McNally's caper

it’ll work.’

‘Well … it’s not our worry, is it, Jannie? We take off Thursday night and the whole thing stops dead. Isn’t that right?’

We stared at each other across the table with blank eyes.

‘Sure,’ I said finally. ‘Stops dead. But I did want the whole thing to be foolproof.’

1 told him about the dinner with Noel Jarvis, and he practically slavered when I described the oysters, the beef braciole, the Key lime pie. Then I related Jarvis’ reaction to the Devolte Bros, holdup in San Francisco, and how the chair rail at Brandenberg sounded a silent alarm and locked the front door.

‘So?’ Dick, said, smiling. ‘A great detail for your book. I told you that you should, ah, cultivate his acquaintance. How else would you have found out about that cute gimmick?’

‘That’s not the point. The point is, do I tell Jack Donohue about that chair rail and the locked door?’

Fleming looked at me, blinking a few times, thinking….

‘No,’ he said at last, ‘you can’t tell him. Because then he’d want to know how you found out. Then what would you say?’

‘But if they try the heist without us, Dick, they’ll all be trapped.’

‘So?’ he said coldly. ‘Their problem, not ours.’

‘I suppose so,’ I said slowly. ‘Still …’

He reached across the table, took up my hand.

‘Jannie, I know you feel a kind of — of responsibility for Donohue, Hymie Gore, the Holy Ghost, and the other guys they’re recruiting. But it’s their choice. Don’t you understand? Sure, you gave them a target and a plan. Or we both did. But we’re not forcing them to go through with it at the point of a gun. They can pull out of it anytime they want to. Just as we can, and will. So if they try it by themselves and get caught, it’s their own fault. It has nothing to do with us.’

I shook my head, bewildered.

‘Dick, I can’t figure the morality of this. What you say makes sense. In a way. But if those nuts try it on their own and get picked up or someone gets hurt, I’m going to feel partly to blame. Besides being scared out of my wits that they’ll tell the cops about us.’

‘What’s to tell?’ he argued. ‘They know you as Bea Flanders. Her description and address are nothing like Jannie

Shean, who lives on the East Side. And I look like a million other guys in New York and they don’t even know where live. So we’ve got nothing to worry about, Jannie.’font>

He kept talking like that all the way back to my apartment. Even after we were naked in bed together, he kept reassuring me, telling me it was going to be all right, we’d make a clean split the following night, and Donohue amp; Co wouldn’t be fools enough to try it on their own. It all sounded so logical.

So why did I cling to him so frantically, hug him so tightly, and insist he spend the entire night to help warm my bed? Because I had a chill that wouldn’t end, and I didn’t want to be alone.

DRESS REHEARSAL

I’ll never forget Jack Donohue’s mood that Thursday. He was flying high — but not on alcohol or drugs. He spoke rapidly, almost spluttering in his haste to get the words out. His eyes sparkled. The brilliant grin came and went. He snapped his fingers frequently and occasionally broke into a little tap dance.

He came to room 703 to coordinate our moves that evening, when we were all to meet at the 47th Street garage.

‘Park your car a few blocks away,’ he instructed me. ‘If Fleming drives his heap, tell him to do the same. Then both of you walk over to the garage. Figure to get there about 12:30. Around then. The night watchman will have made his rounds and be back in his storefront, watching TV. We’ll get there ahead of you — me and the others. The door will be opened for you. Then we’ll go over the timing again for Friday morning. Okay? Okay?’

‘Jack,’ I said, ‘for God’s sake, will you have a drink and calm down? You’ve got the jits.’

‘No booze for me,’ he said, flashing the grin. ‘Plenty of time for that after we’ve got the rocks. By God, Bea, do you realize that at this time tomorrow I’ll be rich? We’ll all be rich!’

‘Sure,’ I said, ‘but I’d rather see you play it cool. Come on, sit down for a minute, dip your nose in the vodka. I got my daily delivery of ice from Blanche.’

‘Well … all right. But just one. Then I’ve got to run. I’ve got a million things to do.’

‘Yeah?’ I said, pouring us each a vodka in the rough. ‘Like what?’ ‘I’ve got to locate our two muscles and give them their marching orders. Find an iron for Hymie; his source didn’t come through. Make sure those coveralls are the right size for our guys. Make a checklist of the stuff we’ll be. carrying: coveralls, masks, tape, rope, pillowcases, and so forth. I want this to go down just right, Bea. We’ll be in and out of there so slick, they won’t know what hit them. And no rough stuff. Nobody gets hurt. This’ll be bigger than the Devolte heist in Frisco. Don’t you think so?’

‘Could be.’

He looked at me shrewdly for a long moment.

‘What are you going to do with your share, babe?’

‘Take off.’

‘With Fleming?’

‘Could be,’ I said again, shrugging. ‘I’ve been moving some of my stuff over to his pad.’

‘I know,’ he said, watching me. ‘Blanche told me you were emptying out your room.’

I don’t think I showed dismay.

‘It makes sense. Every rat has another hole. If someone at Brandenberg makes me, it won’t take long for someone here at the hotel or at Fangio’s to tie me up with you, Hymie Gore, and the Holy Ghost. So I figured I’d move before we cash in. Just being super-careful.’

‘I always said you’ve got a brain,’ he said admiringly. ‘As a matter of fact, I’m figuring on doing the same thing. We can each take a part of the loot so there’s no possibility of a cross.’

‘Just what I was thinking.’

He laughed heartily, slapping his knee.

‘I’d never cross you, Bea. You know that. You’re too smart for me.’

‘Just keep thinking that way,’ I told him coldly. ‘Right now we both need each other. A marriage of convenience.’

‘I couldn’t agree more,’ he said warmly. ‘This whole shmear wouldn’t have been possible without you, babe. Well, I’ve got to run. Sticking around?’

‘For a while.’ I hesitated for a moment. Since he knew I was moving out, there didn’t seem any harm in completing the split. ‘I’ll probably take my suitcases and the rest of my stuff to Fleming’s place. I’ll give them notice here, tell them I’ll be out by Saturday.’ ‘Good enough,’ he said, nodding, it’ll be a pleasure to get out of this fleabag, won’t it, babe?’

I agreed. Wholeheartedly.

‘Sure,’ he said. ‘You’re used to better than this; I can tell. What are you going to do with your share? Europe? South America?’

‘Maybe. But I figure the blues will be watching overseas flights after the heist. I may just hole up in a small town somewhere. Vermont, Maine. Like that. Until the heat dies down.’

‘But not too small,’ he warned. ‘Not someplace where people ask questions about strangers. Me, I’m heading for Miami. A hustler like me can get lost in the crowd down there. Want to come along?’

I looked at him a moment, not certain he was serious. He seemed to be; he wasn’t grinning and his eyes were steady.

‘One thing at a time,’ I said finally. ‘I’ll decide after we’ve got the money in our hot little fists. If we ever do.’

‘Can’t miss,’ he assured me. ‘Call it gambler’s hunch or whatever, but I know it. This is going down, Bea.’