The Bricklayer
Noah Boyd
For Esther Newberg
Contents
Before
One
AS CONNIE LYSANDER TOOK THE TOWEL FROM AROUND HER, SHE…
Two
THE FBI WAS ABOUT TO PAY THE RUBACO PENTAD ONE…
Three
ROBERT LASKER KNEW THAT IN WASHINGTON, D.C., THE QUICKEST way…
Four
NEWLY PROMOTED DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR KATE BANNON HAD never been…
Five
STEVE VAIL SPLASHED SOME WATER ONTO THE MORTAR AND USED…
Six
AS THEY WERE BOARDING THE PLANE, KATE THOUGHT SHE MIGHT…
Seven
VAIL SAT AT THE DESK IN HIS D.C. HOTEL ROOM…
Eight
TYE DELSON OFFERED KATE AND VAIL A SEAT IN HER…
Nine
KATE STOOD OFF TO THE SIDE, NOT WANTING TO BE…
Ten
VAIL STEPPED DOWN, BUT HIS FOOT COULDN’T FIND THE NEXT…
Eleven
KATE WALKED INTO THE EMERGENCY TREATMENT ROOM AT THE hospital,…
Twelve
WHEN VAIL GOT TO THE OFFICE THE NEXT MORNING, HE…
Thirteen
WHEN VAIL AND KATE WALKED INTO THE TECH ROOM, TOM…
Fourteen
AN LAPD CAR SWERVED INTO THE DRIVEWAY, AND VAIL WAVED…
Fifteen
AT NINE O’CLOCK THE NEXT MORNING, VAIL TAPPED ON TYE…
Sixteen
WHEN VAIL CAME THROUGH THE DOOR OF KATE’S OFFICE, SHE…
Seventeen
THEY HAD BEEN DRIVING FOR ALMOST A HALF HOUR WHEN…
Eighteen
KAULCRICK AND KATE ARRIVED IN THE SAME CAR. VAIL WAS…
Nineteen
KATE QUIETLY CLOSED THE DOOR BEHIND HER AND LOOKED AROUND…
Twenty
ARE WE GOING TO COMPLETELY PROCESS THIS CAR?” KATE ASKED…
Twenty-One
THE ASAC IN MINNEAPOLIS CALLED KATE BACK IN LESS THAN…
Twenty-Two
VAIL LEANED ON THE FENDER OF THEIR RENTED CAR AND…
Twenty-Three
NORMALLY THE INDUSTRIAL STRETCH OF NINTH STREET WOULD HAVE been…
Twenty-Four
KAULCRICK ORDERED EVERYONE BACK TO THE OFFICE FOR A TWO…
Twenty-Five
THIS PLACE IS NICE,” KATE SAID. “HOW DO YOU KNOW…
Twenty-Six
I THINK I HAD TOO MUCH WINE.” THEY WERE STANDING IN…
Twenty-Seven
THE CLERK AT THE AQUA DULCE POST OFFICE HAD GIVEN…
Twenty-Eight
THIS LOOKS NICE,” VAIL SAID.
Twenty-Nine
VAIL SAT IN HIS CAR OUTSIDE HIS HOTEL, WAITING FOR…
Thirty
AS KATE BANNON RODE UP IN THE ELEVATOR, SHE TOOK…
Thirty-One
AFTER WALKING THE WOMAN INTO THE STATION AND POINTING OUT…
Thirty-Two
VAIL SLEPT LESS THAN TWO HOURS AND THEN FITFULLY, AWAKENING…
Thirty-Three
FROM WHERE HE SAT IN THE EMERGENCY WAITING ROOM, VAIL…
Thirty-Four
THE INGLEWOOD ADDRESS TURNED OUT TO BE A MODEST RANCH…
Thirty-Five
EVEN THOUGH THE SUN HADN’T FULLY RISEN, TYE DELSON DIDN’T…
Thirty-Six
AS KATE WALKED INTO THE FEDERAL BUILDING SHE COULD HEAR…
After
About the Author
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
BEFORE
AS MICKEY STILLSON STARED AT THE GUN IN HIS HAND, HE ABSENTMINDEDLY reached up and adjusted the fake ear that was his entire disguise and wondered how a born-again Christian like himself had wound up in the middle of a bank robbery.
