The Library Fuzz Megapack: 20 Classic Library & Book Crimes by James Holding

Author:James Holding [Holding, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: mystery, detective, crime, library, book
ISBN: 9781479406418
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2015-07-20T21:00:00+00:00

A few days later, over a pizza and beer which he insisted on paying for, Randall told me the rest of the story. I suppose it was his way of thanking me for my help in what he was already calling The Henchman Case.

“Cuyler was working for Crane Security when he had his heart attack and had to retire a year or so ago. But he only had his Social Security payments to live on because he hadn’t been with Crane long enough to qualify for a pension. So there he was, a widower, a semi-invalid with an uncertain future, and all alone in the world except for a niece in Minneapolis.”

“Yum,” I said.

“Shut up, Hal,” he said. “Do you want to hear this or don’t you?”

“Continue, I urged him, “please.”

“Cuyler is bitter at his rotten luck in being so poor so suddenly. He decides he’ll try to steal enough money from his old firm to live high on the hog for whatever time he has left. After all, they wouldn’t even pay him a pension, the ungrateful tightwads.”

I said, “Where does your truck driver come in?”

“Cuyler hired him to do the actual robbery. He hadn’t the nerve to do it himself.”

“I remember the heist,” I said. “A Crane Security Express van loaded with cash for three or four payroll deliveries was cleaned out in the parking lot of some diner while the guards were having lunch inside.”

“Slenski did the cleaning out. Cuyler waited around the corner in the getaway car. It was a cozy set-up. Cuyler knew all about the routes, schedules, pick-ups, and deliveries of the Crane vans; he also knew the guards on that particular van always stopped for lunch on Fridays at that diner and left the van unattended in the parking lot. He also managed to get keys to the van’s door-locks.”

Something was bothering me. I said, “Two questions, Lieutenant. You told me we recovered the entire loot from the van robbery in Cuyler’s YMCA locker. So why hadn’t Cuyler spent any of it since the robbery? And what did the truck driver get out of the caper?”

Randall said, “Cuyler was probably waiting for the heat to die down a bit before he began spending hot money. As for Slenski’s cut, it was five thousand dollars—a good hunk of Cuyler’s savings—paid to Slenski half beforehand and the other half when Slenski turned over the loot to Cuyler. Slenski went off home to Detroit, apparently pleased with his windfall. But he didn’t stay pleased very long. When he had a chance to think things over, he realized he’d been taken. And he decided not to hold still for it.”

“So he tried to help himself to a bigger cut when he broke into Cuyler’s house that Sunday night?” I said.

“Sure. Who else would make such a shambles of the place?”

“So Cuvier figures he’ll try again. Maybe right away. And telling the cops is out for obvious reasons. Even though he suspects Slenski may cut up pretty rough on his next visit.

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