Seven Silent Men

by Behn, Noel;

  “That sounds like a quote, that last part.”

  That smile shone and with it those perfect white teeth. “You’re pretty sharp.” The tense, taut body relaxed somewhat, shifted in its wooden chair. “Yeah, President Teddy Roosevelt said it.”

  “You read Teddy Roosevelt?”

  “I don’t read nothing.”

  “… Does Otto Pinkny read Teddy Roosevelt?”

  “No, he only reads Elbert Hubbard. You read Elbert Hubbard?”

  “We have a man here in the office who does.”

  Lips parted and teeth showed. “Bet the poor chump was up all last night reading Elbert Hubbard.”

  It was Strom’s turn to smile for the first time. “As a matter of fact he was up all night with Elbert Hubbard. He read it before, but I asked him to brush up.”

  Strom checked his notes. Otto Pinkny, seated directly across the conference table from him, glanced around, noticed what he hadn’t bothered to look at earlier: Jez and Brew sitting against the rear wall. “Hi ya, blokes,” he told them. “Morning, ma’am,” he said to the stenographer in the corner.

  “You were arrested when?” asked Strom.

  “Ain’t never been arrested.”

  “When was Otto Pinkny arrested?”

  “Want every time?”

  “The last time.”

  “Over by a crackerville called Twin Lakes, which is in South Carolina. Dumb dog luck is all it was. Otto Pinkny forgets to stop at a red light, and who’s right there shading itself under a tree and stuffing its fat face with garlic and grits, a copper. Reeks to high heaven, the fat copper does, and lucky for him Otto Pinkny only shoots his own kind. If Otto Pinkny shot fat coppers, he wouldn’t be where he is today, the fat copper or Otto Pinkny. Nah, Otto Pinkny lets the copper take him to the place, and someone at the place does the burn on Otto Pinkny, only he can’t be sure. Otto Pinkny’s got these fingerprints that don’t print too good on account of they got fried off way back and don’t hold the ink like you need for printing. And that’s how they catch on finally. On the busted prints that only smudge. All them coppers is heroes now, and the fat copper’s the pride of the litter. Like the man said, the whetstone may be dull but it sharpens the shiv.”

  “This arrest for running the red light occurred on what date?” Strom asked.

  “Six days ago, whenever that was.”

  “Do you know the exact date?”

  “Nah. A Saturday, maybe.”

  “Let’s go back to Otto Pinkny’s fingerprints. You said his fingers had been fried off? Fried so badly they didn’t respond to printing?”

  “All that garbage about prints not burning off is crap. Otto got his burned off.”

  “Intentionally?”

  “Accidental.”

  “What kind of accident?”

  “Something exploded.”

  “And burned the skin on his fingers off?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What exploded?”

  “Who knows?”

  “Something flammable?”

  “If you get burned, it’s gotta be flammable.”

  “It could have been a nonflammable explosion. It could have been a heat explosion. A bomb? Natural gas?”

  “Nah, it was flammable.”

  “When was the explosion?”

  “Way back.”

  “Way back when?”

  “He don’t remember.”

  “Where did it explode?”

  “He never said.”

  “His burned-off fingerprints, do they look anything like the scars on your fingers?”

  Otto Pinkny glanced down at the back of his hands. “Yeah, they do.”

  “So that’s one thing you and Otto have in common, those burned fingers?”

  “We got a lotta things in common. Mister, why you working so hard? Why you boning me while you do? I come to cooperate, didn’t I? I volunteered. All you gotta do is ask and I’ll answer. Anything you wanna know, I’ll answer.”

  “Let’s get back to your traffic arrest at Twin Lakes. You said it occurred eight or ten days ago.”

  “It ain’t me what got arrested.”

  “Otto’s arrest at Twin Lakes. Eight to ten days ago, was it?”

  “… Six days ago.”

  “And Otto was taken to the jail house and booked and printed, but his fingers wouldn’t print and that’s how they identified him?”

  “… That’s right.”

  “How long after he was printed, or misprinted, was he identified?”

