Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Role Playing Stage

Feb-11-2009 11:40

November 5, 1934 - New York - The Tricky Mister - close to midnight

“You want me to rob a bank?!?” said Joey in surprise, suddenly realizing his voice was a little louder than he would’ve wanted to. He quickly scouted the room and was relieved to see no one seemed to have heard him. The Tricky Mister wasn’t really crowded on that late week night.

His interlocutor though didn’t seem to bother much about this situation. He was a middle age slim man in a dark pin striped suit, sitting relaxed across the table with both hands crossed in front of him. His tie was straight, his jacket fully buttoned up, his hair posed a clean arrangement on a side. A short and perfectly cut mustache was framing a slightly prankish smile, as his eyes were thoroughly scouting Bane’s reactions. Although his attitude was loose, he seemed to be the kind of man who always likes to keep himself sharp.

After a short moment of silence he slowly lowered his look, shaking his head in an almost imperceptible move, miming a disappointment gesture. “Mr. Bane” he continued in a low voice “that is…’come si dice’…” snaps his fingers “ILLEGAL!” He rose back up his eyes. “We are not asking you to do anything against the law, but only to acquire the possession of some documents that actually regard US. It just happens that these papers are currently stored in a safe deposit box inside the National Bank and since we have already attained this piece of information, we believed it would be helpful to pass it on to you, in order to make your work easier. However you will decide to retrieve these documents, it is entirely up to you.” He stopped, straightened up his back and took a sip out of the wine glass he had ordered. “Exquisite flavor, Mr. Bane, you should give it a try.”

“Ya, well…I’m more the whiskey type of man. Now…Mr…”

Feb-24-2009 14:37

“Alright, here it’s fine. Keep the change!”…It was already dark outside when Joey stepped out of the cab in front of the police station downtown. He threw a look around searching for Whispers. “He’s late. I guess I don’t need him right now.”

Upon stepping inside the entrance lobby, Bane seemed to be very contented with the desk sergeant on duty that night. It was an old acquaintance of him, a man who went by the name of Moses Babington Peck. Now Moses here was a small and round man with a big weakness for betting. He thought his name was predestined to bring him luck, but up to now the only luck he ever had was just gaining the ‘favor’ of keeping his fingers still attached to his hands. And that was not really because of his name but only due to his current position in the force and thus to the ‘help’ he was occasionally able to provide. Bane knew him from back in the day when he was ‘functioning’ as a ‘trust fund collector’. He smiled as he approached his desk. “Hey Moses…any jackpot lately?”

Moses looked up showing he was clearly startled by his voice. “Joey…long time no see…what can I do for you, friend?” He didn’t wait for the answer, but instead he leaned forward and started whispering fast while looking around suspicious to make sure no one can listen: “Look, Bane…I know I’m a bit overdue, but I got a really good tip for the race on Sunday. I’ll pay up next week, I swear! I’ll even throw in a little something for you. C’mon, you know me! I’ve been a bit out of luck lately, but this tip’s gonna bring me the big pot. One week! That’s all I’m asking. I know you can do this for me. Please?”

Bane smiled. He figured that since Moses thought he was in there to collect, he might be open to answer his questions. He leaned his elbow on the desk and whispered back at him: “Look here, I may be able to…’forget’ about you up until Sunday evening, but you got to give me something…anything.”

Feb-24-2009 14:38

“Bane…” Moses pleaded “…I beg you! I ain’t got nothing! I’ve already put all the cash I had onto that horse. Sunday night! Please!”

“Well then…” Bane mimed that he was thinking…”maybe…you can give up a little piece of information?”

“Whatever you need, Joey! Ask away!”

“Tombstone, J.C….a friend of mine. You have him down here in custody.”

“The one with the bank job, you mean? Or…well…’supposed to be’ bank job. He ain’t here no more. We let him go.”

“What do you mean…’supposed to be’ bank job? And how come you had let him go?”

“We had a tip…anonymous…that was gonna rob the bank. We waited for him to come out, but he was empty handed. He was just carrying an empty case.”

“An empty case, you say? But…weren’t you supposed to hold him for a full day or so?”

“Yeah, that’s the usual drill, but you see…someone decided to unleash him. An order came down from…above.”

“From above? What the hell does that mean? Who gave the order, Moses?”

“Well…I can’t say…”

“Moses!?!”

“Well…” said him softened…”’rumors’ say it came down from the chief himself!” he whispered trying to keep his voice even lower.

“The chief, you say…that’s interesting. Say, Moses…you know by chance where he usually hangs at this time of the day?”

“What am I here, Bane? The Daily News?” A short mean look from Joey made him reconsider. “Sometimes he eats down at the Binkley’s…that’s all I know, I swear!”

“Thank you, Moses. I’ll have to go now, but remember: Sunday night! I’ll be all over your arse!”

“Don’t worry, Joey! I won’t let you down. Say…anyway…how come you got back to collecting? I thought you quit some time ago…”

“Well Moses…life ain’t easy nowadays. A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, you know…” Bane tipped his hat and stepped out of the building.

