Seven Silent Men (29 page)

Cub Hennessy waited for her tears to subside before asking, “Missus Hammond, did Sam say what they wanted him to do if he joined them?”

“We talked about that, Sam and me did,” Natalie answered. “He had to pack a change of clothes and take them with him. They was gonna give Sam one of them frog suits you see in movies. Rubber suits for swimming in water. Sam was gonna put on the rubber suit and give Bicki his change of clothes for later. Sam was gonna go down into Warbonnet and disconnect the clock machine he built, the machine that was gonna open and close the water gates. They wanted Sam to control them gates himself, let the water in when they told him to. Keep it at the right level while they was robbing the bank. After the bank was robbed, Sam was suppose to let lots more water through the gates and get in a rubber boat and go down through the sewers and join up with Bicki and the other men under the bank. Bicki and the other men was gonna be in boats too, under the bank. All of 'em was gonna ride away in the sewers and come out into the river and get on the Treachery. That's the part that frightened Sam most of all, riding on the Treachery. He almost drowned as a kid doing it. But that ain't why he wanted to say no to Bicki. He wanted to say no 'cause Sam ain't no criminal. Robbing is a crime, and Sam couldn't do it. You gotta believe, Sam didn't do it!”

“What did he do?” asked Cub.

“Sam decided to go talk with Bicki and tell him he couldn't go along. And that's what Sam did, I know it. He didn't take no change of clothes with him. I swear he didn't.”

“If Sam had gone along, what would have happened after riding on the Treachery?”

“Sam and the Prairie Port men, I think that was Mister Corkel and the cowboy, they was suppose to turn their boats into Big Muddy and—”

“The Big Muddy River?”

She nodded. “Where Big Muddy goes into the Mississippi River they was suppose to land and a truck would be there. A truck belonging to Mister Corkel. They would get in and drive back to Prairie Port. I was suppose to say, if anybody asked, Sam was home with me all the while.”

“The rest of the men who stayed in the boats, where were they going?”

“Sam never said.”

“The money? When was the stolen money to be distributed?”

“I can't speak for the rest of the men.”

“When was Sam to get his money?”

“Last weekend. Sam said he and me would have to make a trip to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, if he went along with them.”

“He was to be given his share of the money at Baton Rouge?”

“From Bicki. If Sam and me wanted, Bicki would arrange us going to South America. Get us the tickets and passports and all that.”

“Some of the robbers were going to South America?”

“Bicki told Sam some was.”

“If Sam had gone along with the robbery, how much money would his share have come to?”

“Bicki didn't say exactly. Only that it would be high enough for a repair shop and a half.”

“Missus Hammond, you're certain Sam didn't go along with them?”

“I told you, Sam didn't take no change of clothes with him. He walked out to go see Bicki and tell him no, that's all!”

“… When did Sam come back?”

Her hand rose toward the casket. “Now.”

“What time did Sam leave the house to see Bicki?”

“About quarter of six, in the afternoon.”

“Do you recall the date?”

“Friday … August twentieth.”

“The night Mormon State was robbed?”

“I suppose, I don't know …”

“Your husband never mentioned the name Mormon State?” Cub asked.

“All he said was ‘bank.' That he found out they was gonna rob a bank and needed him there to help.”

“Is it possible, Missus Hammond, that Sam went to see Bicki and Bicki managed to change Sam's mind for him? Convince Sam, at gunpoint, to do what they wanted?”

Natalie shook her head. “Sam went and seen Bicki. He told Bicki he couldn't go along. Bicki said Sam couldn't walk out on them now and had to go along. Sam walked out anyways. Sam run and hid.”

“How do you know that?”

“Sam called me.”

“When he was in hiding?”

“When he was coming out from hiding.”

“What did Sam say to you?”

“Pologized.”

“Apologized for what?”

“Having to do what he was gonna do.”

“What was that?”

“… Jumping off Warbonnet Ridge.”

“Commit suicide?”

She nodded.

“He told you that on the telephone? Said he was going to kill himself?”

