Hap and Leonard Ride Again Page 8

  “They don’t know us,” the not-so-pretty one said.

  “They’ll find you,” Marvin said. “You can count on that. Now, don’t bother me anymore. Get up and leave, and don’t let your fucking shadow darken my doorway again.”

  They got up slowly.

  Marvin said, “Before you go. You. Asswipe, find your teeth and take them with you.”

  The formerly pretty one stood up and went about looking for his teeth. They were in various places around the room. He picked them up and put them in his pocket.

  “Put those on ice, go to a dentist, they might can put those back in for you,” Marvin said.

  “We was just gonna scare you,” said the not-so-pretty one. “It worked on the others.”

  “The others?”

  “Detectives,” said the not-so-pretty one.

  “Now git,” Marvin said.

  They got.

  Marvin looked up Tiffany’s address and drove over there. It was a very nice house. Not as rich as the Cravers’ joint, but nice nonetheless, and in a neighborhood that was even more nice. No wear and tear around there.

  Parking at the curb, Marvin went to the door and pushed the bell. Tiffany answered the ring. Her pretty face fell.

  “Hey,” she said. “My brother lost teeth. I think Tony has a broken nose.”

  “I hope so,” Marvin said. “They were certainly quick to call.”

  She tried to shut the door. Marvin stuck a foot out and blocked it. “No you don’t.”

  “I’ll call the police,” she said. “You get off my property.”

  “I’ll wait here while you call the police, and then I’ll tell them about your brothers, and about how they threatened me. Had you left well enough alone, I might not have known you were dating your boss at the bank.”

  “You don’t know that . . . I mean, that isn’t true.”

  “Sure it is,” Marvin said. “I had my suspicions from our conversation earlier. But it didn’t matter to me. Not until you sent your brothers to see me. That was just plain stupid. Can I come in?”

  “Are you serious?”

  “As a heart attack.”

  “My husband gets home in half an hour,” she said. “He wouldn’t like you here.”

  “Oh, it’s all right. Me and him can talk about your earlier days, about the bank, about your boss and what was going on with him.”

  Tiffany looked around, as if someone might be in the yard, said, “Okay, come in. But I only have twenty minutes.”

  “I think that’ll cover it, if we can quit horsing around and get to the point.”

  They went into a sitting room that didn’t look as if anyone ever sat there. It was very formal and smelled as clean as a hospital room, but was less charming. She waved at a chair and Marvin sat. She sat in a chair across from him.

  “Ask what you like,” she said.

  “Your boss. You were seeing him. Right?”

  “Right. That was then, though. This is now, and that’s long in my past.”

  “You were seeing him, and so was Frankie.”

  “How do you know that? Frankie tell you?”

  “No. You did. Or at least I could easily get that from your conversation today. It didn’t really matter that much at first, but when you sent your two stupid siblings around, it sort of did. It mattered that much to you that I didn’t ask about it, it had to be important.”

  “I just don’t want my husband knowing.”

  “Was that before you met your husband? You and Jim.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then what do you care?” Marvin said.

  “I just don’t want it brought up.”

  Marvin nodded. “We can maybe avoid that. I think we can. If you answer some questions. And honestly, I’d hate to have to come back, or have your brothers lose more teeth.”

  “That was a bad idea, me sending them. It worked before. I guess I panicked. I didn’t want it to come up, and for my husband to know. He can be pretty jealous, even if Jim is dead.”

  “Like you were jealous of Frankie?”

  “I just never saw what he saw in her,” she said. “We were dating, and the next thing I know, she’s flirting with him, and I’m thinking, okay, look at me and look at her. I mean, even then, she wasn’t pretty. But she certainly opened his nose.”

  “How long did the two of them date?”

  “They had just started. Me and Jim still saw each other, but I could tell he was playing the field. Me, her, whoever. But her working at the bank. Well, it hurt. I liked him quite a bit.”

  “All right. The day Frankie’s husband came by. Which way did he go out when he left?”

