Handsome Harry Read Online Free PDF Page B

and said Put the money in there, pal, and make it snappy.
    His eyes rolled up in his head and he keeled over off his stool and hit the floor like a sack of stove coal.
    I thought Jesus H. Christ and pulled myself up on the window bars high enough to see him flat on his back in a dead faint with his glasses hanging off one ear.
    The only other person inside the cage was a woman at a desk. She was staring at the guy on the floor like he’d done something to offend her.
    You, I said, wagging the gun at her, Get over here.
    She wore wire-rim specs and her chestnut hair was in a bun at the nape of her neck, but when she stood up I saw she was nicely put together.
    Christ sake, woman, move, I said.
    There’s no call for swearing, she said. Her eyes were dark blue. She took up the pillowcase and began putting money in it. She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.
    We’d been expecting an alarm but so far it hadn’t sounded. A well-barbered fat guy with pink hands and wearing a pinstriped suit sat with a man in faded overalls at a big desk under a wall photo of President Cal. I figured Pinstripes for the boss and probably the guy with the alarm button. Earl had him spotted too and was pointing his revolver at him from ten feet away and Mr. Pinstripes was staring at Earl’s gun like a guy in a trance. If he had a button he was too scared to push it.
    Miss Blue Eyes took the last of the money from the till and put it in the pillowcase and shoved the bundle to me. Here, she said. Now go away.
    But I’d seen that the vault behind her was open, and I went to the cage door and said for her to unlock it.
    It is unlocked, she said. Sarcastic as hell.
    Let’s get a move on, buddy boy, Earl said.
    The teller on the floor had come around and was starting to sit up as I came into the cage. Then he saw me and up rolled his eyes and down he went again.
    Miss Blue Eyes shook her head and looked so disgusted I thought she might spit on him.
    The vault contained cabinets and lockers of various sizes, steel bookcases, stacks of ledgers. The light in there wasn’t very good and I was tempted to take off my sunglasses but didn’t. I turned around just as the woman was putting her hands to the vault door and I read her eyes and knew what she was thinking. I pointed a finger at her and said Don’t try it.
    You won’t shoot me, she said, which I guess meant because she was a woman. I didn’t know if she had nerve or was plain foolish. What did she think Earl would do if she locked me in?
    I pointed the .38 at her and cocked it. If you’ve never heard a revolver cock inside a bank vault, let me assure you that it is a very serious sound. I said Don’t bet your life on it, honey. Now get in here.
    She took her hands off the door and came in. I wondered what she looked like without the glasses and her hair down and her clothes off. My money would’ve been on very nice.
    I asked where the cash was and she pulled open a drawer filled with packets of greenbacks so new that a smell rose off them like some fresh-baked treat. I laughed and I handed her the bag and said to put it all in.
    Let’s go, brother, Earl called out.
    I came out of the cage with the pillowcase wrapped snugly around the money and tucked under my arm like a football. The citizens were all exactly as before, their eyes still on Earl’s revolver. The power of the gun— wooo.
    Earl was as charged up as I was. If I hear an alarm go off, he said loudly, I swear to Jesus I’ll run right back in here and shoot all you goddamn Hoosiers. Starting with you, fatso!
    He wagged his pistol at Mr. Pinstripes, who shook his head and made all sorts of jittery gestures to let us know he wouldn’t dream of giving the alarm.
    We slipped our pistols under our coats and went out and headed for the car at a quick walk. I whispered Easy does it, easy does it, and Earl whispered back I know, man, I know—and then said What the hell’s this?
    Directly behind the Lincoln, blocking it in, stood an idling