The Case Of The Safe

[MarkMueller]

I was sitting at my desk in my Center Street apartment, which I share with my cat. I was bored. It was my day off and there was nothing better to do than to watch the walls melt and wait for something to happen. My name is Jack Murdock. I’m a detective with the Blair County Sheriff’s department. Not a bad job, considering we’re out in the sticks. Excitement in these parts is often hard to come by.

I have two olive-green telephones on my desk, one at each of the power corners, and both connected to the same phone line. I don’t remember why I’d connected two phones to the same phone line. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.

My feet were up on the desk and I was smoking a Cuban cigar I had resurrected from the waste can. The smoke eddied around the room with help from a ceiling fan. Cigars are definitely gamier the second time around.

The phones suddenly blasted off. The cat, which had been sleeping on the desk exactly equidistant between the phones, yelped in shock and leapt three feet in the air. When it landed on all fours on the floor, she sauntered from the room in a monstro snit.

I picked up the blower on the right. “Start talkin’.”

“It’s Klein,” said the voice on the other end of the line. “We got a call.”

I inhaled a puff of smoke. Andrew Klein was my partner with the County Detective Bureau.

“Where at?” I asked.

“Crane Convenience Store. On Jugtown Mountain. Robbery. Possibly an inside job.”

“Come on over,” I said. “I’ll be ready when you get here.” Since it was my day off, Klein kept our shared county cruiser at his house.

I hung up the phone and changed my clothes, putting on a jacket and tie. I had to look respectable. Twenty minutes later, Klein appeared at my apartment.

I locked up and left the cat in charge.

A half an hour later we walked through the front door of Crane’s Convenience store. The store manager was waiting for us. He introduced himself as John Lawton, and then led us to his office in the rear of the store.

“So, what’s the skinny?” I asked once the office door was closed.

“I got four hundred dollars missing from my safe,” Lawton hissed. That boy out there took it.”

“What boy is that?” Klein asked.

“Klansek.”
“He got a first name?”

“Danny.”

“Okay,” I said. “How did Danny Klansek take the money from the safe?”

Lawton rolled his eyes and opened the safe door, revealing a shelf full of cash. “Just like that.”
“Anyone else have access to this safe?” I asked.

“The access door was unlocked all day,” Lawton said. “Anyone could have opened it.”

“Let me ask you something,” I said. “You didn’t misplace it or anything, did you?”

“No I didn’t.”

“And the money didn’t conveniently find its way into your pocket, did it?”

“No, sir. I run a respectable business here.”

“Who’s the other kid out there?” I asked.

“That’s my boy,” Lawton said.

“Okay,” Klein said. “Ask your boy out there to come on back here.”

Lawton walked to the office door. “Jimmy, come here please. The police would like a word with you.”

As he walked toward the office, Jimmy Lawton hit his shoulder hit the doorframe. I thought I heard a burst of laughter coming from the front of the store as he did.

“Sit down,” I said as I motioned toward a metal folding chair in the office corner. He sat without making a sound.

I fired up a cigar I had grabbed from my jacket pocket that wasn’t working for a living. Lawton glared at me.

“You’re Jimmy Lawton?” I asked the boy.

“Yeah,” Jimmy said. He was a big kid who was trying too hard to show that he was some kind of tough guy.

I don’t intimidate easily. Punks like that are a dime a dozen.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty.”

“Mind if we ask you a few questions?”

“It’s your party.”

“Fine,” I said. “First I have to explain something to you. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you by the court at no cost. Do you understand these rights?”

“Yeah,” said the punk.

“Will you waive your right to remain silent to answer some questions now?”

“Like I said before, it’s your party.”

“Your old man here says that there’s four hundred dollars missing from the store safe. What do you know about it?”

“I don’t know nothin’ about missing money. I was busy all day. Besides, my pops can vouch for me here.”

“Can he?” Klein asked.

“Yes I can,” Lawton said. “Jimmy didn’t make any cash deposits to the safe all day. Only Klansek did.”

“You sure?” I asked, noticing a stack of bank deposits on the desk. “Seems like you’ve got a lot of cash coming into this gig.”

“Be that as it may,” Lawton said, “if Jimmy says he wasn’t anywhere near the safe, than he wasn’t near it. Lay off.”

“Fine,” I said, sensing a problem. I looked at Klein. “I think we’re done here. You can go, son. And tell that other boy out there to come back here for a moment.”

“Sure,” the punk mumbled.

“Okay,” I said a moment later when Danny Klansek came into the office. “How old are you, son?”

“I’m nineteen.”

“Okay, good. We’d like to ask you some questions but first I must explain something to you. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, the court can appoint one to you. Do you understand these rights?”

“Yes I do.”

“Will you waive your right to remain silent to answer some questions now?”

“Sure, why not?”

With Klein and Lawton observing, I questioned Danny about what happened that day, and what had happened to the four hundred dollars. I also asked who came into the store, and who had access to the safe. Danny explained that he went to the office three times during the course of the day to deposit cash register money into the safe’s drop slot, but he didn’t have access to the safe’s door.

When I was done talking to Danny, Klein and I went outside to the parking lot talk in private.

“What do you think?” he asked.

I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I fired up another cigar and inhaled deeply. “Put a tent over it and sell tickets,” I exhaled.

“Huh?” Klein asked.

“This is a circus,” I said. “It could have been any one of them. I don’t like that Lawton character or his gangbanger wannabe son, but their stories corroborate. With two stories against one, we’re going to have to believe them.”