  “Go out?” she asked.

  “Which door?”

  “Oh, my god, that’s been twenty-five years ago. I have no idea.” Tiffany looked at her watch. “He’ll be home soon.”

  “Did you ever hear of any money missing from the bank?”

  Tiffany knitted her brows. “Never.”

  “Did all the money go straight in the vault?”

  “Yes . . . well, there was the packet.”

  “The packet?” Marvin asked.

  “That’s right. I never quite understood about the packet. Jim explained it to me once, but I don’t remember the details, but it made enough sense then, whatever the explanation. It was some kind of extra money for the bank and was kept separate.”

  “Tell me about the packet,” Marvin said.

  “The armored truck. It brought the money, and it brought the packet, which was separate. The packet was kind of hush-hush because it didn’t go in the vault.”

  “Where did it go?”

  “In Jim’s desk drawer.”

  “Was it a packet of money?”

  “That’s what Jim said. That it was money, but it was separate. And that he had to make special notations and would put it in the vault later. I’m sure there was nothing wrong about it. The truck guards gave it to him and they were always there when he put the packet in the drawer, the rest in the vault.”

  “How big was the packet?”

  “Hefty. Like a couch pillow. It was money wrapped in paper. Or I guess it was money. It arrived every now and then, this packet. Frankie saw it too. It wasn’t a big secret.”

  “No hiding about it? Nothing unusual.”

  “No,” Tiffany said. “Nothing like that.”

  “Okay. And now I’m going to be a little more direct. Back then, were you sleeping with Jim?”

  “That’s none of your business. I won’t answer that.”

  “All right. Fair enough. Was Frankie?”

  Tiffany was quick to answer. “Yes. She was. I know she was.”

  “And how do you know?”

  “Because I was very serious about Jim, and I could tell things weren’t right, and then the way he and Frankie started flirting at the bank . . . a girl knows these things. And then he quit seeing me. I thought maybe we could work things out . . . then, he was murdered. I really cared about him then. Loved him, I guess. But later, I had the feeling I didn’t really know him. Not really. I felt there had to be some secret for him to be killed like that. Nothing was stolen, or so I heard. He was just killed. I was even a suspect, but I was cleared. I had a solid alibi.” Tiffany looked at her watch. “Please. He’s so jealous. I don’t want him to find out about Jim, even if it was in the past. I don’t want to open that can of worms.”

  “One more question. How long before the old bank changed over to the new bank?”

  “There was a bank holiday that weekend. All the way until Tuesday. They were already building the new bank, and Tuesday we were to move into the new one and the old one was locked off. I remember that clearly. Will that do?”

  “Good enough,” Marvin said, and stood up.

  “So we’re through?”

  “Can’t say for sure,” Marvin said. “Probably. But no promises.” Marvin headed for the door, said, “I can find my own way out.”

  “I bet you can, you sonofabitch,” Tiffany s
aid.

  That night, at home, Marvin had dinner with his wife, then she went up to bed. He didn’t even try to follow. He sat on the couch and turned on the TV and watched for awhile, and then the phone rang. He turned off the TV and answered.

  It was Frankie. “I just thought you should know. Babe is in the hospital.”

  “What?”

  “She’s been having spells, and she had a bad one today. I wanted you to know, because if there’s anything you’ve found out, any kind of comfort, even if it’s a lie you can give her, that would be good.”

  “To tell you the truth, I might have something. I can’t say for sure, but if you’re willing to go to the bank museum tomorrow, I might have an answer, though I can’t promise.”

  “It’s Sunday. It’s closed.”

  “I know. But Chief Drake can have it opened.”

  “Chief Drake?” Frankie said.

  “Yes. And if you can come, I’d be grateful. I might need you to verify something.”

  “What time?”

  “Ten a.m. And keep in mind, I could be all wet, and in the end I may end up embarrassed and know no more than I did when I first started.”

  “But you don’t think that?” Frankie said.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “I’ll see you then,” Frankie said.

