaf of government bonds in a fist. Tommy was four feet from the table on which reposed the now bulging brief case.

He said: “I was just finishing.”

Stepping forward he picked up his box and returned it to the compartment. He closed the door of Box 365, smiled wanly at the vault attendant and picking up his brief case left the vault.

Needles of fear were pricking his skin in a thousand points as he walked through the bank. A sudden shout, the clanging of a bell would not have been unexpected.

But Tommy reached the street safely.

He walked unseeingly down Hollywood Boulevard, his face bathed with a film of perspiration. In his hand was a fortune, but what could he do with it now that he had it. There would be repercussions, an aftermath. Tommy had to be prepared.

He passed the Lincoln Hotel, walked fifty feet beyond then suddenly whirled and, going back, entered the hotel. He carried his brief case to the rear of the big lobby and handed it to a uniformed check room attendant.

“Can I check this here for a day or two?” he asked.

“Sure thing, Mister.”

The attendant took the brief case and handed Tommy a pasteboard with a number on it. Tommy deposited a quarter on the counter and walked to the center of the lobby. He lit a cigarette and drew several great lungsful of smoke, then caught sight of the cigar counter. He stepped up to it and laid a coin on the glass.

“Could you give me a three cent stamp?”

The girl behind the counter gave him the stamp and Tommy, smiling, walked off without the change. In another section of the lobby he found a writing desk and seated himself at it. He picked up a hotel envelope and wrote an address on it.

Diagonally across the side of the envelope he wrote: “Hold until called for.” He put the check room tag in the envelope and sealed it Affixing the stamp he walked to the mail box in the lobby and dropped in the envelope.

It was done.

Outside the hotel a couple of taxis stood at the curb. Tommy stepped into one and said: “La Brea and Fountain.”

Tommy re-entered the plant of The Hadley Manufacturing Company via the rear door well within the forty-five minutes he had alloted himself. He found George Roan near the front of the plant with pad and pencil making a sketch of the building.

“Back already?” Roan asked.

“I got there just as she was stepping off the streetcar.”

“Good. Now, let’s get this out of the way.”

The noon bell rang in a few minutes, but Tommy and George Roan continued on through the noon hour and a few minutes after one completed their estimate and left the plant.

Roan climbed into his own car and Tommy proceeded to his flivver. He looked at Louie, his shadow, who was taking it easy in the beige-colored coupe.

“Back to the shop now, Louie,” Tommy said.

“Be right with you,” Louie replied cheerfully.

That afternoon was the longest Tommy had ever endured. But five o’clock came at last and he left the shop. Louie, of course, was right behind him as he drove to his apartment on Las Palmas.

In the lower hallway of the apartment Tommy encountered his landlady. “Oh, good evening, Mr. Dancer,” she said. “I’ve got a message here for you somewhere.”

“Message?”

“Telephone. Let me see now, where did I put it?” She searched the drawer of the low table in the hall and finally produced a little piece of paper. “Oh yes, here it is.” She read it. “Miss Targ called and says to telephone her at Crestview 6-8869.”

Tommy took the slip from the landlady and thrust it in his pocket. “Thanks.”

“Aren’t you going to telephone her now?” the landlady asked hopefully.

“No, it’s not important. I’ll call later.”

Mrs. Cox seemed disappointed but Tommy headed for the stairs and climbed to the second floor. He entered his apartment and began stripping off his clothes. In the bathroom he shaved and took a quick shower and put on his one good suit.

Dressed, he left the apartment. He descended to the first floor and finding the corridor empty stepped to the wall telephone. He dropped in a nickel and dialed Crestview 6-8869.

A woman’s voice answered, but it was not Elizabeth’s. Tommy said, “May I speak to Miss Elizabeth Targ?”

“Who’s calling please?”

“Tommy Dancer.”

There was a slight pause then the woman’s voice said, “Just a moment and I’ll see if she’s here.”

She was. She said: “Tommy, I find that I’ll be able to meet you after all.”

“Where?”

“Let’s see. How about right at the end of the Strip where Beverly Hills starts, at the bridle path. In about an hour and a half?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Good.”