A year earlier, he had been so certain of his religious con-version that when he went before the Illinois parole board, he let his inner peace sell itself. He asked its members to address him as Michael—a name that he felt emitted a soft, evangelical glow—because like Saul giving way to Paul, prison had been his personal road to Damascus. Confinement, he explained to the stony faces in front of him, had actually been his salvation. Without it, he would never have found God, the void that had sent his previous life tumbling end over end, resulting in a three-year-long incarceration for forgery.
He couldn’t help but wonder now if finding God hadn’t in fact been strictly a means of survival. After all, his ear had been cut off by an inmate they called “Nam” the first week Mickey had been released into the prison’s general population, leaving little argument that surviving on his own would be difficult. Although Nam had never been in the military, Stillson’s was the third ear he had collected in as many years. No matter how thoroughly Nam’s cell was searched after each incident, the appendages were never found, giving rise, due largely to inmates’ need of fiction, to the rumor that he had devoured them in some sort of ritual he had become addicted to in Vietnam.
Within a month, Stillson had found God. As his wounds healed, he found the gnarled stump did have some benefit. While some men displayed tattoos or scars as warning to others, Stillson was missing an ear—an entire ear—which was something that even heavyweight champions couldn’t claim.
He pulled his hand away from the fake ear in disgust. Maybe he was just a jailhouse Christian, but none of that seemed to matter at the moment. He would have liked to believe that just committing an armed felony demanded that his faith be reevaluated, but he had to admit that the police officers who had surrounded the bank probably had something to do with it. He cursed himself for thinking he could ever be a real bank robber. Hell, he wasn’t even much of a forger.
He peeked outside, around the frame of one of the bank’s full-length front windows, to see if the police had moved any closer, but they were still the same distance away, lying with weapons at the ready across the trunks and hoods of their cars, apparently waiting only for the slightest provocation. At a safe distance behind them were satellite dishes on top of the television news vans, ensuring this was going to play out to the end.
Greedy—that’s what he and his partner, John Ronson, had become. They hadn’t been satisfied with just robbing the tellers. Instead, they decided the take could be doubled, or even tripled, by “getting the vault.” It was Ronson’s idea; actually he had insisted on it. Stillson had deferred to him, since he was the expert, if a previous conviction and prison stretch for bank robbery could be considered know-how.
Nervously, Stillson reached up again and touched the artificial ear. Ronson had made him wear it. “Don’t you watch TV? The cops are lousy with technology since we went inside. All they got to do is check their computers for convicted felons with one ear and they got you. And once they got you—no offense, Mickey—they got me.” So they went to a costume shop and bought a half-dozen fake ears, trying, with minimal success, to match the color of Stillson’s skin. He also had to let his hair grow a little longer so when they tied the ear in place with clear fishing line, he could comb his hair over the almost invisible filament. Ronson thought the disguise looked good; Stillson was fairly certain he looked ridiculous.
Stillson stood on his tiptoes to look over the counter and into the vault, where Ronson was stuffing bundles of cash into an optimistically large hockey bag. Tall and extremely thin, Ronson had been released six months earlier from the state prison at Joliet, where he had been paroled after serving one-third of his twenty-year sentence for attempted murder and the armed robbery of a bank. The deadly assault charge stemmed from shooting it out with the arresting detectives. He had surrendered only after running out of ammunition.
Stillson’s job during the robberies was to keep all the customers and employees covered while Ronson vaulted the counter and cleaned out the tellers’ drawers. This time, as Ronson was taking the time to force the manager to open the vault’s day gate, the first police car showed up in response to a silent alarm. At the moment, everyone was aware of the increasing potential for violence and was lying facedown obediently, trying not to be noticed.