Feb-24-2009 14:39

…

Joey stopped on the steps to think: ‘Well now, if J.C. came out empty handed from the bank, it means he didn’t do the job…yet. As I know him…he’s still going to do it. Good. Strange though…the cops never let go a suspect until the due time…usually not even then, no matter what they have or not on him. This means…they wanted him back out. They needed him to finish what he started, to get the job done. A direct order from the chief is highly uncommon. I’m thinking…could he really be the one? Could he actually be Barresi’s contact? But how? Why? What could make him accept such a position?’ He searched his brain for a bit and finally a light sparkled shiny into his eyes: ‘I see…Smiley’s pictures…maybe? He’s running for the senate next year. A scandal would ruin his chances.” Bane lit himself a cigarette. ‘I think this is reason enough to pay a small visit at Binkley’s. Maybe he’s there…it’s just a couple of blocks away.’

Feb-24-2009 15:48

…

It took Bane almost half an hour to reach Binkley’s walking. The wounds in his leg made him slow. He was in luck though as the chief was there. He took a seat down at a far end table, where he could see without being seen. He waited for the chief to head over the restrooms, then got up and followed him in. On his way he grabbed on a waiter. “Don’t let anyone inside while I’m there…” he said and then slipped him a bill.

The chief was standing in front of a urinal, legs spread, head back and hands in front of him. Bane slowly pulled out his revolver, his mind glancing one last time upon what he was going to do. It was dangerous…messing with a cop. These guys are even rougher than the mob. And also it was not just any cop, but the chief of police himself.

He approached the chief slowly from behind and with a firm move he grabbed the back of his collar, sticking the barrel of his weapon in his…well…upper back part of his pants. The man was startled by his move and made a furious attempt to free himself. He stopped upon hearing the sound of the gun being armed. He spoke. The anger in his words was penetrating: “Do you know who you’re messing with? What is this? Whoever you are, you’re in trouble! You’re dead! You’re…”

“I’m a man currently in ‘touch’ of your jewelries, if I’m not mistaking. You wanna keep’em in place? Then shut up and listen!”

Feb-24-2009 15:48

“Bane?!? Joey Bane? I know you! What the hell are you doing here?”

“You know my name? I’m honored. Now…since obviously I’m nobody and yet you do know my name, it means you also might have some information that I might be interested in.”

“You think holding a gun at me will make me talk? How stupid can you be, Bane? I’m the CHIEF!”

“Stop moving then, CHIEF…you might wet yourself.”

“DAMN” said him looking down. “This was a 5 thousand bucks suit!”

“Now that’s kinda expensive for a cop, don’t you think, chief?”

“Damn, Bane…at least let me pull my pants up!”

“I’m comfortable with the current position. Now I mean it: stop moving!”

“You’ll pay for this, Bane. You’ll go down. I’ll throw you in the darkest hole!”

Joey had to think fast. He had only a wild card to play. “Before you do that you might wanna take a look at some pictures.” He was in luck. It worked. He hit the jackpot.

The chief stopped moving and adopted a calmer and serious voice. “You have them?”

“No, not yet, but my friend will, soon!”

“Tombstone?”

“Yes, the one and only. He must be getting the job done by now.”

“I want them. I’ll pay you good cash.”

“That’s not the deal I had in mind. I know you’re good with the mob, so I need a favor.”

“Speak up, I’m listening, Bane.”

“A friend of mine…Mona McGregor. They want her head. I want them off her back.”

“Not possible. She stole from them. Buy maybe I can get them off YOUR back if you deliver those books.”

“What do you mean? They know I’ve been involved in this? How come?”

“You didn’t really think Barresi could pull this off just by himself, now did you? I worked both sides. I have informed them. It was the perfect deal for me. I was going to get the pictures and then the books, one way or another. With that my place into the senate would’ve been set.”

Feb-24-2009 15:49

“Then the deal changes. I want both me and Mona out in the clear. I’ll get you the pictures.”

“No deal. Without the books it won’t work, as they know already about everything. I’LL tell YOU what we do!” Bane noticed he was grinning. “You bring the pictures AND the books, you add Mona and we give you the little child.”

“You mean…”

“Yes! We have her. Some goon had spotted Mona earlier today. He followed her up to Maria’s and then lost her. We grabbed the little girl just to ensure of your cooperation. Now take your hands off me and be gone!”

With his heart hardened up about losing Rose once again, Bane rushed out of the restroom, leaving the chief to straighten his wet pants. He quickly got out of the local aiming towards Maria’s place.

Feb-24-2009 16:13

…

Just coming out of the restaurant Bane almost had bumped into Whispers. “You’re LATE!” he said. “Where the hell have you been?”

“I’m sorry, Joey, but I had to take care of the truck.”

“Ok…what did you do with it exactly?”

