power lines, water lines, sewage lines, burglar alarm lines, removed the wheels,
leveled the-”
“Removed the wheels?” The captain’s left eye was completely shut now,
maybe for good.
“Sure,” Wallah said. “It’s standard procedure if you’re going to-”
“Are you telling me that goddam trailer didn’t have any wheels?”
“Mobile home. And natu-”
“Trailer!” the captain yelled. “Trailer, trailer goddam trailer! And if it didn’t
have any goddam wheels, how did they get it away from there?”
Nobody answered. The captain stood panting in the middle of the room, head
hulked down between his shoulders, like the bull after the matador’s assistants
have finished with him. His left eye was still closed, perhaps permanently, and his
right eyelid was beginning to flutter.
Lieutenant Hepplewhite cleared his throat. Everybody jumped, as though a
hand grenade had gone off, and they all stared at him. In a small voice he said.
“Helicopter?”
They continued to look at him. Several slow seconds went by, and then the
captain said, “Repeat that, Hepplewhite.”
“Helicopter, sir,” Lieutenant Hepplewhite said in the same small voice. And
then, hesitant but hurrying, added, “I just thought maybe they had a helicopter
and they might have come down and put ropes around it and-”
The captain glowered with his one good eye. “And take it off the Island,” he
finished.
“Too heavy,” Wallah said. He opened his gray cloth plumber’s bag and took
out a toy mobile home. “Here’s a scale model of the Remuda model,” he said.
“Remember now, it’s fifty feet long. This one is pink and white; the stolen one is
blue and white.”
“I see the color,” the captain growled. “You’re sure it’s too heavy?”
“No question.”
“I’ve got a question,” the captain said. Somehow he seemed to be holding
the toy. Shifting it back and forth from hand to hand in some irritation, he said to
Lieutenant Hepplewhite, “Phone the Army base. Find out if a helicopter could
do the job.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And get in touch with some of the men on the scene. Have them wake
neighbors, find out if anybody heard a helicopter around there tonight.”
“Definitely too heavy,” Wallah said. “And too long and awkward. They just
couldn’t do it.”
“We’ll find out,” the captain said. “Here, take this damn thing.”
Wallah took back the toy. “I thought you’d be interested,” he said.
“It’s the real one I’m interested in.”
“Exactly,” said the banker, Gelding.
Lieutenant Hepplewhite was murmuring on the phone. The captain said,
“Now, if they didn’t take it by helicopter, the question is how did they take it?
What about these wheels you took off, where would they be now?”
“Stored in our assembly plant in Brooklyn,” Wallah said.
“You’re sure they’re still there?”
“Nope.”
The captain gave him the full voltage of his one good eye. “You’re not sure
they’re still there?”
“I haven’t checked. But those aren’t the only wheels in the world; they could
have gotten wheels anywhere.”
Lieutenant Hepplewhite said, “Excuse me, Mr. Wallah.”
Wallah looked at him in amused surprise-probably at being called mister.
“The Army sergeant would like to talk to you.”
“Sure,” said Wallah. He took the phone from Hepplewhite, and they all
watched him lift it to his face and say, “What’s happening, man?”
The captain turned resolutely away from the conversation, and while the
lieutenant answered the other phone, which had suddenly started to ring, he said
to Gelding, “Don’t you worry. It doesn’t matter how they did it, we’ll catch up
with them. You can’t steal a whole bank and expect to get away with it.”
“I certainly hope not.”
“Sir?”
The captain turned a mistrustful eye on the lieutenant. “What now?”
“Sir, the bank had been resting on a foundation of concrete blocks. The
officers on the scene have found tub caulking on top of the blocks.”
“Tub caulking on top of the blocks.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And they decided to report that.”
The lieutenant blinked. He was still holding the phone. Next to him, Gary
Wallah was in conversation on the other phone with the Army sergeant. “Yes,
sir,” the lieutenant said.
The captain nodded. He took a deep breath. “Tell them thank you,” he said in
a soft voice and turned to Albert Docent, the safe-company man, who hadn’t as
yet contributed anything. “Well, what good news do you have for me?” he said.
