`About what?' I asked Lester when he announced that my biological father wanted to see me.
`How the fuck should I know?'
`Tell him I'm busy.'
`You're outta your fucking mind if you think I gonna tell something like that to Ray Hoolihan. I give you the message. You tell him yer busy.' He went down the block toward Tenth.
At the corner, Mike Leary, one of my stepfather's hoodlum friends, pulled me aside. He told Cholito to beat it, that I had to go with him.
`What's he want?' I demanded.
`Hey, boy. Your father wants to see you now. That's all you gotta know. Now I gotta drag your ass to Forty-Sixth or you coming like a kid's supposed when his old man calls him.'
Leary was reputed to be one of Hoolihan's enforcers, a multiple murderer. He would have dragged me by my hair with no worry about what others thought. I went peacefully.
Lester was walking out as we went in. Hoolihan was agitated when I arrived. `What the fuck's wrong with you, Junior?' 'Why didn't you come when Lester told you?' He was slouched across a sofa with a beer in his hand. There were two other men in the room, one I'd never seen before. He wasn't Irish. I guessed Italian.
I was not intimidated. `I know what you want an' I ain't gonna do that no more, any more.' Mr. Martinson had taught me about double negatives. Ray Hoolihan didn't like it either way.
You're gonna do what the fuck I tell you, boy!' He took a deep breath and calmed down. You're gonna do one more `cause this one's gonna set you up for life. Eleven years old and set up for life, like getting adopted by Daddy Warbucks. He laughed and looked at the others for approval of his little joke. They obliged, even the Italian.
This job's been waiting over a year for somebody who can do what you do easy. The man here,' he nodded toward the Italian, didn't like the idea of a kid but I told him how special you was, how smart an' how straight you was. You get five hundred dollars when it's done and I invest your share with a legitimate company until you're twenty-one. I figure it'll be worth half a million or more by then. So you're gonna do this `cause it's right for you and your mother. We understand each other?'
Half a million dollars was a number too high for me to comprehend. I saw it as the kind of money Bill must have had. The five hundred dollars was another matter. I could buy some serious stuff. No smelly cocks to suck or bullshit stories to listen to. Greed took hold of me. Greed and the realization that refusing this would likely cut off the monthly money my mother was receiving.
`First, tell me what I gotta do.'
That's the attitude! Think positive. It's ain't easy but it ain't real complicated neither. You already know how to open a safe and that's the hardest part. In a couple hours, we go into a building just a few blocks from here. We put you in a janitor's closet where you wait until after nine when the cleaning people finish. You're gonna have a flashlight and a watch that glows in the dark. You can't use the flashlight until ain't nobody on the floor. You'll hear em go on the elevator. Then you climb into a air duct usin' a rope set up we invented. Then you go about seventy five feet straight, turn left and go seven feet. You pop open the register,.'
`What's a register?'
`A square thing that covers the duct where it comes out of the ceiling.'
`What's a duct?'
Jesus, kid, don't you know nothin'? It's like a long sheet metal tube, bout wide as your shoulders and this high.' He held his hand to indicate about ten inches. Now just listen. At the end of the duct it goes down to this register that's on hinges. Under the duct, there's nothing but the floor. You drop this rope and climb down it. Then you clean up any dust and dirt got on anything when you got outta the duct. Then you go to the safe. You got the combination. You write down the number at the top of the dial cause you gotta put it back there. You open up the bag for the gems you gonna take outta the safe. You open the safe, quick take out all the black cloth bags inside and put them into your bag. Close the safe and put the dial back where it was. You tie up your bag and hustle back up the rope into the duct. You close the register and listen. If there ain't nobody coming on the elevator, you go back up the duct stopping every few feet to listen. The safe's got a alarm and the cops'll probably come. We figure ten, eleven minutes and they're on your floor. When you hear the elevator, you stop until everybody leaves then wait half a hour more before you go back to the closet. You take off the dirty clothes and wash up in the sink they got there. It's big enough you can stand right in it and wash real good. In the morning at nine thirty, you walk out with the gems on your back. We gonna give you everything you need, even extra clothes and food so don't worry.
I know it's a lot to remember but we got it all writ down an' you got your little flashlight to read it. Ain't no hurry cept when you open the safe but even then you got ten minutes to close the door and get back into the duct. So you can take your time and be sure you do it right. The other alarms are on the doors and windows but you don't gotta go near them.'
`I can't be in the dark that long.'
`Shit, boy. You ain't gonna be the dark all that long. Mosta the time you're gonna be in that big closet. It's got a big ass window over the door gonna be lit up by the lights in the hall until the people go down on the elevator. Then you got your little flashlight an' all them batteries. Anyhow, you ain't s'posed to be afraid a nuthin'. Nobody makes the kinda money you gonna make tonight without havin' to do somethin'.
`Tonight?'
