The Chase Part 5

"Did she say where she was going?"

"No, but her luggage was taken to the Union Station and placed on the one o'clock train for Phoenix and Los Angeles."

This was not what Bell had expected. He cursed himself for letting her slip through his fingers.

Who really was Rose Manteca? Why would she take the train for Los Angeles when there was no record of her living there?

Then another thought began to tug on Bell's mind. Where would his nemesis strike next? He couldn't even begin to guess and he found it frustrating. He had always felt as if he was in control of his earlier cases. This one was different, too different.

8.

THE BLOND-HAIRED MAN WITH A THICK, YELLOW-BROWN, pomaded handlebar mustache had a prosperous appearance about him. After walking through the train depot, he settled into the backseat of the Model N Ford taxicab and enjoyed a beautiful, cloudless day as he viewed the sights of Salt Lake City nestled beneath the Wasatch Mountains. He was dressed in the neat, dandified fas.h.i.+on of the day, but with a sophisticated business look. He wore a silk top hat, a black, three-b.u.t.ton cutaway frock coat with vest and high rounded collar, and an elegant tie. His hands were encased in pearl gray kid gloves, and matching spats covered his midstep to just above the ankle over his shoes.

He leaned slightly forward as he stared from window to window, his hands gripping the handle of a sterling silver cane adorned with an eagle's head with a large beak on the end. Though it was innocent-looking, this cane was a gun with a long barrel and a trigger that folded out when a b.u.t.ton was pressed. It held a .44 caliber bullet whose sh.e.l.l could be ejected and a new cartridge inserted in the barrel from a small clip in the eagle's tail.

The cab pa.s.sed the church of the Latter-Day Saints-the Temple, Tabernacle, and a.s.sembly Hall. Built between 1853 and 1893, the six-foot-thick gray granite walls were topped by six spires, the highest bearing a copper statue of the angel Moroni.

After leaving Temple Square, the cab turned down 300 South Street and came to a stop in front of the Peery Hotel. Designed with European architecture only a short time earlier during the mining boom, it was Salt Lake City's premier hostelry. As the doorman retrieved the luggage from the rear of the cab, the man ordered the driver to wait. Then he entered through the cut-gla.s.s double doors into the stately lobby.

The desk clerk smiled and nodded. Then he glanced at a large clock standing in the lobby and said, "Mr. Eliah Ruskin, I presume."

"You presume right," answered the man.

"Two-fifteen. You're right on time, sir."

"For once, my train was punctual."

"If you will please sign the register."

"I have to leave for an appointment. Will you see my luggage is taken to my room and my clothing placed in the closet and drawers?"

"Yes, Mr. Ruskin. I will personally see to it." The clerk leaned over the registry desk and nodded at a large leather suitcase set securely between Ruskin's legs. "Would you like me to send your bag up to your room?"

"No, thank you. I'll be taking it with me."

Ruskin turned and walked out to the curb, cane in one hand, the other clutching the handle of the suitcase, the weight of its contents tilting his right shoulder downward. He pushed it through the cab's door and reentered the backseat.

The desk clerk thought it odd that Ruskin hadn't left the bag in the cab. He wondered why Ruskin would lug such a heavy case into the lobby and then carry it outside again. He speculated that something of value must be inside. His thought soon faded when another guest showed up to register.

Eight minutes later, Ruskin stepped from the cab, paid the driver, and entered the Salt Lake Bank & Trust lobby. He walked to the security guard who was seated in a chair near the door.

"I have an appointment with Mr. Cardoza."

The guard rose to his feet and motioned toward a frosted-gla.s.s door. "You'll find Mr. Cardoza in there."

There had been no reason for Ruskin to ask the guard where to go. He could just as easily have seen the bank manager's office door. The guard did not notice that Ruskin had observed him closely, how he moved, his age, and how he placed the holster, containing a new .45 caliber Model 1905 Colt Browning automatic pistol, at his hip. The brief study also revealed the guard was not particularly alert and watchful. Day after day of seeing customers come and go without the slightest disturbance had made him listless and indifferent. He didn't appear to find anything unusual about Ruskin's big case.

The bank had two tellers behind the counter in their cages. The only other employees except for the guard were Cardoza and his secretary. Ruskin studied the big steel door to the vault that was open to the lobby to impress the customers and suggest that their savings were in solid, protective hands.

He approached the secretary. "h.e.l.lo, my name is Eliah Ruskin. I have a two-thirty appointment with Mr. Cardoza."

An older woman in her fifties with graying hair smiled and stood up without speaking. She walked to a door with ALBERT CARDOZA, MANAGER painted on the upper part of the frosted-gla.s.s pane, knocked, and leaned in. "A Mr. Eliah Ruskin to see you."

Cardoza quickly came to his feet and rushed around his desk. He shoved out a hand and shook Ruskin's palm and fingers vigorously. "A pleasure, sir. I've looked forward to your arrival. It's not every day we greet a representative from a New York bank that is making such a substantial deposit."

Ruskin lifted the suitcase onto Cardoza's desk, unlocked the catches, and opened the lid. "Here you are, half a million dollars in cash to be deposited, until such time we decide to withdraw it."