“Jump off Warbonnet Ridge.” Her voice was barely audible. “He told me he was already at Warbonnet Ridge. He said even though he wasn't going along with Bicki and the men, he was as much a criminal as anybody. He said he'd never be able to live with that on his mind. He said he was scared of jumping and scared of Bicki and the other men. He said he knew Bicki and the other men would be back after the robbery to kill him and that scared him most because it wasn't only him they would be killing, they might be killing me and the baby too. He said one of the men with Bicki, Mister Corkel, liked killing women and children. Sam said … he told me the only thing to do was what he was gonna do and not to argue with him 'cause he felt bad enough as it was. He said he put his junior class ring in an envelope and mailed it to me for Christopher when he grows up. He said he was sorry for the sorrow he was causing me. Then he hung up.”

Cub Hennessy looked over at the open coffin again, again grew nauseated. Time and the river had left Sam hideous. “Did you receive the envelope with the ring?” he managed.

She withdrew a thin silver chain from her bodice. A ring dangled at its end.

“After the phone call from Sam, what did you do?”

“Waited.”

“For what?”

“For it not to be so, I guess.”

“Did you think of calling the police?”

She nodded.

“Did you call the police?”

She shook her head.

“Why not?”

“I didn't want Sam to get arrested.”

“Arrested for attempted suicide?”

“For going along with Bicki. I was hoping Sam would change his mind and do what Bicki asked. If Sam went along, I wouldn't want him arrested even if he broke the law.”

“Where did you think Sam might be, if he had gone along?”

“Down south meeting Bicki.”

“Getting his share of the money at Baton Rouge?”

She nodded.

“And you never let anyone know he was gone?”

“I told Ma here from the beginning,” she said. “Four days ago I let Sam's supervisor at work know he was gone.”

“Why the supervisor?”

“Sam's leave of absence with the electric company was over. He had four weeks coming, and he'd used it all. If Sam got paid by Bicki, it woulda happened last weekend. They was suppose to meet and get paid last weekend. Sam woulda called me once that happened. Only he didn't. I knew his electric company supervisor would be wondering where he was. I called the supervisor and said I was worried 'cause Sam was gone. I guess the supervisor told the police. Early this evening Ma and me got called and told Sam was here …”

“Do you have any idea where Bicki is?” Cub asked.

“That's what I want you to find out! I want you to get him and all the others!”

“Do you know the names of the others?”

“I told you … there's Mister Corkel and Reverend Walt and Bicki. Bicki Hale.”

“Do you know Mister Corkel's first name? Reverend Walt's last name?”

She shook her head. “Ma does. Ma knows all of 'em.”

“That's a lie,” Ida protested.

“They was around your farm,” Natalie said. “When I kicked Bicki out, he brought them around to your place. Seven of them, Sam told me, especially that last week.”

“If Bicki did, I disremember,” insisted Ida.

“Ma, you ain't never forgot nothing in your life! Sam said they was at your place and even got some mail there. Tell the man who they are. Please tell him!”

“I won't hear no more of this!” Ida went to the coffin and stared in. “He didn't do nothing, my boy! My brother, he didn't do nothing neither!” She strode from the room.

“You're sure she isn't right?” Cub asked Natalie.

The house was small and clapboard and in excellent repair. The tiny lawn and sparse shrubbery had been well attended to. Natalie had Cub drive around to the back, pull into a prefabricated, metal garage. The workbench and machines and tools at the rear were the kind of mundane standard equipment to be found in any home workshop. Cub, an amateur carpenter himself, noticed this, wouldn't have expected a wizard to create his wizardry here.

Natalie stepped to several large cardboard cartons piled in the corner, removed them, pulled up a trapdoor in the cement floor. Cub lifted out with difficulty a very large metal workbox.

“Everything doin' with the Bonnet he kept in there,” she said, opening the top. “I was suppose to get rid of all of it, but I didn't. Sam told me to get rid of it in that last phone call of his. Get rid of it so no shame would fall to me and our baby.”

Cub went through the contents, phoned Yates and Jez back at the office about what to bring along and where to meet him.

Ida sat rocking in a rocking chair on the sloping porch of her dilapidated three-story farmhouse. Beside her rested a suitcase. Beside the suitcase were Jez and Yates.

“She was out near the road when we got here,” Jez called as Cub walked from his car with Natalie. “Says she didn't have any particular destination in mind, only that she was leaving so you'd stop pestering her.”