"Yeh, tonight. Youse staying with us from now until tomorrow when it's all done. You got a hour to learn and practice, then we go. I already went personal to the bar and told your mother you're with me and my family `til tomorrow. She said okay. I got nice clothes from your house you gotta change into now. You change back into your school clothes to go through the duct. Then you change back again after washing off. So let's get practicin'.'
Greed battled with worry about being in the dark and getting caught. It was very complicated. Even with everything written down I could make some mistake that would get me caught. This was big time crime. Kids doing this kind of crime did big time. I laughed at myself over the rhymes. Kids doing this kind of crime did big time. I was getting good as John.
They had a section of the type of duct I'd have to get through over the room I had to enter. It had a similar square register. It was easy to open but more difficult to close. I had to pull it up straight and not too hard for it to snap closed properly. My instructor did it two times slowly, explaining what to do step by step. Once I understood how it worked, it wasn't really all that hard.
I learned how to climb the rope that had loops for my feet. A two foot long piece of pipe was tied to one end. The pipe was to be placed over openings to anchor the rope when I was climbing up or down. I was given Pepsi from the refrigerator.
I remembered my date with Bill and Cholito the following morning at nine. 'I gotta use a telephone.'
'No you don't,' answered the Italian. I stared at him angrily. 'No, you don't,' he repeated. He scared me far more than my biological father ever had. I didn't ask again and thought about what to tell Bill and Cholito. Then I thought about escape, just running away from these people. Screw the money Hoolihan gave my mother every month. I could go back to hustling some, maybe even teach Cholito how. But, five hundred dollars was a lot of money. In the end, I found it easier to stay.
In reality, I accepted having to do the burglary for three reasons: fear of what they'd do to me if I tried to back out including no more monthly payments to my mother, the thought of that five hundred dollars, and a returning romantic pride at being considered capable and trustworthy enough to be called on to do the job, to be considered even in a small way a Westie. Anyway, this was to be my last crime. Five hundred dollars plus the two hundred or more I had in my stashes and what Bill gave me would take care of me for a long time. Money promised ten years hence meant very little to me. Twenty-one was a long way off for an eleven year old.
At four thirty, dressed in my best clothes, I was dropped off with one of Hoolihan's men a block from our target. We entered an old building and took the elevator to the seventh floor. Twenty feet from the elevators, after checking that no one saw me, I walked calmly into the janitor's closet and went to the back where I was to hide inside a large canvas laundry basket under what appeared to be some kind of sheets but were really the painters' drop cloths. One set of gloves went on immediately. I wore the radium dial watch and in my pockets carried a small flashlight, three spare sets of batteries, my instructions and the combination to the safe. They were not to be used until the halls went dark and then not until I was sure everyone had left on the elevators or stairs. About fifteen minutes later, a suitcase was pushed inside the door. I put it in the rear of the room. It contained my school clothes, the two ropes, the pipe, two sets of gloves, a bunch of rags, a cloth bag with a string tie, food and a spare flashlight. I checked out the register to the duct I would enter later. I looked exactly like the one I had practiced on.
Now came the hard part: waiting for at least four hours. It turned out to be five. The cleaning ladies came into the room more times than I could count to clean out mops and gossip. They had plenty of nasty things to say about the Jewish owners of the offices on that floor. It passed the time listening. Finally, at nearly nine o'clock, they left some of their things in the closet and took the rest in a cart to the elevator, turned off the hall lights and left
I immediately pushed my way out from under the heavy fabric and turned on the flashlight. Hunger was my first concern so I ate a ham and cheese sandwich and drank half a bottle of the Seven Up I'd requested. Hunger sated, I got to work. First, I changed into my school clothes. With the flashlight between my teeth, I removed the pipes, rope, rags, gloves and cloth bag from the suitcase and put in my good clothes. The two pieces of pipe had to be screwed together and slipped through a loop the rope. The loop had to be tightened. The rope had eight inch loops tied into it every foot so it could be climbed like a ladder. The laundry basket with the suitcase on top of the drop cloths and a heavy oval shaped bucket upside down on top of the suitcase got me high enough to open the register. I pushed the pipe into the main duct above and tested the rope. It would easily hold me. That done, I put the bucket, suitcases and basket back in their places.
The rags and the second pair of gloves went into my shirt, the written instructions and safe combination into my back pants pocket. The cloth bag went inside my shirt. I climbed the rope to the pipe and pulled myself up into the main duct hitting my head on the sheet metal.
`Fuck! Fuck!' I muttered but regained my hold and pulled myself in.
The register had to be pulled closed so I slid backward until my arm came free and I could reach down to pull it up. The next part was far more unpleasant than I'd imagined. Thick dust was everywhere. I pushed the looped rope and pipe ahead of me, dislodging great amounts of the stuff, which I was forced to breathe in or suffocate. I tried going slower. It helped.
The third left opening was mine. I pushed the looped rope inside the narrower duct and put the pipe across the opening to act as an anchor for the rope. It was necessary to slide the pipe back away from the opening to get my butt and head inside. The branch section was so low I had to turn my head sideways to avoid scooping up dirt in my nose. My ass scraped against the top of the duct all the way. Moving was very slow as I had to virtually wiggle my way forward while pulling on the side walls with my hands.