  “Two days.”

  “He was in that jail house two days before positive identification was made?”

  “Yeah.”

  “During those two days did he contact anyone?”

  “Just sat and waited.”

  “For what?”

  “What d’ya think, to be let out.”

  “You mean to be let out without being identified?”

  “Yeah.”

  “After he’s identified, then what?”

  “He’s gotta wait for the celebrating to end. When them coppers find out who they scooped up by mistake, they have themselves a Mardi Gras right in their station house. They’re running and hugging and slapping each other on the back and kissing each other on the lips and swilling beer and eating pies and cakes and chips. Them coppers is so thrilled by themselves they give Otto Pinkny some of the beer and pies, and Otto tells them when they’re done good-timing, he’d appreciate making the one phone call the Constitution says he got coming to himself. The coppers give him the phone, and he calls up the FBI and says if they wanna celebrate Christmas early, they best grab some stockings and earmuffs and get right on over to see him ’cause he’s gonna give them the present of their lifetimes.”

  Otto was comfortable now and on a roll, had slouched down somewhat in his chair with the thumb of his right hand hitched into the vest fob … jiggled the upraised thumb of his other hand in front of him from time to time for emphasis. “The FBI gets there lickety split, and Otto Pinkny tells them he’s got this reservation problem. All kindsa places want him to come stay with them, and they’ve put aside rooms for him, and he don’t know which one to pick. The room is on death row, and that gives Otto Pinkny pause, seeing how he’s already visited the accommodations in Pennsylvania and don’t really care for the view. Pennsylvania’s pretty good about not frying them people it sentences to death, but dead or alive Otto Pinkny can’t look forward to spending time in Graterford Penitentiary. Florida’s got a first-class reservation for him, too, and he don’t like that one no better ’cause Florida executes more cons than any state in the country, and even if they let him off with life plus ten they’d be putting him in a prison chock full of friends of Luis Herra and all them other Latino blokes. Florida or Pennsylvania, the chances are better than not Otto Pinkny won’t be taking the pipe and will become their most famous roomer. What holds for Pennsylvania holds for Florida. Otto Pinkny don’t like the view from either place. State places is always run down and third class. Otto Pinkny tells the FBI he won’t go third class nowhere and that a long time back he planned ahead and arranged for a first-class reservation. Why do state time when you can have a federal holiday at Lewisberg, Pennsylvania, he tells them. And then he tells them the name he made the reservation under … Mormon State National Bank.

  “This fed who was talking to Otto Pinkny was named something or other, and his jaw fell open so far when Otto said that, it bounced on the floor and hit him back in the face, ‘You telling me you got in on Mormon State just to beat state time?’ the fed says when he gets his jaw put back on.

  “‘The thirty-one million’s got a lot to do with it,’ Otto Pinkny says. And Otto Pinkny tells him he don’t go in on nothing no where. Don’t take orders from no man living. When Otto Pinkny does something, he’s the boss. Otto Pinkny tells the fed if he wants to find out all about Mormon State, he better start asking questions before his mind gets changed. The fed goes running out of there and makes a telephone call, and brand-new
feds come down and Otto Pinkny tells them all about Mormon State, and the next thing he knows, you come and talk with him and bring him here.”

  Strom indicated a thick folder of transcripts. “And that is the statement you made to the FBI agents in Twin Lakes?”

  “I didn’t make no statements.”

  “Is this the statement Otto Pinkny made in Twin Lakes?” Strom’s hand was on the transcripts.

  “You read it, you tell me.”

  “Are these the questions and his answers?”

  “Yeah, it looks like what got typed up.”

  An upraised transcript was flapped by Strom. “I’ve read what this says most carefully. It was made to two FBI agents from Washington who are not as familiar with the facts as the people here. You are to be reinterviewed by six of our agents who know the most about Mormon State. If you are cooperative, and convincing, you may very well get that room with a view you prize so much. The reinterviewers will cover three specific aspects. First, the planning of the crime. Second, perpetration. Third, the getaway and aftermath. We will take a brief break and then begin.”