“Got the gizmo?” Cub asked.

“Sure do,” Jez answered.

“I don't mean to pester you, Missus Hammond.” Cub spoke gently, came and sat on the edge of the porch in front of Ida's rocking chair. “Don't mean to malign your son or your brother either. Don't intend to arrest you or search your house or do anything like that. You want to get up and go where you were going, that's fine with me. I won't interfere, I won't follow. What I'm asking you to do is listen … and if you've a mind to, help. I need your help, Missus Hammond. We all do. A crime has been committed. And that's against the law. You're not lawless, Missus Hammond, I know that. You don't have to like the FBI. Just do what you can to protect the law … if you're inclined.”

She said nothing, went on rocking.

“See that object Mister Jessup is holding up, Missus Hammond?”

Ida impassively looked at the handcrafted fuse Jessup was displaying.

“That was found at the place the robbers used to flood the tunnels, Missus Hammond,” Cub said. “It's a wonderful job of craftsmanship, that fuse. We've searched all over trying to find the person who made it. But you know that from the media, don't you, Missus Hammond?”

Ida rocked in silence.

“You've been following what television and the papers are saying about the robbery, haven't you, Missus Hammond?”

“She don't have the TV or read papers,” Natalie told him. “Neither do I.”

“Missus Hammond, let me tell you what the TV is saying about that fuse and the other electric devices found. They say it's the work of a wizard. A genius. Your son, Sam, is that genius. That wizard. Only no one knows it. His genius didn't show up on his employment record or his school tests. Those methods have been unreliable before, they were again with Sam. We've questioned hundreds of electrical engineers and electronics experts trying to find the one who could have built that fuse and the other amazing objects. Men who earn fifty, a hundred, two hundred thousand dollars a year. Who teach at universities, write books about electricity. Sam was better than any of them, Missus Hammond. Sam did what they couldn't have done. Sam was a … a wizard. Only good will come of this, I promise. If you want the world to know how talented your son was, we can do it so we show Sam was forced to do what he did. Or, if you want, we won't mention it. We'll do anything you want, Missus Hammond, to get your cooperation … to learn what you know. But believe me, your son Sam was involved with the robbery. He was the one who made much of it possible. Look what I found at his workshop.”

Cub displayed a second handcrafted fuse. “No one but Sam had the skill to build these.” The second fuse was brought next to the first fuse being held up by Jessup. They were identical.

Ida stopped rocking, contemplated the two fuses, turned toward her daughter-in-law. “Why you doin' this to me, girl?”

“Why you denying your own son?” Natalie shot back. “Whether Sam jumped or got pushed off that cliff, Bicki done it! Why you protecting your brother over your son?”

“'Cause he is my brother! Blood kin! The last I got!”

“What about this here!” Natalie was slapping at her huge, pregnant stomach. “What kinda blood's this baby in here got if it ain't your own? Your own and your son's own? Who killed my baby's father? Who killed your grandson's father?”

Ida wilted. Her eyes wettened. Hesitantly she began to identify the eight actual robbers of the vault at Mormon State National Bank … Reverend Wallace Tecumseh “Windy Walt” Sash … Lamar “Wiggles” Loftus … Willy “Cowboy” Carlson … Thomas “The Worm” Ferugli … Elmo “River Rat” Ragotsy … Lionel “Meadow Muffin” Epstein … Marion “Mule Fucker” Corkel … Bicki “Little Haifa” Hale.

Later, giving her deposition at the FBI offices, Ida revealed that Bicki was to be in Baton Rouge the coming weekend, not the previous one, as Natalie believed. That was where Ida was heading with her suitcase when Jessup and Yates intercepted her, to see if she could reach Bicki before he left Baton Rouge.

THIRTEEN

He appeared out of place on the tree-shaded street of Baton Rouge, everything about him did. The short-sleeved shirt was imitation Hawaiian and too large. The pants were wool and old and baggy, and when he hiked them up it could be seen rope was used as a belt. The shoes, at the distance Yates, Brewmeister, Jessup and other FBI men were watching from, seemed not to match. His arms were long and dangling. The torso short. The shoulders round and slumped somewhat forward.