“Well…I left all the pigs at Louie’s. He makes the finest steaks there, you know? He made me a good price for them. The truck itself…I took it at the docks. I have a couple of friends there who’ll paint it and change its license. We’ll sell it afterwards, don’t worry.”

“And? Aren’t you forgetting something, Whispers?”

He thought for a bit. “Oh, yeah. Louie invited us for dinner.”

“The BODY, Whispers! Barresi! What did you do with his corpse?”

“Oh yeah, right; I completely forgot about that. I left it at Louie’s. You see…he’s got this big oven down the basement where he cremates bones and…other stuff. Don’t worry, he’s already smoke by now.”

“Damn, you’re really resourceful, Whispers. Nice. I think though I’ll pass that lunch invitation. Now, you got a pair of wheels?”

“Yeah, just down in front of the station. Moses told me you might be up here, so I just took a walk.”

“Ok, let’s be on our way. They’ve got Rose again. Let’s go check on Maria.”

…

Half an hour later they’ve managed to reach Maria’s apartment. It was already midnight. She was a bit shook up, but otherwise ok. Bane took a seat on the couch, pondering upon his next move. “I definitely have to track down Mona and J.C. But…that’ll have to wait until the morning. I’m totally beat.”

They’ve decided to spend the night at Maria’s.

Feb-25-2009 10:58

The November night air was chilled to the bone, especially if one was lurking in the shadow waiting for things to happen. JC looked at his watch again. ‘Any minute now’, he thought. He stared into the backdoor of the bank, with Djordji standing right beside him. JC was glad that it’s the quiet gypsy who’s accompanying him at the moment, and not clockwork Ronnie. The young driver was now waiting in his car, amongst many that were parked along the street, hiding out of sight and most importantly out of JC’s ear shot. If Ronnie was to stand here in the shadows, he would be asking impatient questions which would cause JC to stab him in the mouth. That, would not be a pretty sight.

JC tapped his fingers on his thigh. ‘What if I’ve already missed her?’ He thought nervously. Earlier on as their car drove by the quiet bank, JC counted four men standing on separated street corners. They had ‘cops’ written all over their faces although they weren’t wearing blue. Ronnie drove on without stopping, as JC had instructed. JC took a detour and avoided the cops. Had he missed Anastasia because of the time taken? Or had she already been caught?

Just as JC’s imagination began to run wild, the backdoor popped open quietly. JC exhaled. He didn’t even realize he was holding his breath.

Feb-25-2009 10:58

The two men scurried into the building and Anastasia bolted the door behind her. “Sorry, electric box higher than I thinked. Hard to cut wires above my head. Had to find something to stand on.’ The little Thai girl whispered apologetically.

“Did you have trouble seeing? You didn’t wave the flashlight around, I hope?” JC asked nervously. He had instructed everyone to avoid using the flashlight as much as possible. One can never tell who was looking in from the outside noticing the odd flashes.

“No. I trained in circus. Walking backstage all the time! Very dark. Good night eye.” Anastasia pointed to her large slanted eyes and smiled. As per their plan, the Thai girl stayed hidden by the backdoor while the two men headed for the vault. Along the way, they treaded carefully, avoiding the floods from the street lamps outside.

JC loved modern day technology. People believed in the false security of each new invention created. Take this new alarm system the bank had installed for instance. They no longer put watchmen at night to save a few greens, letting a bell do the watching for them. Funny. All JC needed to do was to train the intelligent little contortionist on how to cut a few wires, how tragic.

As the two men walked down the steps to the vault, JC reminded Djordji, “Down thirteen steps, turn left, then walk nine steps forward. When I am far inside enough, I will turn on the flash light.” They proceeded with the utmost concentration.

Feb-25-2009 10:59

When JC deemed that they were far down enough so light cannot be spilled onto the ground level, JC clicked his flashlight open. There, behind the iron bars of the vault, sat the guard whom JC had seen too many times during the day. The sleepy guard suddenly woke from his nap and began to grapple with his whistle. Without wasting a single second, JC grabbed his blade and threw it at the guard. The blade pierced his throat and the guard fell down with a deep thud.

“Damn!” JC said, a little too loud to his liking. Did Ruby feed him false information, or had the municipality suddenly stepped up their security? “We don’t have time. Let’s open this baby!” JC turned to Djordji. The gypsy nodded and took out his tools.

Fifteen minutes later, all doors and locks were tackled. JC was face to face with the contents in the infamous safety deposit box. He couldn’t help but smiled. There were three distinctive items: gold, accounting books, and a stack of photographs. Heavy yummy gold coins, many of them. Excellent, JC could pay his people and disband the group as soon as he was safe. The quicker everyone disappear, the better off he was. JC figured after paying off everyone, what he had left could pay for 2/3 of the operation cost.

In the dim light of the hand torch, JC examined the photos. He stifled a laugh. Djordji looked at him with curious eyes. ‘So, this was what the big commotion was all about.’ JC thought to himself. ‘Barresi, you’re a dead man. I knew exactly who I shall sell this to.’