  “There are two questions Otto Pinkny won’t answer,” Otto Pinkny said. “He ain’t saying who the other people in the score were, and he ain’t saying where the thirty-one mil is. If everything goes okay and Otto gets sent to Lewisberg or someplace as good, then he’ll tell you. But you don’t get nothing on the come. He told ’em in Twin Lakes, they don’t get them two questions on the come.”

  “Then he may not get to Lewisberg.”

  “Wanna bet?”

  NINETEEN

  “What was your earliest knowledge of Mormon State National Bank?” Cub did the questioning. Brewmeister sat off to the side. Strom, Jez, de Camp and Yates were in the next room listening on a loudspeaker. With them were other agents assigned to check out leads as they were mentioned.

  “Otto Pinkny told me,” Otto Pinkny said.

  “When?”

  “Beginning of summer, June.”

  “June of this year, 1971?”

  “Yeah, June.”

  “What exactly did Otto Pinkny say in telling you?”

  “That some people was building this bank right over a cave and didn’t know the cave was underneath.”

  “How did Otto Pinkny know the cave was underneath?”

  “Eddie Argulla told him.”

  “Would you explain who Eddie Argulla is?”

  “A bloke what helped Otto Pinkny out of his trouble in Florida with the dope people.”

  “Is this the same Eddia Argulla who worked for Luis Herra?”

  “Yeah.”

  “In what way did Eddie Argulla help Otto Pinkny in Florida?”

  “Luis Herra and some of his people got killed, and that’s not a healthy situation for Otto Pinkny on account he’s accused of doing it, and all of Luis Herra’s friends is Latino and loyal and they want Otto Pinkny’s ass. All of Florida was after Otto Pinkny, and only Eddie Argulla helped and smuggled him away from there and up north.”

  “Where is Eddie Argulla today?”

  “Haven’t seen him since the clout.”

  “What do you mean by clout?”

  “Safecrack. Mormon State.”

  “He participated in the robbery?”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “I thought you weren’t going to tell us who was involved and who wasn’t?”

  “I said there were two questions I wasn’t going to answer if you asked, and that was one of them. Only you didn’t ask and I felt like telling. I didn’t say nothing about not telling what I felt like telling without being asked.”

  “Could Eddie Argulla be the same person whose body was dug up at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, last month?”

  “Eddie’s dead?”

  “With thirty-seven bullet holes in him.”

  “Who’d wanna kill Eddie Argulla?”

  “Where was Otto Pinkny staying when he was in South Carolina?”

  “Lotsa places.”

  “Name some.”

  “You fishing for if he ever stayed at Myrtle Beach?”

  “Did he?”

  “He stayed at Myrtle Beach a few nights, sure. But he never knew poor Eddie was there.”

  “In June of this year it was Eddie Argulla who told Otto Pinkny that Mormon State National Bank was being built over a cave, is that right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How did Eddie Argulla know this?”

  “Cowboy Carlson told him.”

  “Who is Cowboy Carlson?”

  “A bloke who done time with Eddie Argulla in Illinois. Cowboy Carlson comes from Prairie Port, and he tells Eddie about the bank being built.”

  “Was there any particular reason Cowboy Carlson would tell Eddie Argulla about Mormon State?”

  “There was reasons for him telling about caves. Eddie Argulla and Otto Pinkny was doing business together and needed places on the Mississippi River to store merchandise. That’s how they come to speak with Cowboy Carlson, and Cowboy told them Prairie Port was famous for the caves the bootleggers used to use there way back. Eddie Argulla asked Cowboy Carlson to show him around some of those caves, and Cowboy Carlson does, and then they come out in one cave and Cowboy Carlson pointed and laughed and said some dumb clucks was building a bank right above them and wouldn’t it be funny if Eddie Argulla and Otto Pinkny was storing stuff down below which was more valuable than the money that was up above.”

  Cub asked, “What did Argulla and Pinkny plan to store in there?”

  “Anything they could steal.”

