Stolen Away

Rosner licked his lips, and said, “I don’t know a goddamn thing, goddamnit! Now, back off, Heller—or I’ll tell Lindy you been shovin’ me around.”

I let him go, roughly.

“Why don’t you do that?” I said. “And I’ll tell him why.”

I let him pass. He never did wash his hands.

I’d met with Wilson earlier; the T-man had had little to report on his end: no news on Capone’s missing man Bob Conroy; Agent O’Rourke had infiltrated the Marinelli/Sivella spiritualist church, but had nothing yet to report.

I’d filled the agent in about Condon, and he was furious Lindbergh hadn’t brought him in on it.

“Maybe you ought to shadow the professor,” I said. “He may be tied in with those spiritualists—unless you think Sister Sarah really did pull the name ‘Jafsie’ out of the spirit world.”

“The Bronx and Harlem are next-door neighbors,” Wilson said, reflectively. “You don’t need a Ouija board to get from one to the other.”

“If Lindbergh finds out I tipped you, I’ll be persona non grata. So keep it under your hat.”

Condon lived in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, just west of Webster Avenue, in a neat, modest two-story white clapboard on quiet, tree-fined Decatur Avenue. Shrubbery hugged the house and the well-tended lawn was brushed with snow.

It was a little before six o’clock when I found myself on Condon’s front porch, knocking on a door inset with stained glass. Darkness had already settled upon the Bronx—the most beautiful borough in the world!—and the night air was nippy. I was just about to knock again when the door was answered by a dark-haired, dark-eyed attractive woman in her mid-twenties; her eyes were tense as she asked me who I was.

“Detective Heller,” I said, not bothering to mention what police department I was attached to. “I’m expected.”

She nodded tiredly and opened the door.

As inconspicuously as possible, I traced the trim lines of her figure in the brown dress with white collar. “And you are?” I asked.

She smiled with quiet irony. “Married, for one thing. Dr. Condon’s daughter, Myra, for another. And disgusted with this whole affair, for one more.”

“Well, we have the latter in common anyway,” I said, handing her my hat and coat, which she didn’t seem particularly inclined to receive. We were in an entryway that faced the second-floor staircase. She listlessly led me through a nicely but not lavishly furnished parlor so old-fashioned the doilies had doilies. Then she summoned me into an adjoining living room where a grand piano was covered by a paisley shawl like somebody’s grandmother; sitting on the brocade davenport were the professor and a pleasant-looking, plump woman in her late sixties wearing a floral print dress and a concerned expression.

Condon was patting her hand and saying, “There, there, Myra…nothing to worry about.”

“I thought you were Myra,” I whispered to my reluctant hostess.

“That’s my mother,” she said, blandly. “I was named after her.”

“Oh,” I said.

She sat on the couch next to her parents and crossed her nice legs but made sure I didn’t see much.

“Good afternoon, Detective,” Condon said, hollowly.

“Good afternoon, Professor,” I said. “Good afternoon, ma’am. Don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure.”

Condon uncharacteristically skipped the formalities. “Mrs. Condon had a phone call earlier today.”

I pulled up a chair; it looked like something Marie Antoinette might have sat on, eating cake. “Tell me about it, please,” I said to Mrs. Condon.

“Someone called on the telephone for my husband,” she said, in a warm alto, the faintest vibrato of nervousness coloring it, “around noon.”

“Man or woman?” I asked.

“It was a man. I told him that my husband was giving a lecture and would be home between six and seven. He said he would call again about seven this evening.” She looked at the professor, who had a sick-cow expression. “He said you were to stay in and wait for his call, dear.”

Condon’s expression turned shrewd and he said, “And what was his name?”

“Why, dear,” she said, “he didn’t give it.”

No shit.

“That ‘money is ready’ ad of yours appeared in the morning edition,” I said. “That’s pretty quick action.”

Condon’s eyes tightened in attempted thought. “You think this phone call, then, was a message from the kidnapper in response to the ad?”

I sighed. “Gee, Professor. It just might be.”

Any irony I allowed to show in my voice was lost on Dr. and Mrs. Condon, but Myra the Younger smirked at me mirthlessly.

“Dad,” the daughter said, sitting forward, “I’d like to see that baby returned as much as anybody. But don’t you think you should withdraw, graciously, and just let somebody else take your place as intermediary?”

He raised his chin. Where was Dempsey when you needed him. “I’ve sworn to see this thing through to the bitter end.”

“But, Dad—you’re not a young man. This is dangerous for you…”