“I agree,” Klein said. “This Danny kid’s story is kind of shaky as it is, and it contradicts the other two stories.”

“So, what do you think? Think we should take him to the sheriff’s office? Maybe he’ll give up the real story there.”

“Yeah. Best thing to do is to take him to the office. I don’t like it, but it’s our only option.”

We went back into the store. Jimmy was still at the register. Danny was leaning against the wall.

“Come with us, Danny,” I said as we walked back to the store office.

“Danny,” Klein said when we were all in the office, “there’s a problem with your story.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Your manager here says that the safe’s access door had been unlocked all day,” I said. “You came back here three times when it was open.”

“How was I supposed to know that the safe was unlocked? The access door was closed every time I came into the office.” The boy began to sweat, and looked like he was starting to panic.

“Danny,” Klein said, “we’d like you to come down to the sheriff’s office with us. “This is common practice. We need to ask you some more questions.”

Danny looked at Klein and then me. “Did either of you check the safe to see if the money was missing? I mean, maybe when Mr. Lawton was looking for the money, it was right in front of his nose and he didn’t see it.”

“Well,” Klein said, as he glanced at me. “We did look through the safe once already. Let’s take everything out of it and have one more look. Couldn’t hurt.” He reached into the safe and pulled out all sorts of documents, and a few hundred dollars of cash. While I itemized what had been taken out of the safe, Klein took a flashlight off of Lawton’s desk. He turned it on and stuck his head in the safe, and slowly moved the light across the safe’s floor. Just as he moved the light across the far right corner, he noticed something that reflected the light of the flashlight. He gently picked up what appeared to be a small, round, indented piece of plastic about a quarter of an inch in diameter. He pulled it out of the safe to examine it in better light.

“Did anyone lose a contact lens?” he asked.

I looked up, along with Lawton and Klansek.

“Hey,” Danny said. “Jimmy just got some new contact lenses. Ask him.”

Klein called Jimmy to come into the office. When the boy arrived, he held out the contact lens. “Is this yours?”
“So that’s where it.” Jimmy began. “I mean, no, it couldn’t be. Both of mine are in my eyes.”

“Is that why you tripped over the milk crate and hit your shoulder on the door frame a little while ago?” Danny asked. “I’ll bet you’re only wearing one contact lens.”

“No,” Jimmy said. “I’ve got both lenses.”

“Jimmy,” I said.” Take your contact lenses out of your eyes. We’d like to see them both.”

Jimmy removed the contact lens from his left eye. When he reached for his right eye, he appeared to struggle. “I can’t get it out,” he fretted.

“Fine,” Klein said. “We’ll contact an ophthalmologist to remove it for you.”

“Okay, okay,” Jimmy conceded. “So that was my contact you found. But that don’t prove nothing.”

“I think it does. What was your contact lens doing in the safe? How did it get there?”

“It must have fallen out when I put some cash register money in it.”

“Come on, now, boy,” Klein argued. “You said earlier that you were busy all day. And your old man said you didn’t put any money in the safe. If that were true, how the hell did your contact lens wind up in the safe?”

“I can explain,” Jimmy pleaded.

“No,” Lawton murmured. “I can explain. Jimmy took the money. It’s in his wallet right now. I saw him open the safe and take the money. Danny had deposited it only moments before.”

“Why are you telling us this now?” Klein exploded.

“Well,” Lawton stammered, “I didn’t stop Jimmy because I didn’t want to believe that my own son was a thief.”
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done to this boy, here?” Klein asked, looking at Danny.

“I admit I may have made a slight mistake, okay? College boy here would have been let go on a lack of evidence, anyway.”

“Where’s the money, now?”

Jimmy reluctantly opened his wallet. Hands shaking, he held out a wad of bills. I took the money and counted it, making sure the entire four hundred dollars was accounted for.

“We’re taking a ride down to the sheriff’s office,” Klein said to Lawton and Jimmy. “James Lawton, you are under arrest for theft. John Lawton, you are under arrest as an accomplice to theft.” He read each man his Miranda rights.

I turned to Danny. “You’re free to go, son. Sorry you had to go through this. Just doing our jobs.”

“I understand,” Danny said. “No harm, no foul.”

Klein and I walked Lawton and Jimmy out of the store to the cruiser. Danny followed us. I secured Lawton and Jimmy into the back seat as Klein got into the driver’s sear. When I got into the passenger seat, he pulled the cruiser out of the parking lot and onto the street.

Two hours after leaving Crane’s Convenience Store, Klein dropped me off at my apartment.

“Honey, I’m home!” I called out as I stepped over the threshold.

The cat, which had been sleeping once again on my desk, opened one eye and then went back to sleep.
I went around the desk, sat on the chair, and fired up the cigar that I had left in the ashtray earlier.

It wasn’t bad. Just a little gamey.

“Well,” I said to the cat, “we closed another case today. How should we celebrate?”

The cat, of course, said nothing.

“I’ve got an idea,” I hooted. “Let’s go to Disney World!”

[DATo]

Nice story Mark. It was nicely presented and I wanted to see how it would turn out, but I was also entertained by your characterization of Murdock. I liked the way he talked as well as his interactions with the cat.

You need to hook up with moderntimes. He is a regular poster here and also writes detective stories.

Once again, nice work and thank you for sharing.

[MarkMueller]

Thank you, DATo. I appreciate your kind words.

I'll look up moderntimes and see what happens.

Again, thank you!

Mark