'As sure as you can be from just going to the store and buying some eggs and taking a look around. They're real pleased with their burglar alarm system, there's no reason they'll want to change it.'
'What about the safe?'
'We got to figure they still got the same one,' Hughes said. 'She described it to me and I described it to Ed, and he knows what it is.'
'An old Mosler,' Barnes said. 'Six feet high, four feet wide, four feet deep. It's free-standing, but they've built plasterboard walls around it, like it was built in. It's the kind you can peel with no trouble, start at the top corner above the lock and peel it like a Polaroid print. Those three Air Force guys were amateurs, it isn't the kind of safe you want to blow at all.'
'The only problem,' Hughes said, 'is that it's in the front of the store, facing the windows. See, across the front are the cash registers, starting at the left, where the store entrance is, and going most of the way across. Then there's the manager's office, that's built up on a platform. When you're up in there the walls are maybe shoulder height. You know, so the manager can look out and see the store all the time.'
'I've seen that kind of set-up,' Grofield said.
'Yeah, but here's the difference. Most places like that, the safe is pretty small, and it's right up there in the manager's office. But this place, because they keep so much cash around all the time, they have to have this big monster, and I guess they were worried about the weight up on the platform or something. So it's down at floor level, between the manager's office and the side wall. The office and the safe are set back about five feet from the windows, the same as the check-out counters, and there's a waist-high wrought-iron railing across from the window to the corner of the manager's office, to keep the customers out of there. And there's a door on that side of the manager's office, and steps down, so they can go straight from the office to the safe, which is facing the windows.'
Grofield said, 'So that anybody working on the safe can be seen from outside.'
Hughes nodded. 'From the parking lot, right.'
Grofield said, 'So a guy with binoculars should be able to pick up the combination.'
'Sorry,' Hughes said, and grinned. 'They're onto that. They always crowd the safe close when they open it, shield the lock with their body.'
'It can be peeled like that anyway,' Barnes said, and snapped his fingers.
'Right there by the window,' Grofield said.
Steve Tebelman, who'd been very quiet up till now, said, 'I'll tell you the truth, I need the money. I keep hoping you're going to tell me how it's going to be easy and safe, and you keep making it sound worse and worse.'
Hughes grinned at him. 'Don't worry, Steve,' he said. 'I didn't ask you to come here just for the hell of it.'
Grofield said, 'You've got it worked out, have you? What to do about the windows?'
'Right,' Hughes said. In a quiet way, he was proud of himself.
'And about the burglar alarm?'
'Definitely.'
Steve Tebelman said, 'The fifteenth is a week from today, next Tuesday. Is that when you want to do it? I mean the night before, Monday?'
Hughes shook his head. 'That's when they're the most alert,' he said. 'They've got the maximum cash in there. The next day, around noon, an armored car comes out from a bank in Belleville with however much more cash they need, but that's never a hell of a lot, not in comparison.'
'With what?' Grofield asked. 'How much are we talking about?'
'Anywhere between forty and seventy-five thousand.'
Tebelman smiled. 'That's nice,' he said.
Grofield said, 'But when do you want to do it?'
'This Friday,' Hughes said. 'We'll lose two days take, Saturday and Monday, but Friday's the big shopping day anyway, so we'll still make out. And there's other reasons.'
'Because of your plan,' Grofield suggested.
'Right.'
'I can hardly wait to hear it,' Grofield said.
3
Grofield stopped at the baby food, and put a dozen jars in his carriage. It was early Wednesday afternoon, the day after the meeting in the garage, and the Food King was barely sprinkled with customers. Grofield walked on, pushing the carriage. He added a carton of corn flakes and turned the corner.
To his right was the row of check-out counters, most of them empty now, only three green-jacketed cashiers on duty, one at the express lane and the other two at the next two counters. Ahead of him, at the end of the checkout counters, were the head-high white partitions of the manager's office. A stocky, worried-looking man could be seen in there, up at a higher level, so he was visible from the shoulders up. He was looking at lists on a clipboard with a younger man in a white shirt and black bow tie.
The white partition of the office ran on to form a corner with the side of the building. Grofield went on down there; racks of pretzels and potato chips were in the corner, and he stood considering them a while. Considering, also, that the rear of the safe was just the other side of those racks. A plywood roof had been put over the safe and a large advertising display for Food King canned fruits and vegetables was standing on top of it.
Grofield finally selected a bag of potato chips, put them in the basket, and moved on. He roamed