  Marvin arrived at the bank museum about five till ten. Drake was there and had already had the lady Marvin had met at the museum open the doors. She was inside at her desk, not looking too happy about things. Drake was leaning against the fireplace. Frankie had yet to arrive.

  Marvin nodded at the lady at the desk, leaned on his cane. “Thanks for opening up.”

  She said, “I’m missing church.”

  “Sorry,” Marvin said. “I’ll try not to take long.”

  “I don’t want to go in after things start.”

  “I’m sorry you’ve missed it,” he said. “This shouldn’t take long, and you can get on with the rest of your day.”

  This didn’t seem to please or inspire the lady any at all.

  Frankie came through the door and nodded at Marvin. She nodded at the lady behind the desk. “Tulip,” she said. “How are you?”

  “I’m missing church,” she said.

  “Preacher just makes it up anyway,” Frankie said.

  Tulip gave her a confused look. Frankie said to Chief Drake, “How are you?”

  “Fine,” Drake said. “I’m not missing church, but I am missing sleeping in late. I don’t want to miss football.”

  “This shouldn’t take that long,” Marvin said. “If I’m wrong it’ll take even less time. And if I’m wrong, I’ll owe you all a lunch.”

  “Get on with it,” Drake said.

  “Everyone get comfortable,” Marvin said.

  Frankie captured a chair out from behind one of the desks and carried it over and placed it by the desk where Tulip sat.

  “I’m just going to be blunt and get right to it,” Marvin said. “Frankie, I think your ex-husband, Tom, wanted you to help him rob the bank. No need to answer that. Just listen. I think he wanted you to do that, and I think maybe you were still seeing him again, and at the same time had taken up with Jim.

  “Okay. Let’s focus on Jim. I think you got to wondering about the packets that the armored car guards were bringing in. The ones Jim put in his desk drawer, separate of the money in the vault. Maybe you figured it out, or maybe he even told you, during a little pillow talk. But I think you understood, or guessed one way or another, that that money was different. That it was Mob money, and this bank was a laundry for them. It was separate money, but in time, it was laundered through the bank, and it came out clean. Or at least the cut the Mob expected was clean. When I say Mob, I’m saying Dixie Mafia. I’ve had a few run-ins with them, and I have an idea how they work. Am I warm?”

  Marvin was looking right at Frankie.

  “You might be,” she said, and crossed her legs and swallowed.

  “So, you’ve got the money figured, and maybe you even got something going with Jim, and then the ex-husband comes back into things. I’m figuring you’re thinking not to take all the money. Not the bank money, just the Mob money. The crooked money. But you don’t know you can do it. You need to be somewhere else for an alibi, so you need the ex. You have him come in, you two have that fight so everyone remembers it, and he goes out. But I figure he ended up in the storage room. The only way someone would know he didn’t go out is if you were sitting where Tulip is sitting now. Knew he wouldn’t go out, and had in fact planned for him to hide in the storage room until the bank closed. Could it have happened that way?”

  Frankie didn’t answer.

  “All right then, I’ll go on,” Marvin said.

  Drake said, “This better have one hell of an ending.”

  “I think it might,” Marvin said.

  “So, you have an alibi. Turned out no one suspected you of anything because the money didn’t get out there in the world. How do I know that? I figure if it had, you wouldn’t have ended up living with your mother-in-law. My guess is the Mob was moving some serious cash through here. They wouldn’t bother for a few thousand. Or even a hundred thousand. My guess was there was anywhere from a quarter million to a million in that big fat packet, and there was something like that every time that packet showed up.”

  “Why would I do something like that?” Frankie said. “My mother-in-law has money.”

