"Brilliant, wasn't it?”
"Or run her over with a car.”
"I know this might make your job more difficult.”
"Might?”
"Her knowing she's been targeted.”
"Mmm.”
"But I'm willing to pay you well. Provided ...”
"Did your people in Chicago tell you what I normally get?”
"Only a ballpark figure. They said I should discuss the fine-tuning with you.”
"Uh-huh. What was the figure they gave you?”
"They told me fifty thousand. Ballpark.”
"They told you wrong. Ballpark. They haven't been keeping up with the times.”
"Well, I must tell you, fifty ...”
"No, I must tell you, Mr. Bowles.
Fifty was what I got five years ago.
Even adjusting for inflation ...”
"Well, obviously I was misinformed.”
"Does that mean I don't get to eat my lamb chops?”
“It means we're here to talk. I'm used to making multi-million-dollar deals every day of the week, Mr. Denker. Tell me what you want and we'll discuss it.”
"I'll tell you what I want, but we won't discuss it. There's no room for discussion.
I normally get seventy-five, half on agreement, half on delivery. But someone has already fucked up here, and your lady's on emergency alert. For all I know, she may have gone to the police already. ...”
"I understand the risks involved. How much do you want?”
"A hundred grand. Half now, half on delivery.”
"Agreed.”
"Good.”
"Provided.”
"Provided what?”
"Provided you make it look like an accident.”
"I have to pay for your mistakes, right? You and the dumb guy who tried to shove her under a train.”
"No, I have to pay for the mistakes. Through the nose, it seems. Have we got a deal or haven't we?”
"We've got a deal.”
"Good. When can you start?”
"When do I get the first half?”
Q: When, actually, did you start?
A: On the seventh.
Q: Of January?
A: Yes.
Q: And last night ... well, tell me about last night.
"Mr. Denker," Keller said, "I would still advise you to ...”
"Do you want to go to a fucking state pen?”
Denker said, whirling on him.
Nellie wondered what he was thinking in that moment. The job had gone wrong, true, and often this seemed a good enough reason for a criminal to explain what had been planned, show the brilliance of the plan, demonstrate how fate had conspired to fuck it up. But so far he hadn't explained anything except the details of how he'd been hired. No confession so far, nothing but the gun so far, all they had so far was the gun. And the jewels, of course. Maybe enough to convict him, maybe not, you couldn't tell anything with juries nowadays. Nellie wanted to put him away for a long, long time; the man was a murderer.
But she was willing to settle for the eight-and-a-third she'd promised rather than risk a jury trial and the attendant possibility that he'd walk entirely. All she wanted to do now was get her confession, get whatever other Chicago shit she needed for the feds, seal the bargain, call it a day.
"How'd you get in the building?" she asked, almost casually.
But he was silent now.
Q: Mr. Denker?
A: (Silence) Q: Can you tell me how you got in the building?
A: I ...
Q: Yes. Go ahead.
A: I thought ... at first I thought I'd cause a diversion, some kind of diversion to get the doorman away from the front door, but suppose I set a fire up the street or something and he just didn't pay any attention to it? I mean, I haven't been in this city long, but it's plain to see that the people here just don't give a damn. You can be ...
... slitting somebody's throat in the street, they'll tip their hats and walk right on by, this is some city, I've got to tell you. So the more I thought about a diversion, the more it looked like it wouldn't work. What I did, I watched the front door of that building all day Tuesday and Wednesday, and I recognized there was a routine the doormen followed, and that it would just be a matter of working myself into that routine.
For example, the afternoon guy comes on at three-thirty, and he gets relieved at eleven-thirty. Now three-thirty was too early for me to go in, and eleven-thirty was too late, I wanted it finished and done with by eight o'clock, latest. Out of the apartment and the building by eight o'clock, latest.
Watching the front door, I realized that the afternoon guy took a coffee break an hour or so after he came on, four-thirty, five o'clock, around then. Locked the inner lobby door, walked to the McDonald's up on Woodcrest, came back with coffee in a container. Didn't take his dinner break till seven-thirty or so, which was too late for me, I wanted to be in the apartment long before then. So all I had to do was wait for him to take his coffee break, and then let myself into the building. Once I was inside ...
Q: How did you let yourself in?
A: I had a key.
Q: A key to the inner lobby door?
A: Yes. And also the keys to the apartment. There are two locks on the apartment door.
Q: Where did you get all these keys?
A: Emma gave them to me. I spent a weekend with her when Bowles was out of town.
That's when she gave me the keys.
Q: So you waited for the doorman to take his dinner break ...
A: His coffee break. Watched him walking up the street ...
Q: And then you let yourself in the building. ...
A: Yes.
Q: What time was this?
A: Around twenty to five.
Q: Did you go directly upstairs to the apartment?
A: Yes.
Q: Was there anyone in the apartment when you got there?
A: No.
Q: The apartment was empty?
A: Yes.
Q: You let yourself into the empty apartment ...
A: Yes.
Q: Used the keys Emma Bowles had given you ...
A: Yes.
Q: And then what?
A: I marked the safe, used a chisel to mark the safe, you know, make it look like an amateur was trying to bust into it, and then I opened it with the combo Bowles had given me. And I cleaned it out. Took all the cash and the T-bills and the jewelry. And then I sat back to wait.
Q: Was this a spur-of-the-moment thought?
A: Ma'am?
Q: Taking all that stuff from the safe.
A: No, no, that was part of the plan from the beginning.
Q: Why was it necessary to ...”
A: To make it look like an - interrupted burglary.
Q: I see. So you burglarized the safe ...
A: Yes. Well, no, I didn't have to break into it, if that's what you mean. I already had the combination, Bowles had given me the combination.
Q: But you did open the safe ...
A: Yes.
Q: And you did remove the contents ...
A: Yes.
Q: And took the contents with you when you left the apartment ...
A: Yes.
Q: ... and the building.
A: Yes.
Q: Tell me, Mr. Denker, how did you get out of the building?
A: Down the fire stairs to the basement and then out the doors leading to the alley.
Q: Where did you go then?
A: Up to Woodcrest Avenue, where I caught a taxi downtown.
Q: To your apartment?
A: Yes, ma'am.
Q: Let's get back to right after you'd opened the safe and removed its contents. You said you sat back to wait ...
A: Yes, ma'am.
Q: For what?
A: For the moment when I actually had to do it.
Waiting is always the most difficult time. He is waiting to do murder. The contents of the safe are in a dispatch case on the bedroom floor, and he is sitting on the edge of the bed, facing the bedroom door, waiting to hear the click of a key in the front door lock, the click that will tell him to thumb off the safety catch on the .45. It is getting late, he is beginning to wonder if he's made a mistake, beginning to wonder if he'll be sitting here all night, waiting for nobody to come home.