Daylight Robbery

By Malcolm John Baker

There is a series of robberies in mansions all over the country. All the victims are jewelers who cannot admit to having been burgled. Our illustrious FBI informants John Smith and Jack King are on the trail once again as the sources of the silence are revealed and explained by many intrigues and adventures in the USA and Mexico, finalizing at a big showdown at the FBI safe house.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Feb 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524597344

Malcolm John Baker

Malcolm John Baker was born in Salisbury, England, in 1945. By trade, he was a chartered surveyor and practised in South London, England. Now retired, he lives in the United States in Florida.

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Copyright © 2017 by Malcolm John Baker.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 02/22/2017

Xlibris

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Contents

Part One

Chapter One

Part Two

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Epilogue

PART ONE

CHAPTER ONE

O N THE CORNER OF the block in the Manhattan diamond district of New York was the impressive Diamond Safe Deposit Company building with its Fort Knox appearance on the stone front fascia and return frontage down the impressive block, on the upper floors were diamond merchants and manufacturers of fine jewellery. In the basement were the safe deposit boxes of these and other jewellers to secure their valuables at the end of the day.

Adjoining the building at the front and to the left was an empty office building, and the board outside told prospective tenants it was available to rent and gave the realtor contact details. Randy Blue was standing at the front of the building, taking it all in. He took his cell phone out of his pocket and dialled the realtor saying he was interested in the vacant building he has to let in the diamond district, next to the diamond safe depository.

‘Yes, sir, I can show it to you right now if you wish. Are you near? I could be with you in ten minutes.’ He was keen, knowing that he had this property to get rid of many months now, and his client was becoming very anxious at his inability to secure a letting and thinking of changing agents.

‘Thank you, I’ll see you in ten minutes then. My name is Edward Jones,’ he said, giving a false name.

The realtor showed up promptly, and having introduced themselves properly, he went to the front door. The realtor’s phone rang. He said, ‘Do you mind if I answer this? It is an important call.’

‘Not at all,’ said Randy, stepping back so as to appear to be not listening.

The call was very short, and the realtor put his phone back in his coat pocket. It was a chilly day that needed a coat in New York. They had given snow for later in the day. The realtor went back to the front door, putting the key in the lock.

Randy noted it was a Yale type of key. ‘Just one lock?’ he asked.

‘Yes, sir. The building is empty, and frankly it’s been that way for many months now. Even the burglar alarm isn’t on. Don’t want to be called out in the night for a false alarm, do I?’ He realised he said too much and moved on.

As they walked in, Randy stopped inside the doorway to allow the realtor to go past him. As he did so, he picked the phone out of his pocket, a very handy trick Randy had learnt in his misspent youth many years ago. He discretely laid the phone on the floor behind him.

Randy was then shown over the whole building, which was on three floors, plus the basement—the only part Randy was interested in. The realtor confessed that the basement was unusable as it was damp. ‘Thanks for that, but we won’t be using the basement.’ They ended up in the front office, which, like every room, was empty, but there was a large mantel over what would have been a fireplace in the olden days.

The realtor put his papers down on the mantelpiece together with the key to the building. He fumbled in his pocket looking for his phone, a nervous habit, but it was not there. ‘Oh, I’ve lost my phone,’ he said.

‘Well, you had it outside because it rang, so you must have dropped it while we were looking around,’ said Randy.

‘Oh yes, do you mind if I shoot around and look for it?’

‘Not at all, it will give me a moment to collect my thoughts about the offices. They seem very suitable.’

The realtor left the room. Randy immediately picked up the key from the mantel and pressed it into a Play-Doh mould that he had in his pocket. He did that for both sides of the key, cleaning it, and putting it back on the mantel. Randy thought that Play-Doh is a very handy material—bearing in mind it’s a child’s toy. Five minutes later, the realtor was back holding his phone, saying he found it by the front door.

‘That’s good,’ said Randy, adding, ‘Well, I’ve been thinking about this place, and it’s ideal for what I want, but I have two more to look at and will make a discussion after the weekend.’ There was a long weekend holiday coming up this weekend. The realtor always liked these weekends as they gave him an extra day with the kids. Manhattan closed down on such weekends from about 3 p.m. on Friday, although there was some activity on Saturday morning. The realtor showed Randy out, and they shook hands and parted.

