Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Vol. 12, No. 6, May 1963

Egan had been hoping for some evidence of an inside job, but there was none. How the hell were they getting the keys? The police lab could uncover, no trace of wax around the lock on the shop’s door. No identifiable fingerprints, either — outside of those of Birnbaum and the two employees.

The interrogation of the hotel employees turned up only one interesting item — the maintenance man who had seen the three thieves get in the freight elevator made a fairly positive identification of a mug shot of Binky Byers as one of the three.

Binky, who was currently throwing money around The Block, was now tentatively linked to the last two jewelry heists.

Three nights later Phil Egan prowled The Block again. Most of the people hadn’t heard anything, but when he came into the Three O’Clock Club Haydee Melendez left the man she was drinking with at the bar and nodded towards a table in a dark corner.

“ ’Allo Eegan,” she said. “Zat Peet — he’s here last night wiz same two pals. Me, two uzzer girls, we treenk wiz zem. Zey ask us come up zair place for party after club close. I zay ‘Who the hell are you an’ ware you place?’ Zey zay: ‘You’ll come up?’ We zay sure, we like party mucho. Zo Pete, he write down names and ware place is. I got paper in dressing room. Wait, I get.” She bounced up.

Phil Egan sighed and ordered a bourbon and water. His hands were a little shaky. The unsolved jewelry heists were getting on his nerves, what with the newspapers demanding a shakeup in the Police Department and Mike Casey breathing hotly down his back. And now maybe the first small crack in the case was beginning to open up.

Haydee came back and handed him a piece of paper. On it in pencil was scrawled: Pete Byers, Maury Mahaffey, Frank Visconti — 674 Preston Street, Apartment 3B.

Egan smiled and said: “Good girl, Haydee. Have a drink — a real one?”

“No, I got go back to heem.” She nodded in the direction of the man at the bar. “Ware my feefty dol-lah, Eegan?”

He handed her two twenties and a ten. “How was the party?” he asked.

She laughed. “You don’ theenk we go, do you? ’Bye, Eegan.”

V

The first thing the next morning he called Sergeant Ed Stearns in Identification. “Ed? Phil Egan. Listen, have you got anything on a Maury Mahaffey or a Frank Visconti?” He spelled out the names.

Ten minutes later Ed Stearns called him back. “Phil? We’ve got both your boys. Want to hear it?”

“Shoot!”

“Mahaffey, Maurice — he is also known as Milton Haffey — thirty-two years old, unmarried, WMA. Last known address, twenty three fourteen West Saratoga Street. Three arrests suspicion of narcotics violation, one conviction. Served two years City Prison. Two arrests simple assault, one conviction. Served six months City Prison. Four arrests petty larceny, no convictions.

“Here’s the other one: Visconti, Frank — also known as Larry Visco — thirty-four years old, WMA, divorced, last known address, fifty seven seventy one York Road. Three arrests petty larceny, one conviction. Served six months of a nine-month sentence to City Prison. One arrest on suspicion of rape, released after questioning. One arrest on charge of burglary, reduced to malicious mischief. Suspended sentence. Suspect in murder of gambler Jack Keefe, June sixteen, nineteen-fifty nine. Released after inconclusive lie detector test. That’s it, Phil.”

“Thanks, Ed. Send up the mugs, will you?”

“Sure thing, Phil.”

Cheap, petty hoods. Where was the brains? Where was the clever locksmith? Where was the expert boxman?

The slugged salesman had gone back home by this time. Egan sent Sergeant Lou Grissom up to New York with the mug shots of Mahaffey and Visconti to see if Norman Feldman could identify them, along with Byers, as his assailants. He also put a stake-out on 674 Preston Street.

That night he was back prowling The Block, and this time he got a little something from the stoolies. The jewelry heisters were local, and the Outfit was letting them work for a big 40 % of the take. The jewels were being fenced through a chain of small loan companies controlled by the Outfit. And the gang was already poised for another strike.

He ended up with Haydee in the Three O’Clock Club. No, she hadn’t seen Pete, Frank, and Maury since the night they had invited her up to Preston Street for a party.

“What did they talk about that night?”

She wrinkled her brows in concentration. “Let me theenk. Mostly, zey complain zey don’ have no fun. Life eez all work. Zat why zey want beeg wild party. Get trunk, have girls all night. I theenk it was Frank zay ‘I don’ even go movie zince zat beeg Towson job.’ ”

Egan took a deep breath. “Thanks, Haydee. You’re a big help.”

By noon the next day Sergeant Grissom was back from New York. Feldman couldn’t be absolutely sure, but he was fairly certain that Mahaffey and Visconti, along with Byers, were the men who had jumped him in front of Hearn’s Jewelry Store.