Tommy hung up the receiver and scowled at the phone. How much punishment could a man take? Tommy asked himself the question and answered it grimly. A lot! If it was the right woman. For Tommy there had never been another woman. He did not think there ever would be. He walked slowly out of the building and suddenly grimaced as he saw Louie standing on the sidewalk near the beige-colored coupe. He had forgotten about him.

“A little stepping out tonight, huh?” Louie asked. “I hope you make it a good place. A fellow gets tired of hanging around dumps, you know.”

“I’m getting damn tired of having you hang around!” Tommy replied angrily.

“As to that,” Louie replied, “I’m not having so much fun myself. It’s a job. That’s all.”

Tommy stalked away from him and went to his car. He got in and, making a U-turn, chugged along to Hollywood Boulevard. A few minutes later he got out in front of the Lehigh Apartments on Whitley.

It was probably the Filipino’s afternoon off; for Trent himself answered Tommy’s ring. “Getting to be a regular visitor here,” Trent greeted him.

“Look, Tommy said, I’m not enjoying this any more than you are. And I’m fed up with that gorilla of yours tagging around after me wherever I go.”

“Louie? He hasn’t been bothering you, has he?” Trent shrugged. “I’ll call him off.” A faint smile flitted across his features. “Until tomorrow anyway.”

“Speaking of tomorrow,” Tommy said. “Let me look at those keys.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve been thinking of the one that I said got blurred and I don’t believe it got as blurred as I thought at first. Maybe I can touch it up enough before I go back to the bank.”

“You mean you might be ready to make the haul on the next trip?” Trent asked, excitedly.

Tommy nodded.

Trent reached into his pocket and brought out the two white metal keys. Tommy took them from his hand and stepped to a light Trent followed, his eyes intently on the keys in Tommy’s hand as if afraid Tommy would make them disappear or attempt a substitution. Tommy gave one of the keys only a perfunctory examination but held the other one up to the light and studied it. “I’m sure it will be all right if I just touch up this little nipple here in the second valley. You don’t happen to have a file around, do you? Any kind of file.”

Trent grunted. “How about a nail file?”

“All right. Let me have it.”

“You serious?” Trent looked suspiciously at Tommy but produced a nail file from his pocket.

Tommy took it and ran it across one of the valleys of the key two or three times. He did a little scraping then and applied the file once or twice more.

“There, I’m sure it will work now.”

“Then we can make the big try tomorrow instead of waiting until next week?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Trent drew a deep breath and exhaled heavily. “Whew! I hadn’t counted on pulling it so soon, but I don’t see why we shouldn’t.” He frowned heavily, “If I can only get up nerve enough to go through with it”

“I don’t see where you’ll have to display any nerve,” Tommy said. “It’s me who’ll have to do the dirty work.”

“I still have to be in the bank with you.” Trent took the two keys from Tommy’s hand and studied them. “We’ve got to map it out, every step.”

“You’ll need a suitcase to carry two hundred thousand dollars,” Tommy said.

“Don’t be silly. It’s in a safety deposit box. Whatever the amount is it can’t take up more room than the box. I was thinking of one of those canvas sacks that cashiers carry to and from the bank. Or maybe a little Gladstone bag.”

“How about a brief case?” Tommy asked quietly.

“Will it be big enough?”

“You haven’t any idea how the money will be, large bills or small?”

“I suspect it will be large bills.”

The doorbell whirred and Trent looked at Tommy in surprise then shrugged and walked to the door. He opened it, revealing Earl Faraday. The man whose business was women entered the apartment.

“Am I interrupting something?” he asked mockingly.

“You were,” Trent retorted. “But you’ll be glad to sit in on it, I’m sure.” Trent held up the two safety deposit box keys. “We’ve got them and we’re ready to pull the job.”

Faraday’s eyes narrowed to slits, “When?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

Faraday took the keys from Trent’s hand and examined them. “You’re sure they’ll fit?”

“They’ll fit,” Tommy said.

“When did you get them?”

“I made the impressions this morning and filed down the keys during the day.”

“But you haven’t tested them. Are you sure they’ll fit?”

“I’m sure.”

“Don’t worry about Tommy,” Trent said. “If he says they’ll fit, they’ll fit. We were just talking about how we were going to manage it tomorrow. Tommy’ll need a bag of some kind. Do you think a brief case will hold all the money there’s likely to be in the box?”