  Marvin dipped his chin. “True. I thought of that. But greed, it’s hard to explain. It comes out of nowhere and it’s a hell of a bitch. And maybe you thought you didn’t want to live with Tom’s mother, which is what you were doing since he had been in prison. It wasn’t like this bank job was making you a fortune. But I figure you didn’t get the money that your ex stole. That it didn’t happen the way you had hoped. Then Tom was gone, and, well, things fell in place. You ended up staying with Mrs. Craver, and in time, my guess is the two of you actually became close. I saw the way you looked at her. I think you care. I think it was a stupid mistake on your part, thinking about that money. Maybe it was the adventure. Maybe you said something to Tom about it, and then he got it in his mind to steal it and cut you in.”

  “Lot of conjecture,” Drake said.

  “Yep,” Marvin said. “I noticed all the windows are barred or wire meshed. And they would be locked. Tom had to have not only a good hiding place but a way out. And he didn’t want it to look like someone broke in or out. He left everything locked from the inside, there was no way for anyone to suspect anyone had been inside for any reason. Next day, when people came to >work, there were no signs of him breaking in. But the night he hid here, in the storage room, when everyone was gone, Tom came out and took the Mob money. He knew it was in that drawer, because you knew, Frankie. You knew when the guards came, and you knew Jim hid it in the drawer overnight, until he could do whatever he needed to do to launder it. When he came in the next day, discovered it was missing, he couldn’t, wouldn’t say anything. Fact was, no one would ever know it was missing except him, and Tom, and you, Frankie. Oh, and in time, the Mob. That’s what happened to Jim. In a way, you and Tom killed him. Because when that money came up missing, and the Mob didn’t get their fair share, they thought Jim and the truck guards tried to pull a fast one. So the Mob killed them all. Just moved onto another bank with another sucker. Someone who would do what they wanted for a healthy cut of the take. Same as Jim.”

  Drake leaned away from the fireplace. “That fits. That really fits.”

  “Yeah,” Marvin said. “I thought so.”

  “But there’s a problem,” Drake said. “How would Tom get out and not leave a window open, a door unlocked?”

  “He could have had a key, I suppose,” Marvin said. “But my guess is, and this is just a guess, no one had a key to lock up but Jim. That’s how he would want it, keeping that Mob money here. Is that right, Frankie?”

  “He had the only key,” Frankie said. “But that doesn’t prove anything.”
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  “It sure doesn’t,” Drake said. “I think your theory is falling apart. Sounded pretty good for a minute there, but now, not so much.”

  “Tom was a contortionist,” Marvin said. “I figure, from looking at that big fireplace, he thought he’d just go up that and out.” Marvin walked over to the fireplace. “Now we see if I’m an idiot.”

  Marvin reached a little flashlight from his pants pocket, ducked down carefully on his bad leg, looked up the chimney with the light. He reached up inside the chimney and got hold of something and pulled.

  When he pulled his hand back, there was a shoe in it, and part of a bone. An ankle. The rest of the foot was in the shoe. “Looks like to me, the rest of Tom is hung up in there. It was a little tighter than he figured. He got hung. Probably even yelled out. But, it being a bank holiday. Well, my guess is he got up in there, twisted about, broke something, a rib maybe. Punctured something inside. Lung, heart, kidney. And he bled out internally. Died. Probably stank like crazy. But with the place sealed off for so long, no one being in here, it wasn’t noticed, and in time he dried out. As for the money, if the rats haven’t eaten it, you might find it up there too.”

  Drake looked at the shoe, said, “I’ll be goddamned.”

  “With the bank closing, the fireplace was never used again, so no one ever thought to look up there.”

  “Until you,” Drake said.

  “Yep,” Marvin said. “Until me.”

  “Oh, my goodness,” Tulip said.

  Marvin hated hospitals. He had spent more than a little of his time in a hospital bed after the wreck. He rode the elevator up and walked along the antiseptic hall, his cane clicking against the tile as he went.

  A nurse moved past him. Down the hall he saw two nurses hustling quickly, which was never a good thing. Someone was in distress.

  Marvin came to the room he wanted. The door was cracked open. He knocked ever so gentle, as if he might be waking up a dragon and was uncertain of the outcome.