The Erection Set

“You didn’t have to take the bait.”

“Ah, but I did. It isn’t very pleasant to live off the bounty of a demanding woman. One sometimes stretches too far for independence. I was outclassed, outmaneuvered and out on my ear before I realized what happened. Life has been pretty miserable ever since. I presume you know all the details?”

I nodded.

Gates put the can down and got up. “Well, good hunting. Didn’t mean to waste your time. Thanks for the drinks.”

“Any time,” I told him.

When he had gone I finished the last of the groceries I had in the house, cleaned up and dressed, then drove back toward Linton and took the road that led out to Stanley Cramer’s house.

All the lights were on downstairs and through the open curtained windows I could see three old men grouped around a table playing cards, each wearing a plastic eyeshade like an old-time faro dealer, hands held close to their vests.

From out of the night a little dog came up and yapped happily at me and before I reached the porch Cramer had the door open and was waiting for me. “Come on in, son. We’ll finish the hand, then we can talk.”

The bald-headed guy was Juke, the other one was Stoney and they had all worked together for my grandfather back in the old days until age had put them on the shelf. Their weekly card game was a ritual they never interrupted, but I was an oddity and part of the past they kept so close to them and an hour went by in small talk about Barrin Industries before Stanley Cramer finally got to the point.

“You know,” he told me, “ I got to thinking after you left. About that explosion and all.”

I lit a cigarette, sat back and waited.

“Went over to see one of the old chemical engineers who was there at the time and he said for the life of him, he couldn’t figure what made the place blow like that. When they were investigating he never spoke up because he kind of figured somebody might of messed around with those acids, left something open and it spilled ... and since nobody was bad hurt and the damage was minor, he just passed it off. But it just beats all how that safe got blown outa the wall the way it did.”

“You said there was nothing in it.”

“Only petty cash and old papers and plenty of the cash was still laying around, so it couldn’t have been robbery.”

“Remember any of the papers stored there?”

Cramer looked at the bold guy and nodded. “Tell him, Juke.”

“Old company formulas for metal alloys. Secret stuff at one time. By the time of the blast it was out of date, so nobody could have wanted them. They was scattered around too. I had a pound can of good tobacco in there too. The other stuff was all put in the new vault.”

I tried to pick the meat out of what he had said but couldn’t, so I waited some more. These old guys had their own way of doing things.

“Anyhow,” he went on, “I never gave this next thing a thought until Stan brought it up the other day, but about a week later they needed something out of the new vault and when they went to get it open the dial was jammed and they had to call in a guy from the safe company. He said somebody had tried to pry it off or something. I forget. Now, that there Alfred, he said the forklift they had in there the day before when they was moving in some office machines probably banged the safe and damaged it.”

“Possible?” I asked.

“The kid who ran the forklift was too damn careful for that. He sure would have reported it right away if he did. He said it never happened, but that Alfred gave him a chewing out anyway and the kid quit. Well, when they got the safe opened, the two of them, Al and Dennie, they spent half the day in the vault going through the stuff and when they came out they looked meaner’n snakes trying to swaller an iron egg.”

“Tell me something, didn’t they have the combination to that vault?”

“Nope. Not until the old man’s will was all probated and they took over. Until then only your grandfather and Jimmie Moore had the numbers. Now they’re both long dead.”

“What about the combination to the old safe?”

“Hell, no trouble to that. Stoney here reset the combination to ten-twenty-thirty so we could all remember it. Maybe a dozen of us knew it, but like I said, wasn’t anything in there worth stealing and if it was one of us it woulda been easier to turn the knob.”

“Makes you think, doesn’t it?” Cramer suggested.

“They hold an inventory the second time?”

“Damn right. The payroll was in there, in cash. Nothing missing though. Everything checked out against the books. Old lady Thorpe, the comptroller, she’s dead now too, she checked out all the files against her own memos so nothing happened. In fact, Jimmie Moore was in the vault with your cousins and watched while they counted up the cash. Alfred, he was more interested in the papers, but what the hell, it was all going to fall into their hands in a little while so he didn’t ask any questions.”

“Odd,” I said. I took another drag on the butt. “Looks like somebody wanted something.”

Cramer nodded slowly. “But didn’t get anything.”