It took as long to move those final seven feet as the entire seventy-five foot length of the main duct. Finally, I reached the drop to the room with the safe. The looped rope fell ahead of me into the hole. I reached down and popped open the register. The next step was tricky and required pure muscle power. I had to go head first, hand over hand down the rope until my rear cleared the opening in the ceiling. I then slowly flipped over and slid down into the room feet first. Pure circus.
Enough light came through the windows that I wouldn't need the flashlight except to open the safe.
As instructed, I pulled the rags from inside my shirt and cleaned up all the dust and debris that had fallen into the room from the duct. There was far less than I had expected but dust fell off me every step I took. The safe stood tall a few feet away against an inside wall. I took the cloth bag out of the knapsack. My watch read nine fifty- five. Once I opened the safe, I had nine minutes to clean up the dust falling off me and get back into the duct with the register closed. I was sure dust would still be falling off when I went up the rope. I needed to get rid of it.
Hoolihan had told me that the doors and windows had alarms. There was another way. With a trashcan along side, I lay out the rags on the floor and jumped up and down over them, brushing myself all over to remove any loose debris. It made a mess but mostly on the rags. I took some crumpled papers out and emptied the dirt from the rags into the trash can. After wiping my sneakers off, I cleaned up the floor and again shook the dust into the trash can. I looked around for any sign of my presence. There was none, I replaced the papers in the trashcan and put it back where I'd found it.
I checked the number at the top of the safe's dial, seventy-two. The five turn, four number combination opened it easily. There were six black bags all with what looked more like pebbles to me that diamonds. I took all the bags out and closed the door turning the dial back to seventy- two. The gem bags went into the cloth bag. I pulled the cord tight and knotted it to the end of the rope. I wiped the floor once more as I returned to the rope then stuffed the rags into my shirt. My feet and hands went into the loops. As close to the opening as possible, I gripped the rope again like a circus artist, tucked and turned myself over until my feet were under the opening. I stretched my legs into the duct and pulled myself backward and upward. My body was too close to the branch side of the duct and I my legs jammed. I released my lower hand and pushed away, lengthening my angle of entry. It took all my strength to pull myself inside. The ropes with the gems had to come inside the duct so I could reach down and close the register. I was sweating again, heavily. Worry that it might fall off my face and drip on the floor below motivated me to wrestle myself back into the tight duct. I stopped for a moment to rest and listen for the elevators. There wasn't a sound beyond my breathing.
I began wiggling and pushing back toward the main duct, towing the rope with bag full of gems. Halfway up the narrow branch duct, I thought I heard something and stopped. Again, there was silence. I started to wriggle then heard the clanking of the elevator machinery. My feet were in the main duct. A few feet more and my head would be free. I pushed hard while listening for the elevator sound to stop. My head came free just as the doors opened. I lay absolutely still, breathing with my mouth wide open in an attempt to decrease the sound. Voices and footsteps filled the corridor. At least two persons ran away from where I was while others walked rapidly in my direction. I heard keys then the sound of a lock being opened. Lights went on that reflected up into the branch.
`Safes closed,' a male voice said.
`What number's the dial on?' asked another.
Momentary silence. `Seventy, uh, seventy-two.'
How long til the lab's here.'
`Ten, fifteen minutes.'
`All right, let's get outta here and check the area.'
There was little talking until the elevator brought up more people, twice. They murmured among themselves but mostly said little. I listened for the word duct or register but didn't hear it. There was a continuous opening and closing of doors and plenty of footsteps. Several times I used my flashlight to check the time. They didn't start to leave for two hours and forty minutes. The lights didn't go off until twenty minutes later.
The last voices I heard said, `I hate false alarms. I coulda been at the precinct getting my paperwork done and catching some Z's.'
`And now we got this to write up.'
The elevator doors opened, footsteps entered, the doors closed, the elevator whined. Now, I had to wait for half an hour to make sure no one was still below or came back up. My watch read one oh five. I couldn't move until one thirty five. I tried to relax and think about what Cholito and I could do with five hundred dollars during the summer. The beach was a sure thing, the beach at Coney Island. Then there was Hershey Pennsylvania that Bill mentioned. And lots of great sex!
When the time was up, I strained my ears for anything that might have indicated human presence below. There was nothing. I started backward toward the janitor's closet, dragging the rope and gems. After seven or eight minutes, I felt my feet fall into the opening above the closet. I raised up so I could drop my legs into the down duct. My feet touched the register. A slight nudge opened it. I put the pipe over the lower duct and dropped the rope though, diamonds and all. I looked forward to rinsing my mouth of the dust I'd breathed in. I felt the fresh air as I climbed down into the closet. The light went on. A man's voice said, `It's a kid, a fuckened kid!'
Three policemen, guns drawn and pointed at me stood on three sides.