Alfred Hitchcock's Tales to Keep You Spellbound by Alfred Hitchcock

Author:Alfred Hitchcock [Hitchcock, Alfred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The long night passed slowly in the ripped-apart apartment. Blake sat in a chair, watching O’Steen in the other chair. For a while, desultorily, they talked, and O’Steen told how he had planned to wait six months, then take a Far Eastern cruise on a tourist ship. In the Far East, it would be easy to make a deal on the hot money.

“You can still do that,” Blake said. “With your half.”

“If you let me,” O’Steen said wearily.

“I don’t care what you do afterward,” Blake said. “In fact, I’ll help you when it’s time to go. I don’t want you caught, either.”

Blake did not call in the next morning, though he was on duty for the day. The captain was used to Blake failing to call in or come in, occasionally; he would assume that Blake had a live one. The captain had implicit faith in Blake and his abilities, though he had never understood him.

When it was time to go, Blake took the handcuffs off, waited while O’Steen put on his overcoat.

“Remember,” Blake said, “if you make a break, I’ll shoot you down. I can always claim I was making an arrest. You don’t have an out, except dividing the money.”

“I know that,” O’Steen said. He looked at Blake. “I’d just like to know how you caught me.”

Blake smiled. “I’ve got a talent,” he said. “I never forget a face. They got a snap of you on the payoff. I was watching television yesterday and I saw you in the crowd.”

O’Steen took a deep breath. “A long chance like that,” he said. “I lost on a chance like that.”

“If you hadn’t been a fool about football, I wouldn’t have caught you,” Blake said. “If I hadn’t been a fool about football too.”

O’Steen shrugged. “I should have got you on the operation from the start,” he said. “We’d operate well together.”

“Yes,” Blake said. “Too bad it didn’t work out that way.”

They went out the door, down the elevator, and got into Blake’s car. Blake made O’Steen drive the short way to the bank. They went inside the bank, shoulder to shoulder, and Blake watched O’Steen sign the register. They went together into the vault and Blake waited while O’Steen and the bank clerk unlocked the box. Then the bank clerk went away and O’Steen pulled the deep box out. Blake watched hungrily as he reached inside and pulled out the thick pad of bills. O’Steen handed them to Blake who put them into an airline satchel they had brought along from the apartment. It was the same satchel that had shown in the photograph of O’Steen taking the payoff.

Then they locked the safety deposit box, went side by side out of the bank and sat in the car. It had gone as smoothly as a well-executed draw play and Blake wondered why both of them were sweating so hard.

“Back to the apartment,” he said.

They returned by another route, at circumspect speed, and parked the car. They got out and went upstairs, both of them breathing with relief as the door closed behind them.

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