Inside Man Page #3

a copy of your purchase agreement,

your mortgage application,

and the other documentation,

- and I'll be in touch.

- Thank you, Miss White.

Right this way, sir.

Arthur Case? You sure?

- That's what he said.

- He said his name, just like that?

It wasn't his secretary

saying he was on the line?

- No, ma'am.

- All right. Put him through.

Okay.

- This is Madeleine White.

- Miss White, I'm Arthur Case.

Oh, good morning, Mr Case.

- Have we met formally?

- No, sir, I don't believe we have.

Yet, you're always turning up

at my July 4th parties in Southampton.

Yes, we know some of the same people.

It seems.

I'll come right to the point.

I have a small problem

which requires someone

with very special skills

and complete discretion.

Are you such a person

or have I been misinformed?

Go on.

Can I pick you up in front of

your office building in five minutes?

- I'll be downstairs.

- Thank you.

They had a kind of genius plan

for throwing us out of whack

and depriving us

of any kind of way of controlling ourselves.

They were... They were very

insistent, and yet, strangely detached.

All I know is that they called each other

a variation of Steve.

Steven, Steve-O, Stevie.

And they called you what?

They didn't call me anything.

They just told me...

You're lying to me. Tell me the truth, now.

You're lying to me.

Tell me the...

Look at me and tell me the truth.

They had AK-47 s out. Four of them.

- You know a lot about guns.

- No.

- I don't know anything about guns, except...

- But you know they had an AK-47.

- Everybody knows what an AK-47 is.

- Everybody?

Anybody who's ever watched

a decent action movie would.

- You ever rob a bank before?

- Are you kidding?

Me rob a bank? No.

- Never stole a dollar?

- Never.

- Never?

- Not ever.

- You know what?

- That one time. That one time, that one time.

I stole a nickel

from my grandmother's pocketbook once.

She was Polish.

I used to go up to her and say,

"Mama, toh nicklah, toh nicklah. "

One day, I opened her pocketbook

and there was a nickel.

I took it.

That was the only thing I ever took.

Look, Detective, I didn't mean

to give you a hard time back there.

Forget about it. What's the story, Captain?

Well, the hostage they let go

was Herman Gluck, 73.

He was having chest pains.

Paramedics have him.

They told him to say

that if any cops came near the door,

they'd throw out two dead bodies.

He thinks there's four perps.

Says they came in dressed as painters.

There's a video system in the bank.

We're working on getting a download

from Manhattan Trust's

central security office, but it'll take a while.

We got the block locked up.

I got men in the windows.

We're checking on the sewers with D.E.P.

What about the phones?

Cut and diverted into M.C.C.

We're the only ones they're gonna call.

Cell phones are monitored

and we can jam the air whenever you say.

But we like to leave it clear

in case a hostage is able to get through,

but so far nothing.

-911?

- It's up on the screen.

Any call about a bank

gets routed straight to us.

Well, that's my end of it, Detective.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm not calling them yet.

Beg your pardon?

Doesn't feel right yet,

you know what I mean?

I'm not gonna call him

and ask what I can do for him.

Let's see what he does.

Your call.

Now, Mr Case, why don't you

let me explain to you how I work?

Please. That would be nice.

Well, you say that there are family heirlooms

inside your safety deposit box.

That's fine.

But in my experience, people like you

have people working for them

that handle these kinds of things.

And when they can't,

well, they don't call me.

Their people call me.

So, immediately, I know

that there's something in that box

that you don't even want

your closest aides to know about.

No problem with me.

You tell me I don't need to know

what's in that box and I don't need to know.

But if you tell me

that it's a bunch of old baseball cards

and I find out that it's the launch codes

for a nuclear missile,

then let's just say

we no longer have an agreement.

- Have you finished?

- Yes.

What's inside that box, young lady,

has belonged to me

since before you were born.

It's very valuable

and poses no danger whatsoever to anyone.

Except you.

Okay. Well, first,

there are men with guns in there,

so I can't guarantee any results. Agreed?

- Of course.

- All right.

Now, what makes you think

that they want to rob your box?

I don't.

Well, why don't you tell me

how you would like this to end?

I'd prefer that nobody

ever touch my safe deposit box.

Not them, not you, not the authorities.

And the sooner this situation ends,

the happier I'll be.

- Is that specific enough for you?

- No.

The contents of that box

are of great value to me.

So long as they remain my secret.

And if they're exposed?

I'll face some difficult questions.

- So, it stays locked or it disappears.

- Precisely.

- Can you make that happen?

- Yes.

I hope so.

I have to say, I can't help but be sceptical.

Whoever gave you my number

got the same deal.

Clearly, they must have been satisfied.

Steve?

It's time for Steve-O.

I came out here to take a look

at the perimeter they laid down.

Guess what I found?

That hostage they let out said these guys

came in dressed like painters, right?

Yeah.

Probably stolen.

Have them run it and check it for prints.

- Everybody on?

- Yep, I'm there.

- Sure you got the right number?

- Absolutely.

Okay. Nothing yet.

We got video.

Let's have it.

What happened to that camera

right there?

Wait. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Yeah, there it is.

That guy right there.

It's like he blinds the camera

with the flashlight.

It's weird, isn't it?

It's like nobody else sees it.

- You'd think it'd be pretty bright, huh?

- It could be infrared.

- What's that?

- Infrared bulb.

See, humans can't see it,

but a video camera will pick it up.

He could knock out the cameras

without no one knowing.

Right, right, right, right.

He knocked out

the cameras about 10:00.

So, for approximately two minutes,

we got no evidence of people

leaving or entering the bank. That's great.

Miriam, how long were you there

before it began?

It was just a few minutes.

Well, can you tell us what happened

after the explosions and the smoke?

They just told us to put our heads down.

And then close our eyes.

And then I just remember one of them

telling the others to just go down

and fix the cameras.

- The video cameras?

- I don't know.

Anything else you want to share with us?

No, just...

- You sure?

- Yeah, I...

Could you give us

the names of the bank robbers, maybe?

I'm just messing with you, sweetheart.

- You okay?

- Thank you.

Okay.

- It was pretty awful.

- Was it bad?

I mean, they made us strip.

They made us take off our clothes.

I don't understand why they had to do that.

I really just thought...

I thought I was gonna be killed.

Well.

- All right, my dear.

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