Cardoza reverently stared at the neatly packed and bundled fifty-dollar gold certificate bills as though they were his pa.s.sport to a banker's promised land. Then he looked up in growing surprise. "I don't understand. Why not carry a cas.h.i.+er's check instead of five hundred thousand dollars in currency?"

"The directors of the Hudson River Bank of New York prefer to deal in cash. As you know from our correspondence, we are going to open branch banks throughout the West in towns that we think have potential for growth. We feel it is expedient to have currency on hand when we open our doors."

Cardoza looked at Ruskin somberly. "I hope your directors do not intend to open a competing bank in Salt Lake City."

Ruskin grinned and shook his head. "Phoenix, Arizona, and Reno, Nevada, are the first of the Hudson River branch banks to open in the West."

Cardoza looked relieved. "Phoenix and Reno are certainly booming."

"Ever have a bank robbery in Salt Lake?" Ruskin asked casually while looking at the vault.

Cardoza looked at him quizzically. "Not in this city. The citizens would not allow it. Salt Lake is one of the most crime-free cities in the country. The Latter-Day Saints are upstanding and religious people. Trust me, Mr. Ruskin, no bandit would dare to attempt a robbery of this bank. Your money will be absolutely and one hundred percent safe once it's locked up in our vault."

"I've read of some fellow called the Butcher Bandit who robs and murders throughout the western states."

"Not to worry, he only strikes in small mining towns and robs payrolls. He wouldn't be stupid enough to try robbing a bank in a city the size of Salt Lake. He wouldn't get past the city limits before the police shot him down."

Ruskin nodded toward the vault. "Very impressive repository."

"The very finest vault west of the Mississippi, built especially for us in Philadelphia," Ruskin said proudly. "An entire regiment armed with cannons couldn't break inside."

"I see it is open during business hours?"

"And why not. Our customers enjoy seeing how well their deposits are protected. And as I've mentioned, no bank has ever been robbed in Salt Lake City."

"What is your slowest time of day?"

Cardoza looked puzzled. "Slowest time of day?"

"When you have the least customer transactions?"

"Between one-thirty and two o'clock is our slowest time. Most of our customers have gone back to their offices after their lunch hour. And, because we close at three, a number of customers come in for late transactions. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious as to how the traffic compares with our bank in New York, which seems to be about the same." He patted the suitcase. "I'll leave the money in the case and pick it up tomorrow."

"We'll close shortly, but I'll have my head clerk count it first thing in the morning."

Cardoza pulled open a drawer of his desk, retrieved a leather book, and wrote out a deposit slip for the half-million dollars. He handed it to Ruskin, who inserted it into a large wallet he carried in the breast pocket of his coat.

"May I ask a favor?" Ruskin inquired.

"Certainly. Anything you wish."

"I would like to be on hand when your clerk does the count."

"That's very gracious of you, but I'm sure your bank has accounted for every dollar."

"I'm grateful for your trust, but I would like to be present just to be on the safe side."

Cardoza shrugged. "As you wish."

"There is one other request."

"You have but to name it."

"I have other business to conduct in the morning and cannot return until one-thirty tomorrow. And, since your business is slowest then, it should be a good time for the count."

Cardoza nodded in agreement. "You're quite right." He stood and extended his hand. "Until tomorrow afternoon. I look forward to seeing you."

Ruskin held up his cane as a good-bye gesture, dismissed Cardoza, and left the office. He walked past the security guard, who didn't give him a glance, and swung his cane like a baton as he stepped onto the sidewalk.

He smiled to himself, knowing that he had no intention of returning to the bank merely to count the contents of the suitcase.

9.

THE NEXT AFTERNOON, RUSKIN WALKED TO THE BANK, making sure he was seen on the street by the pa.s.sing crowd and stopping in shops to browse, making small talk with the merchants. He carried his gun cane more as a prop than for protection.

Reaching the Salt Lake Bank & Trust at one-thirty, he entered and ignored the guard as he turned the key in the front entrance door, locking it. Then he turned the sign around in the window so that it read CLOSED from the street and pulled down the window shades, as the guard sat there in his bored stupor, not realizing that the bank was about to be robbed. Neither Albert Cardoza's secretary and the tellers nor the female depositor standing at the counter took notice of the intruder's unusual behavior.

The guard finally came alert and realized that Ruskin was not acting like a normal bank customer and might be up to no good. He came to his feet, his hand dropping to the holster holding his .38 Smith & Wesson revolver, and asked blankly, "Just what do you think you're doing?" Then his eyes widened in alarm as he found himself staring into the muzzle of Ruskin's .38 Colt.

"Make no resistance, and walk slowly behind the counter!" Ruskin ordered as he wrapped his gun in a battered, old heavy woolen scarf with burn holes in it. He quickly moved behind the counter before the clerks in their cages became alert and could make a grab for the shotguns at their feet. Never expecting their bank to be robbed, they hesitated in confusion.

