The Burglar in the Closet - By Lawrence Block Page 0,64
lots. If he could set up a deal for a quarter of a million dollars’ worth, he could put fifty thousand dollars in his pocket and not wear out his liver buying drinks in bars all over town.
“So the lawyer set it up. He had Crystal show Knobby some sample twenties. Then Knobby could find somebody who was willing to pay fifty thou, say, for the counterfeit. Crystal would be in the middle. She’d get the real dough from Knobby and the schlock from Grabow, and she’d turn the dough over to Grabow and pass on the counterfeit to Knobby, and that way they wouldn’t ever have to see each other. Grabow was crazy about his privacy. He didn’t want anybody to know where he lived, so he’d be glad to work a deal that kept him out of the limelight.”
“And the lawyer set this up, Bern? This guy John?”
I nodded at Craig. “Right.”
“What was in it for him?”
“Everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everything,” I said. “Fifty thousand in cash, because he didn’t intend for it to go to Grabow. And a quarter of a mill in counterfeit, because that wouldn’t go to Knobby. He got each of them to deliver first. They were both sleeping with Crystal so each of them figured he could trust her. Maybe Crystal knew the lawyer was setting up a double cross. Maybe not. But when she got the money from Knobby she turned it over to the lawyer, and then Grabow delivered the counterfeit dough and she told him he’d get paid in a day or two, and then all the lawyer had to do was kill her and he was home free.”
“How do you figure that, Mr. Rhodenbarr?”
“He already had the money from Knobby Corcoran, Mr. Verrill. Now he kills Crystal and takes the counterfeit and that’s the end of it. He’d have kept his own name out of it. As far as the others are concerned, Crystal’s in the middle, setting up the exchange. When she’s dead, what are they going to do? If anything, each one figures the other for a double cross. Maybe they kill each other. That’s fine as far as the lawyer’s concerned. He’s home free. He’s got the cash in hand and he can look around to make a deal on his own for the counterfeit. If he gets an average price that’s another fifty thousand, so the whole deal’s worth somewhere around a hundred thousand dollars to him, and there are people in this world who think that’s enough to kill for. Even lawyers.”
Verrill smiled gently. “There are members of the profession,” he said, “who aren’t as ethical as they might be.”
“Don’t apologize,” I said. “Nobody’s perfect. You’ll even run across an immoral burglar if you look long and hard enough.” I walked over to the window and looked down at the park and the horse-drawn hansom cabs queued up on Fifty-ninth Street. The sun was blocked by clouds now. It had been ducking in and out of them all afternoon. I said, “Thursday’s the night I went to Crystal’s apartment looking for jewels. I wound up locked in the closet while she rolled around in the sack with a friend. Then the friend left. While I was picking my way out of the closet Crystal was taking a shower. The doorbell interrupted her. She answered it and the lawyer came on in and stuck a dental scalpel in her heart.
“Then he walked past her to the bedroom. He hadn’t just come to kill her. He was picking up the counterfeit money that she was holding, presumably for Knobby. She’d told him Grabow had delivered it previously in an attaché case, and he walked into the bedroom and saw an attaché case standing against the wall.
“Of course it was the wrong case. The case with the counterfeit was probably right there in the closet with me all along. I think that’s probably where Crystal had stowed it, because why else would she automatically turn the key and lock me in the closet? She kept her jewelry where it was easy to get at. But there must have been something in that closet that she wasn’t used to having around or she wouldn’t have been such a fanatic on the subject of keeping the door locked.
“Well, the lawyer just grabbed that attaché case and took off. When he got home and opened it he found a ton of jewelry all rolled up in enough linen to keep it