“They’ll have a hell of a time with that safe,” Docent said. Above the bow tie,
his expression was clean-cut, dutiful and intelligent.
The captain’s left eye fluttered slightly, as though it might open. He nearly
smiled. “Will they?” he said.
Gary Wallah said, “The sergeant wants to talk to one of you people.” He was
offering the phone indiscriminately to both Captain Deemer and Lieutenant
Hepplewhite.
“You take it, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.”
Once again, they all watched and listened as Hepplewhite spoke with the
sergeant. His part of the conversation was mostly “Uh huh” and “Is that right?”
but his audience kept watching and listening anyway. Finally he finished and hung
up and said, “It couldn’t be done by helicopter.”
The captain said, “They’re sure? Positive?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good,” said the captain. “Then they’re still on the Island, just like I said.” He
turned back to Docent, the safe man. “You were saying?”
“I was saying,” Docent said, “that they’ll find that safe a tough nut to crack.
It’s one of the most modern safes we make, with the latest advances in heat-resistant and shock-resistant metals. These are advances that come from
research connected with the Vietnam war. It’s one of the ironic benefits of that
unhappy-”
“Oh, wow,” said Gary Wallah.
Docent turned to him, firm but fair. “All I’m saying,” he said, “is that research
has been stimulated into some-”
“Oh, wow. I mean, wow.”
“I’ve heard all your arguments, and I can’t say I entirely disagree with-”
“Wow, man.”
“At this time,” George Gelding said, standing at attention and looking very
red-faced, “when some person or persons unknown have stolen a branch of the
Capitalists’ and Immigrants’ Trust, and our brave boys are dying on far-flung
battlefields to protect the rights of likes of you who-”
“Oh, wow.”
“Now, there’s much to be said on both sides, but the point
“I see those flaaaaag draped coffins, I hear the loved ones in their cottages
and on the farms of America-”
“Like, really, wow.”
Captain Deemer glowered at them all through the remaining slit of his right
eye. A bellowed shut up might attract their attention-all three were talking at
the same time now-but did he want them to shut up? If they stopped arguing
with one another, they’d just start talking to the captain again, and he wasn’t
sure he wanted that.
In the middle of the melee the phone rang. Captain Deemer was aware of
Lieutenant Hepplewhite answering it, but that didn’t have much interest for him,
either. More tub caulking, he supposed, this time in the ears of his officers.
But then Hepplewhite shouted, “Somebody saw it!” and the argument
stopped as though somebody had switched off a radio. Everybody-even the
captain-stared at Hepplewhite, sitting there at the desk with the phone in his
hand, grinning at them with happy excitement.
Gelding said, “Well? Well?”
“A bartender,” Hepplewhite said, “closing up for the night. He saw it go by,
about quarter to two. Said it was going like hell. Said there was a cab off a big
tractor-trailer rig pulling it.”
“Quarter to two?” the captain said. “Why the hell didn’t he report it till now?”
“Didn’t think anything of it. He lives in Queens, and they stopped him at a
roadblock going through. That’s when he found out what happened and told
them he’d seen it.”
“Where was this?”
“On Union Turnpike. They’ve got a roadblock set up there, and-”
“No,” Captain Deemer said. Patiently he said, “Where did he see the bank?”
“Oh. Up by Cold Spring.”
“Cold Spring, Cold Spring.” The captain hurried to the map, looked at it,
found Cold Spring. “Right on the county line,” he said. “They’re not trying to get
off the Island at all. Heading the other way, up toward Huntington.” He spun
around. “Get that out to all units right away, Lieutenant. Last seen at one forty-five in the vicinity of Cold Spring.”
“Yes, sir.” Hepplewhite spoke briefly into the phone, broke the connection,
dialed the dispatcher’s room.
Gelding said, “You seem pleased, Captain. This is a good sign, eh?”
“The best so far. Now if we can only get to them before they open the safe
and abandon the bank-”
“I don’t think you have to worry too much about that, Captain,” Albert
Docent said. In the heat of the argument his bow tie had become twisted, but
now he was calm again, and straightening it.
Captain Deemer looked at him. “Why not?”
“I was telling you about the advances that have been made in safe
construction,” Docent said. He glanced at Wallah, who said nothing, and looked