McNally's caper

‘No,’ I said.

‘Wait a minute,’ Dick said.

We all looked at him. He was rubbing his blond eyebrows side to side.

‘Look,’ he said, ‘it’s just a matter of logic. We obviously can’t go down, so why don’t we try going up? The roof.’

Jack Donohue took one swift step to Fleming’s side, bent over, kissed his cheek.

‘Sweetheart,’ he said. ‘I knew you had a brain from the start. Sure, the roof. It’s a chance. Dick, you come with me and we’ll take a look. Hyme, you stay here with Jannie. Lock the door and don’t open for anyone, and I mean anyone. Not even for me unless I give you the right knock: three short raps, pause, two more. Got it? Let’s go, Dick.’

They were gone almost fifteen minutes. Hymie Gore and I waited in silence, chain-smoking. We were still wearing our coats, the suitcases packed, locked, and stacked near the door. Gore opened one of the shoulder bags to extract another revolver and slip it into his side pocket. I wondered if I should also take another, but I didn’t. I kept thinking of ‘Two-Gun Jannie Shean,’ and the idea was just too ridiculous.

Finally we heard Donohue’s code-knock: three raps, pause, two more. Gore opened the door cautiously, peered out, let the two men into the room.

I looked at their faces but could read nothing in their expressions.

‘It’s a chance,’ Donohue said.

‘A good chance,’Fleming said.

‘A chance,’ Jack repeated. ‘Just a chance. Here’s the situation: We get to the roof up an iron staircase through a fire door. That part’s easy. The building next door is a department store about the same height. Maybe a few inches higher. But it’s about five feet away. Dick, would you say five feet?’

‘About.’

‘There’s just space between the two buildings. Nothing there. Like an open alley. But we jumped it. No problem. All right, now we’re on the roof of the department store, hoping no one heard us jump. The building on the other side of the department store is a movie theater. A problem there. It’s about five feet away from the department store, but it’s also lower. I mean, maybe five, six feet lower. So we not only have to jump across that open space, but we have to jump down. Get it? Once we do that, there’s no getting back. Naturally we didn’t try that jump.’

‘But we saw a door up there,’ Dick Fleming said excitedly, if we can make it to the roof of the movie house, and if we can get through that door, maybe we can make it down through the theater.’

‘Carrying our luggage,’ Donohue said, and flashed us one of his sparkling grins.

1 looked at him in astonishment. I gestured toward the stack of suitcases.

‘You’re not telling me we’re taking all this stuff, are you?’ I demanded.

‘You’re not telling me we’re leaving it all behind, are you?’ he replied.

So up we went to the roof of the motor lodge, carrying all our luggage. We took the stairs at the end of the corridor because Donohue didn’t want to chance meeting anyone in the elevator. Jack led the way, then me, then Dick. Hymie Gore came last. The big man was carrying two suitcases, but I noticed that one was under an arm, and he was gripping a revolver in his free hand.

When we got to the roof door, Jack turned to me. it opens outward,’ he whispered, it’s locked from the outside so crooks can’t get in from the roof. Very smart. When Dick and I went out to look around, we left it jammed open with two packs of cigarettes. Weil do the same thing now, just in case this scam doesn’t work and we have to get back in.’

Then we were on the roof. It was cool up there, a stiff breeze blowing from the north. The sky was clear, the stars diamond-bright. But there was no moon; we moved carefully in the gloom, avoiding protruding pipes and ventilation ducts.

Donohue led the way to the far side. The tarred roof of the department store was across a black open space.

‘That looks more than five feet to me,’ I said nervously.

‘Nah,’ Jack said, ‘it’s an easy jump. Dick, show her how easy it is.’

Fleming put down the suitcases he was carrying. He backed up a few steps, opened his raincoat. Then he rushed forward and leaped. He went sailing, the tail of his coat billowing out behind him. He cleared the chasm easily, by a foot or two. He didn’t even fall; just went running forward a few steps, then stopped, turned, came back to the edge. He smiled across at me.

‘See?’Donohue said. ‘Nothing to it. You next, Jannie.’

I stood a few steps back from that deep, deep valley between the two buildings.

‘Don’t look down,’ Jack said. ‘Just get a running start and jump.’

‘I can’t do it.’

‘Sure, you can do it! It’s an easy jump. I read in your book how strong you are. Jogging and exercise and all that bullshit. You can do it.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Come on,’ he said, beginning to get angry. ‘If it was a puddle, you’d step across it.’

‘A puddle isn’t six stories up.’

‘Goddamn it,’ he snarled furiously, ‘are you going to jump or am I going to have Hymie throw you across?’

I began to cry.

‘I can’t,’ I wept, ‘I really can’t, Jack. Something that wasn’t in my book: I’m afraid of heights. Scared out of my wits. I don’t have to look down there. I know what’s there. Nothing. I just can’t do it. Leave me here. The rest of you go ahead. That’s all right; I’ll take my chances.’

‘Son of a bitch,’ Donohue said bitterly. He put his hands on his hips, tilted his head back to stare at the sky, took a deep breath.

We stood there a moment, not talking. So help me, I had the shakes.

‘Hey,’ Dick called softly from the other side. ‘What’s going on? Let’s get moving!’

‘Hyme,’ Jack said, ‘throw all the luggage across to Fleming.’

I stood well back from the edge, trembling still, watching Gore tossing the suitcases and carryalls over to Dick. Then everything was stacked on the roof of the department store. And Dick was there. But the three of us were still on the motel roof.

‘Go ahead,’ I told them. ‘It’s all right.’

I really thought they were going to leave me.

‘Oh, shut your stupid yap,’ Donohue snapped. ‘Hyme, let’s take a look at that fire door.’

They made their way back to the rooftop door. I followed forlornly.

The two men examined the door. It was steel-covered, about two inches thick. Donohue rapped it with his knuckles.

‘Think you can pull it off the hinges, Hyme?’

Gore swung the door open wide, examined the hinges.

‘Bolted,’ he said. ‘But I’ll try, Jack.’

He reached up, put locked hands over the outer edge of the open door. He let his weight sag, pulling down and outward, trying to snap the top hinges. There was a screak of metal but nothing yielded.

‘Let me get inside your arms,’ Black Jack said. ‘We’ll both put our weight on it.’

The two of them put their combined weight and strength on the open door. Even in the dimness I could see their strained faces, cords popping in their necks and clenched jaws.

There was a raw screech of metal that I was certain would be heard for miles. The top hinge pulled loose from the door frame. The two men almost fell. They stepped back. The door hung loosely, held only by the bottom hinge. Hymie Gore gripped it, began to pull it away with ferocious yanks.

‘Heavy mother,’ he panted.

With another wail of twisted metal, the whole door came away in Gore’s hands. He carried it back to the chasm between the two buildings, Donohue and I following.

‘Work fast, Hyme,’ Jack said nervously. ‘That was loud enough for the desk clerk to hear.’

Gore set the door on edge on the cornice of the motel roof. He slid it slowly across the five-foot space,