"Don't even think about going for your guns!" Ruskin snapped. "Lay flat on the floor or you'll get a bullet in your brain." He motioned his cane at the frightened woman at the counter. "Come around the counter and lay down on the floor with the tellers and you won't get hurt," he said in a cold tone. Then he motioned the gun at Cardoza's secretary. "You, too! Down on the floor!"

When all were lying on the highly polished mahogany floor facedown, he rapped on Cardoza's door. Unable to distinguish voices outside his office, the bank's manager was not aware of the macabre event unfolding within his bank. He waited out of habit for his secretary to enter, but she did not appear. Finally, irritated at being interrupted, he stepped from his desk and opened the door. It took him a full ten seconds to comprehend what was happening. He stared at Ruskin and the gun in his hand.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded. Then he saw the people lying on the floor and looked back at Ruskin in utter confusion. "I don't understand. What is going on?"

"The first bank robbery of Salt Lake City," said Ruskin, as if amused.

Cardoza did not move. He was frozen in shock. "You're a director of a respectable New York bank. Why are you doing this? It makes no sense. What do you hope to gain by it?"

"I have my motives," Ruskin answered, his voice cold and toneless. "I want you to make out a bank draft for four hundred seventy-five thousand dollars."

Cardoza stared at him as if he was crazy. "A bank draft to whom?"

"Eliah Ruskin, who else?" answered Ruskin. "And be quick about it."

Mired in confusion, Cardoza pulled open a drawer, retrieved a book containing bank drafts, and hurriedly scribbled out one for the amount Ruskin demanded. When finished, he pa.s.sed it across the desk to Ruskin, who slipped it into his breast pocket.

"Now, down on the floor with the others."

As if in the throes of a nightmare, Cardoza slowly lowered himself onto the floor next to his trembling secretary.

"Now, then, none of you move, or even twitch, until I tell you to."

Without saying more, Ruskin walked inside the vault and began stuffing the bank's currency into leather money sacks he'd seen earlier stacked on a shelf inside the huge five-ton door. He filled two of them, estimating the take at roughly two hundred thirty thousand dollars in larger denominations, none under ten dollars. He had planned well. From inside banking information, he knew that the Salt Lake Bank & Trust had received a large s.h.i.+pment of currency issued from the Continental & Commercial National Bank of Chicago for their reserves. The suitcase with his own money he left on another shelf of the vault.

Laying aside the sacks, he closed the vault door. It swung shut as easily as a door on a cupboard. Then he turned the bog wheel that activated the inside latches and set the timer for nine o'clock the next morning.

Unhurriedly, as if he was strolling through a park, he stepped behind the counter and ruthlessly shot the people lying on the floor in the back of the head. The m.u.f.fled shots came so quickly, none had time to know what was happening and cry out. Then he raised the bank's window shades, so people pa.s.sing on the sidewalk could see that the vault was shut and would a.s.sume the bank was closed. The bodies were conveniently out of sight behind the counter.

Ruskin waited until the sidewalk was clear of foot traffic and vehicles before he nonchalantly exited the bank, locked the door, and strolled leisurely from the building, swinging his cane. By four o'clock, he had returned to the Peery Hotel, had a bath, and come down to the restaurant, where he enjoyed a large smoked-salmon plate with dill cream and caviar accompanied by a bottle of French Clos de la Roche Burgundy 1899. Then he read in the lobby for an hour before going to bed and slept like a rock.

LATE IN the morning, Ruskin took a taxi to the Salt Lake Bank & Trust. A crowd of people were cl.u.s.tered around the front door as an ambulance pulled away from the bank. Police in uniforms were in abundance. He pushed his way through the crowd, saw a man who was dressed like a detective, and addressed him.

"What happened here?" he asked courteously.

"The bank has been robbed and five people murdered."

"Robbed, murdered, you say? This is disastrous. I deposited half a million dollars in cash here yesterday from my bank in New York."

The detective looked at him in surprise. "Half a million dollars, you say? In cash?"

"Yes, I have my receipt right here." Ruskin flashed the receipt in the detective's face. The detective studied it for a few moments and then said, "You are Eliah Ruskin?"

"Yes, I'm Ruskin. I represent the Hudson River Bank of New York."

"A half million dollars in cas.h.!.+" the detective gasped. "No wonder the bank was robbed. You better come inside, Mr. Ruskin, and meet with Mr. Ramsdell, one of the bank's directors. I'm Captain John Casale, with the Salt Lake Police Department."

The bodies had been removed, but large areas of the mahogany floor were layered in dried blood. Captain Casale led the way to a man-a huge, fat man with a large protruding stomach behind a vest and ma.s.sive watch chain. The man was sitting at Cardoza's desk, examining the bank's deposits. His brown eyes appeared dazed beneath the bald head. He looked up and stared at Ruskin, annoyed at the intrusion.

"This is Mr. Eliah Ruskin," announced Casale. "He says he deposited half a million dollars with Mr. Cardoza yesterday."

"Sorry to meet you under such tragic circ.u.mstances. I am Ezra Ramsdell, the bank's managing director." Ramsdell rose and shook Ruskin's hand. "A terrible, terrible business," he muttered. "Five people dead. Nothing like this has ever happened in Salt Lake City before."