  “Otto Pinkny doesn’t have the reputation of a thief.”

  “Eddie Argulla does, and you don’t know half there is to know about Otto Pinkny. Otto Pinkny is the greatest safecracker ever born, only he’s so smart you never knew he was on the clout.”

  “You don’t need something the size of a cave for the goods you take from a vault.”

  “They was planning some truck and barge work.”

  “Hijacking?”

  “You wanna call it that, yeah.”

  “But now Argulla sees a cave over which a bank is being built?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And after that?”

  “He tells Otto Pinkny, and they talk it over and decide to take the bank.”

  “This was in June?”

  “Yeah, first week in June.”

  “What part is Cowboy Carlson to play in this?”

  “No part except to keep quiet and do like he’s told. What Otto Pinkny wants is to wait for the bank to have their grand opening party and when they open the vault, they’ll find everything is gone except a birthday cake Otto Pinkny left for them. A cake saying Otto Pinkny Was Here!”

  “Did Otto Pinkny want to do this before or after he came to Prairie Port?”

  “Who said he came to Prairie Port?”

  “He didn’t come?”

  That smile showed and an eye winked. “Sure, he come. At the end of June, first. He sees the setup and decides they go after the bank.”

  “Then what?”

  “He brings in the man with the hand.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “J. L. Squires. They call him the man with the hand on account he’s so good with safes and vaults.”

  “Wasn’t Squires in South America?”

  “Yeah, Mexico. Only he come to Prairie Port. In July, and he and Otto Pinkny map it all out.”

  “How?”

  “Busting the bank is no problem. They know they can cut right through the roof of the cave and get into the vault. They know one way or another they can kill the alarms. The trouble is scramming after the clout. The only way out is through these tunnels. There are tunnels all through the cliffs, and that’s how they’ll have to go out. It’s almost a seven-mile walk through the tunnels to the first exit that’s big enough to bring money out through. These tunnels was once used to carry water, and Otto Pinkny wondered if that was possible to do again, and he walks up a tunnel in the north with Squires
and they come out in an underground center and right up on the wall of the control room are all the instructions on how to flood the tunnels. Squires reads them and says yeah, that’s how it can be done. And they did it.”

  “Besides Cowboy Carlson, what local Prairie Port men did they use?”

  “No one.” Otto Pinkny’s wagging thumb signaled a second thought. “Nah, there was one person they went to. To build fuses. Cowboy knew some kid who was good at building things. And J. L. Squires had him make five fuses. The machinery to flood the tunnels and generate electricity was old-fashioned. Special fuses had to be built to make everything run. Cowboy found the local kid to do it.”

  “Did you know the kid’s name?”

  “Sam something.”

  “Was Sam ever down in the control room?”

  “… How d’ya know that?”

  “He was?”

  “Once. For about ten minutes. The problem with J. L. Squires was he was a tequila drunk. One of the fuses got built wrong, and Squires goes wild and dragged this kid back down to the control room and pointed at what had to be done and shook the kid back and forth and threatened to kill him if he didn’t get it right … threatened to make the kid go along with them on the job and become a hunted fugitive. Otto Pinkny damn near had J. L. Squires’s hide fordoing that, but it worked. J. L. Squires scared the kid into building the fuse right and into having a nervous breakdown too. Cowboy Carlson told us later the kid killed himself that night.”

  “Did Cowboy Carlson participate in the actual robbery?”

  “He was supposed to be in on the first one but not the second one.”

  “What do you mean by first one and second one?”

  “Otto Pinkny planned to take the bank the first day it opened, which would have been Tuesday, August twenty-fourth, because that’s when he thought an opening party would be and he wanted to leave the birthday cake inside the vault for them. When he found out the bank wasn’t going to have its grand opening party until a month later in September, he decided to wait and take the vault the day before the party. He still wanted to put that cake in the vault for them to find instead of the money he stole. That became the first robbery, and Cowboy was supposed to be in on it, only it created all kinds of problems because some of the people didn’t want to wait around a whole month and most of the gear was ready.”