“Fine with me,” she said.
He looked at me.
“Go right ahead,” I said.
“Okay. Anyway, thousands of volunteers poured into the city. And nobody asked questions. From what Johnny told me, you pitched in, nobody cared who you were or where you came from. So he’s rowing through the west end, saving people off of rooftops. The water’s up to the second story in most places — I’ve seen pictures of this — as high as traffic lights. Damnedest thing you’ve ever seen. Johnny made this boat out of four barrels and some crates and he’s paddling right down the middle of the street. He had the time of his life. He even stuck around afterwards and helped with the cleanup, which is how he dreamed up this heist.
“Lot of buildings collapsed. I mean, the whole downtown was underwater for weeks on end, and when the river receded they put crews in there repairing anything that got broke. Johnny was smart. He knew all kinds of things. He told them he’d done construction, so they put him to work. Anyway, while he’s crawling around this basement one day, he realizes he’s looking at the underside of a bank. Electrical power’s been out for days, so a lot of storm sewers have broken and all this water’s flowing past the foundation. There’s this crack up the wall that he’s supposed to fix. He puts together this patch job wouldn’t fool a pro, but there’s no one around. Everybody’s too busy to pay attention to him. So he tells ’em it’s fixed when he hasn’t done a thing except cover it up.
He even signs off the inspection with forged signatures. I mean, it’s not like there was anyone to double-check his work.
“By the time the two of us meet up … this is now four years later. Back then, big vaults were poured in place, using number five rebar, which is five-eighths diameter, four inches on center, several layers offset. Understand, it’s not like I’m the expert. I learned all of this from him. This particular vault was constructed during the Depression — some kind of public works project — so you can imagine how well it was put together in the first place. Vault like that, you can force entry if you got the tools and the time. He said it had always been at the back of his mind, but he knew he needed help once it came time, which is where I come in.
“Johnny starts working on the foundation with this masonry bit. Nights and weekends, he goes in through the basement of the building next door and attacks the substructure. It probably takes him a month, but he’s finally right up against the floor of the vault. Nowadays, this shit is all done with high-tech equipment, but in the old days, a successful bank job was the result of pure grit and hard work. It took patience and skill. Johnny figured the alarm system was tougher than the vault. At that point, we had to bring in some other guys because we needed the help. Johnny’d apprenticed with a locksmith, so he’d studied all the manuals and knew the specs by heart, but we needed an alarm man to dismantle the alarms. I’d been in jail with a guy I thought we could trust. That was Donnie Hays, and he brought in his brother, Gilbert. Like she said, Donnie’s dead now and Gilbert I got to thank for this.” He held up his bruised and bandaged hand.
I saw Laura’s focus shift, and she exchanged a look with me. It apparently hadn’t occurred to her before that Gilbert had done the damage to Ray Rawson’s face.
“Johnny pulled in another couple of guys named McDermid. I think they were cousins he’d done some time with down in Lexington. Donnie Hays defeated the alarm, and we went to work with the torches and the sledgehammers, pounding away like crazy until we finally busted through. Johnny started drilling safe-deposit boxes while the rest of us set to work, cleaning out the loot while he popped the boxes and dumped the contents.”
“Wait a minute. Who’s Farley? How does he fit into this?” I asked.
“Gilbert’s nephew,” Laura replied. “The three of us came out to the coast together.”
“Oh. Sorry to interrupt. Go ahead.”
“Anyway, we had us a regular bucket brigade, tossing cash and jewelry out of safe-deposit boxes, stuffing the goodies into canvas bags, then hand over hand down through the hole and out to the car waiting in the alley. We’re working like dogs and everything seems to be going as planned until suddenly the cops show up and all hell breaks loose. This gun battle breaks out, in the course of which Frank McDermid and Donnie Hays were both killed, along with this cop. I was hot-blooded in those days, and I fired the shot that killed the cop. Gilbert was captured and so was Darrell McDermid. I heard later Darrell died in some accident, but I never had that confirmed.”
“You and Johnny weren’t captured?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Not then. Me and him escaped, but we knew it was only a matter of time before they caught us. We were desperate, sitting on this stash, anxious to find a safe place for it before the cops closed in. We decided to split up. Johnny said he had the perfect place to hide the dough, but he figured it was better if only one of us knew. I’d have trusted him with my life. He swore he wouldn’t lay a hand on it until we were both free to enjoy it. We went our separate ways, and by the time we got picked up he was empty-handed. The cops beat the shit out of him, trying to find out where he’d hidden the take, but he never would say. Ended up he confessed to the crime, but he never told anyone what happened to the money. The irony was, it was the cops’ beating a confession out of him that got his conviction thrown out.
“Meantime, we both suspected Darrell was the one who blew the whistle on us. Like I said, after we were picked up, he testified against us in court. He swore up and down it wasn’t him turned us in, trying to lay blame off on his brother, Frank. Me and Johnny both got twenty-five years to life, but Johnny’s conviction was overturned on appeal.
He went home to his family while I’m sitting on my butt down in the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia. Johnny went back later and removed enough from the stash to support himself and my ma, who’s still back in Kentucky.” He indicated her belly. “That’s what’s left.”
“Wait a minute. What makes you so sure it’s eight grand?”
“Because he told me how much he took and what he spent since then. I did the math and figured what the balance was.”
“Where’s the rest?”
“Well, you know. I guess it’s still where it was.”
I stared at him. “I hope you’re not going to tell me he died without revealing where he hid it.”
Ray shrugged uneasily. “That’s about it.”
12
Laura moaned and leaned forward as if she were on the verge of fainting. She tried to get her head down between her knees, but the bulk of her belly thwarted her. She leaned sideways against the bed pillows, pulling her knees up to her chest like a kid with a stomachache.
“What’s wrong?” Ray asked.
“Oh God, I thought there’d be more. I thought you knew where it was,” she whispered, beginning to weep again. I’m a hardhearted little thing. I sat there wondering why crying is occasionally referred to as boo-hooing. I’ve never heard weepers use syllables even remotely related.
Ray moved over and sat beside her. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head, rocking back and forth.
“Laura’s fine,” I said, bored. I was aware my tone was rude, but I knew what she was up to, and the girlish tears were annoying. Ray rubbed her back, patting her shoulder in a series of ineffectual moves that, nevertheless, conveyed his compassion and concern. “Hey, come on. That’s okay. Just tell me what’s wrong and I’ll help. I promise. Don’t cry.”
“Excuse me, Ray, but you might want to be discreet. She’s already busy double-crossing Gilbert, and she’s supposedly in love with him. No telling what she does to people she doesn’t give a shit about. Uh, such as us, in case you missed the point,” I said.
He looked at her, his brow furrowing. “Is that right? Are you trying to get away from him?”
“By sticking it to us” I said caustically. Neither paid attention. I could have saved my breath.
I handed her another wad of tissues, and she went through the whole nose-blowing routine again. She pressed a tissue to her eyes, damming the leak of tears. She launched into a fragmented explanation, but she couldn’t quite manage it, and I was left to translate. I said, “She and Farley have joined forces. She’s absconding with the money. This is just a guess on my part.”