were looking good again. 1 realized that was a pattern we were running: We were on a goddamned roller coaster, up and down. Right then we were on the rise.
That was quite a layout. It was a
It looked to me like the center had started off small, with maybe one or two buildings, and then had just grown, with more structures added over a period of years. Because it wasn’t one continuous design; there was space between buildings. And no two buildings seemed designed by the same architect or even by friendly architects; the place was a hodge-podge of crazy facades, Disneylike silhouettes, and clashing signs.
The whole thing was called Wonderland Shopping Center. Good name. It made you wonder.
‘Great,’ Dick Fleming said. ‘We can live the rest of our lives right here. Supermarket, liquor store, restaurant and bar, post office, laundry, bakery, men’s and women’s clothing, gas station. Who could askfor anything more?’
That was just about right. The four of us spent a fine, relaxing time there. The weather couldn’t have been better; up in the high 70s and sunny during the day, down in the low 60s at night. We went to the movies, ate well at the restaurant and motel coffee shop, wandered the stores and bought a few things, sat around drinking and talking about the robbery and how well it had been planned and executed. No one spoke of the future.
Jack Donohue selected a diamond necklace from the loot and showed us how it could be broken up, using his new kit of tools. The stones were gently pried loose from their settings, using a solvent when necessary, and then the chain in which they had been mounted was cut up into inch-long pieces.
It sounds simple, but it took a long time, Jack working slowly and carefully. Most of the stones were held by claws, each of which had to be gently bent away, and the stone pried out. Small decorative diamond chips he left in their settings, but cut into sections. When he finished, we had a dozen gemstones of various sizes, pieces of chips and pave, and hunks of gold chain.
‘Not worth as much as the original piece,’ Jack acknowledged, ‘but a hell of a lot safer to sell. Nothing can be identified. When you peddle loose rocks, the scam is that you’ve been buying cut diamonds for investment and want to sell a few for ready cash. No questions asked — believe me.’
The only downer during those two restful days was when Donohue picked up a Savannah paper and brought it to the room to show us. There was a small item datelined New York about the discovery of a corpse in the closet of an East Side Manhattan apartment. Dick Fleming’s apartment. But the newspaper story didn’t mention Dick’s name. It said only that police were attempting to locate the tenant.
‘Now they have your name, description and probably your photograph,’ Jack said, looking at Fleming.
‘So?’Dick said.
By late afternoon of the second day, fed, rested, rejuvenated, we all knew it was time to move on. I had discovered what Black Jack had been up to when he disappeared after we checked in. He had scouted all the entrances and exits from the motor lodge, and the best getaway routes. He had also decided that as a precautionary measure it would be smart not to park the Buick right outside the motel, but to leave it in the big, general parking lot of the adjacent shopping center.
‘The car’s safe,’ he told us. ‘I’ll bet on that. But why go looking for trouble? So we park it in that big lot. Plenty of cars there. And if they do tag us, they don’t know where we are — in the motel, shopping, watching a movie, whatever. Am I right?’
We told him he was right. I think that at that time he needed reassurance. Or, as Dick and I had decided, he needed to be trusted.
Anyway, we all had a good dinner at the nearby restaurant, then returned to our rooms, started packing. No hurry. We tried to consolidate the gems, and were able to get them into two suitcases and a canvas carryall. Our clothing and toilet articles went into three more suitcases and two shoulder bags.
It was then about 9:00 P.M.
‘Okay,’ Donohue said cheerily. ‘Time to hit the road. I’ll go down first and check out. Then I’ll bring the car around to the front. Give me about ten minutes. Then you start bringing the stuff down. Weil load up and be on our way.’
It sounded good.
But he was back in two minutes.
‘Trouble,’ he said tersely. ‘Son of a bitch!’
‘Jack, what is it?’ I asked him.
‘I saw your lover,’ he said, showing his teeth. ‘Him and his heavies. Talking to the guy at the desk.’
‘How did he find us here?’ I wailed.
‘Who knows?’ he said. And for the first time his face showed despair. “That bastard won’t give up until we’re all dead.’
We all caught his mood and looked at one another with angry frustration.
‘They coming up, Jack?’ Hymie Gore asked.
‘I don’t think they’ll do that, Hyme. They don’t want a shootout inside the motel any more than we do. They’ll probably stake out the place, cover all the doors, and pot us as we come out. But there’s an easy way to check …’
He picked up the phone and called the desk.
‘This is Sam Morrison in Room 410,’ he said briskly. ‘Have any friends been asking for me? Uhhuh. That’s fine. And are they waiting in the lobby? Oh … good. Well, I’ll be down soon.Thank you very much.’
‘Like I figured,’ he reported. ‘The cocksuckers said they’d wait outside.’
‘Just the three of them, Jack?’ Gore asked.
‘That’s all I saw, Hyme, but Rossi’s probably got more. And if he hasn’t you can bet he’s calling up an army right now. They’ll sew this place up tight.’
‘Can we call the cops and fire department again?’ I said.
‘Won’t work twice,’ Donohue said, shaking his head. ‘They’ll be ready for it and just lay back and pick us off as we come out. Besides, this place is just too big for a juggle like that to work.’
He paced up and down, biting at the hard skin around a thumbnail. We all watched him. I wasn’t conscious of being frightened as much as feeling an utter lack of hope. I think the others felt the same way: that we had come to the end of our rope, and all our daring and resolve had gone for nothing. I understood then the irrational fury that Donohue had expressed earlier: Having accomplished so much, why couldn’t we be left alone to profit from our boldness?
‘Uh, Jack,’ Hymie Gore said, ‘maybe we should go out blasting? I mean, we got the irons. Maybe one or two of us could make it.’
‘Suicide,’ Donohue said bluntly. ‘I cased all the exits when we checked in. At night, all those doors are brightly lighted. They’ll be back in the darkness, take their time, and pop us off, bang, bang, bang, bang-like that. Can’t miss.’
Silence again.
Finally Black Jack stopped his pacing. He stood in front of Dick Fleming’s armchair, looked down at him.
‘Well, college boy?’ he said. ‘You got a good nut on you, I know that. Any ideas how we can get out of this mess?’
‘Back doors?’ Dick said slowly.
‘They’ll all be covered.’
‘Basement?’
‘The steps come up to the back doors.’
‘Disguises? We put on some of Jannie’s clothes and — ah, that would never work.’
‘It sure wouldn’t,’ Donohue said, sighing. ‘Maybe I should make a run for it. I might be able to decoy them away while you three slide out the other way.’
‘They’re too smart for that,’ Flemingsaid. ‘Aren’t they?’
‘Yeah,’ Jack said sourly, ‘they are.’
‘We could call the cops,’ I said. ‘Or the FBI. For real, I mean. No gimmicks. Give ourselves up. Tell them to come get us.’
‘And face a felony murder rap?’ Donohue said. ‘You really want to do that?’
