Eagle Day - Robert Muchamore Page 0,13
in the window?’
‘That was afterwards,’ Perkins said. ‘Vern was so stirred up he came straight out on the pavement, fell on his ass and landed up in the gutter.’
This payoff got an even bigger laugh, as Bert’s son put two coffees on the table in front of them. ‘One black, one white,’ the waiter said. ‘You know, officers, I mighta seen something. If that kid came out the back of A and H, he would have emerged through the archway across the avenue, right?’
Officer Vernon waved his hand uninterestedly. ‘We cruised for a half-hour trying to pick the brat up; he’s long gone, and good riddance.’
‘Let me finish, Vern,’ the waiter said. ‘I was outside, right? Maybe forty-five minutes ago. Kid came running across the street, barely looking, and I mean, you don’t run in this ice unless you really have to so it been your boy. Thing is, I’ve seen that kid loadsa times at our other diner, a few blocks down. Kid comes in at night, always pretty late, and sometimes he’s wearing this overall spattered with mud. He buys coffees and sodas, speaks with an accent – Italian or French or something. I asked him why he was out so late one time and he said he was working on a crew with his dad, digging drains.’musta
Perkins looked interested. ‘You know where?’
The waiter nodded. ‘I’ve seen him go in that parking place. You know, red sign – horse with the spike coming out of its head?’
‘Unicorn,’ Perkins said, grabbing his cap off the table and rising up out of his seat. ‘We’ll go check it out.’
But Vern grabbed his partner’s arm and pulled him down, before looking up at the waiter. ‘Listen, no offence but you’re probably putting two and two together to make five. I appreciate your trying to help, but I mean, how much can you really see of a face flashing by in the dark?’
The waiter looked affronted, but he wasn’t going to start an argument with a tip-paying customer. ‘I was pretty sure it was him,’ he said. ‘But you’ve got a lot of experience, Vern, you’re probably right.’
Perkins looked at his partner. ‘It’s only two blocks down, boss. Two-minute drive. I can’t see what harm it’ll do.’
Vernon grunted. ‘OK, we’ll go over and see if anyone’s working over there – but first, I’m gonna eat. I want my usual grilled steak and fries and, what pies you got today?’
‘Peach, cherry, chocolate cream and key lime.’
Vernon nodded enthusiastically. ‘Slice of chocolate, slice of peach, both with ice cream.’
One of the cab drivers laughed when he heard this. ‘Two pieces of pie and a steak at four in the morning, Vern. No wonder you go around getting your fat can jammed in windows.’
*
PT had been waiting for months. He’d got so used to coming out every night that his nerves were numb to the whole thing: digging in the tunnel until you almost passed out from lack of air, loading dirt into the truck, dead rats, tunnel floods and curse-filled nights when it seemed the train was never going to run right.
He’d imagined the payoff a million times, but something popped in PT’s head when he ripped open the first cotton bag and saw the crumpled notes inside. With the bags of money in his hands it was no longer the latest in a line of petty scams and pawnbroker’s safes. This was all he’d ever dreamed of.
Everyone’s role had been planned out. PT was the first link in the chain, carrying bags of money from the safe and packing them into cardboard boxes. Two boxes slotted perfectly on to a wooden carriage and when six had been passed into the chamber and stacked on board the train by his father, the bell would be rung and Leon would haul the loaded carriages through the tunnel.
At the far end, Leon unloaded the train, threw the bags up to seven-year-old Jeannot, then rang the bell for his father to bring back the train. Jeannot took the bags of money from the storeroom and threw them inside a truck parked on the exit ramp with its rear doors hanging open. By the time the train returned to the station, PT had six more boxes ready for the next trip.
*
Vernon thought checking out Unicorn Tyre and Parking was a waste of time and with his bad ankle and two slices of pie in his belly he didn’t even get out of the car, which his partner Perkins