“Two hundred thousand?” Faraday asked. “Let’s see. A stack of a hundred bills, if they are more or less new, is about an inch thick. If they’re hundred dollar bills they’ll run about ten thousand dollars to an inch. In other words the two hundred thousand will make a pile about twenty inches by three by five.” He shook his head. “I don’t think a brief case will be big enough. But what about one of those little leather cases, a Boston bag?”

“Just the thing. What’s more I’ve got one right here in the place. Wait a minute.” Trent strode into the bedroom.

As Trent left the room Faraday surveyed Tommy with a cold eye.

“So now you’ll be a big shot,” he said mockingly.

“Does a bankroll make a big shot?” Tommy retorted, just as coldly.

“It helps. I suppose you’ll buy yourself a big yellow convertible — and find yourself a blonde to match it.”

“I’ve got the girl who’s got the yellow car.”

Faraday moistened his lips with the tip of his tongue. “If you’re insinuating...”

“I’m not insinuating. I’m telling you.”

Faraday took a quick step toward Tommy. “Why, you cheap punk...” He took a wild swing at Tommy. The latter ducked neatly under it and planted his fist in Faraday’s stomach. Faraday grunted as the wind was driven from him and he folded over forward. Tommy stepped back to land a haymaker on the other man’s chin, but before he could deliver it, Willis Trent rushed out of the bedroom.

“Cut it out!” he cried. He sprang in between the two men and caught Tommy’s fist. “Damn you two, can’t you be left alone even a minute?”

“He swung first,” Tommy said sullenly.

By that time Faraday had regained his breath. “I’ll kill you for this,” he choked. “I’ll kill you if it’s the last damn thing I ever do.”

“Make another move at me and it’ll be the last thing you do,” Tommy snarled.

Trent jerked savagely down on Tommy’s arm, half swinging him away from Faraday. “After tomorrow I don’t care what you two do to each other, but you’re not spoiling this job just when it’s ready to spring.”

Tommy exhaled and drew away from Trent. “All right,” he said, “I’ve played along this far, I’ll see it through.”

“Don’t do us any favors,” Faraday sneered.

“Earl!” Trent snapped. “Cut it out.”

“All he did was make a couple of keys...”

“And all you did was get a safety deposit box number from another man’s mistress,” Tommy exclaimed.

Faraday stiffened as if he had been jolted with a charge of electricity. “What’s that?” he cried, in a sudden high-pitched voice.

“You heard me!”

Trent whirled furiously on Tommy. “Get out of here, Tommy.” He began pushing him toward the door. Tommy resisted for a moment then allowed himself to be propelled along. Trent whispered into his ear as he whipped open the door.

“Telephone me, later.”

He shoved Tommy through the door and slammed it on him.

Tommy glowered at the closed door, then strode down the hallway to the elevator. He rode down to the lobby and stepped out to the sidewalk and the first person he saw was Louie, standing at the curb.

He groaned. “For a minute, I forgot about you.”

“Too bad,” grinned Louie, “on account I ain’t forgotten you. Where we goin’ now?”

“You’re going home,” Tommy said. “Trent’s taking you off.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Oh yeah!” Tommy pulled open the door of the apartment house. “Let’s call Trent.”

Louie looked sharply at Tommy, then shrugged and stepped through the door ahead of Tommy. Inside he headed for the elevator, but Tommy called to him: “He’s got a visitor; let’s call him on the phone.”

He headed for the desk and picked up the house phone. He nodded to the clerk behind the desk. “Mr. Trent’s apartment, please.”

The man made a connection on the house switchboard. A moment later Trent’s voice said curtly: “Yes?”

“This is Tommy Dancer, downstairs, Trent. Louie wants to verify you’re taking him off.”

“Put him on,” Trent said.

Tommy handed the phone to Louie, who said: “It’s me, Louie. Is it okay what he says?... Sure, I get it, sure...” He hung up and looked at Tommy. “You win, chum.”

Tommy clapped him on the shoulder. “Have a good rest, pal.” Turning, he strode out of the apartment house and got into his car. As he tooled it out into the street he looked toward the Lehigh Apartments and saw Louie standing in the doorway. The shadow waved at him.