Randy went to his specialist locksmith who was not too worried about doing unprofessional things for extra cash. Randy said, ‘I need a key made from this mould,’ handing him the Play-Doh mould.

The locksmith said, ‘That is no problem. Come back in two hours.’

Randy did that, and two hours later, he had the key to enter the building. It cost him three hundred dollars, but was well worth it.

Randy had rented a detached house in a very secluded area of countryside surrounded by trees about a thirty-mile drive outside of New York, ideal or his needs. No one could possibly see him there. He had also arranged for five additional crooks that he had dealt with before, and knew he could trust, to meet him at the house on the Saturday of the holiday weekend at 3 p.m. They must come in their own cars, one of which would be used for what he had in mind. The other four would be left hidden at the house.

On Wednesday afternoon, there was a knock on his front door. Standing there was a buxom woman of about 40. She said, ‘I’m Jose, married to Rod. He was coming with you tomorrow, but I’m afraid he’s fallen and broken his leg.’

‘Damn,’ said Randy. ‘Oh, I hope he is all right.’

‘He’ll be fine, silly bugger, but of course he can’t come tomorrow. But I’ll do it in his place if you like. I’m very strong. Here, feel this,’ she said, raising her arm and clenching her fist, encouraging him to feel her biceps. Randy squeezed. He liked a strong woman, but now is not the time.

‘Okay’, he said, ‘you’ll do fine. Come here at 3 p.m. Saturday.’

She left.

He had also arranged for a white van to be painted on the sides with ‘Builders, Any Job Considered’ and an obsolete phone number. This was already stored at the house. His plan was all coming together nicely now. He spent the rest of the week collecting all the equipment he needed. Three Kango hammers, a small generator, various electric drills, and other tools. He went into the safe deposit bank on Thursday afternoon, and went down into the basement where the boxes were situated. He was carrying a large suitcase.

He arranged with the receptionist to rent one box. Having paid the rent money in cash, the receptionist showed him into the safe room, opened his safe, and gave him the key. She left him at that point where he opened his suitcase, took out two electric drills, and placed them inside the safe. He kept the third one in the case. He had a good look around the room while he was there, getting a feel of how the operation would go. It looked straightforward once they were in the room. That would be the tricky part. After five minutes, the receptionist appeared at the door, wondering why he was taking so long, so he met her in the doorway.

‘Thank you very much,’ he said and left the bank.

Saturday afternoon eventually came round. A watched kettle never boils! At three o’clock, all four men and the woman arrived. They decided which car they would use together with the van, which meant four would go in the car and two in the van. They all knew their roles, and they set off for the hour’s drive to Manhattan. When they got there, it was six o’clock due the unexpected traffic, but that suited fine because the streets around Manhattan were now deserted. The weekend had kicked in properly now.

The car was parked across the road and served as lookout, the white van outside the empty office block. Randy went to the front door, and needless to say, the key worked perfectly. The door was opened, and they all carried their tools into the building, shutting the front door as soon as possible just in case. They took the tools down to the basement and set things up, the generator was filled with fuel. Randy had worked out roughly where he needed to drill through the wall. He had been a little concerned as to vibration caused by the drills. He knew the police had a regular routine to check the exterior of the safe deposit company, hence, the lookout across the road that was connected by cell phone to them in the basement.

Randy checked that all was clear at street level with the lookout, which was confirmed. ‘Don’t forget to call if you see anyone walking around the sidewalks, and we’ll stop drilling. We have plenty of time over the next two days, so let’s use it.’

Randy said, ‘Okay men, let’s go.’

They started two of the Kangos. The third was a backup in case one broke down. They started to drill the wall between them and the safe deposit company. The first part was easy, the original brick wall, their side, soon crumbled down. Stage two was not so easy, going through the concrete behind the original wall installed by the bank to keep people out, but they made some progress when there was a phone call from the lookout. ‘A police car has just pulled up,’ he said and sank down low in the car, so as not to be seen. It was now 11 p.m., the area was of course dark and deserted.

One police officer, the driver, stayed in the car, and the other got out with his flashlight. He was shining his light in every window, scanning the room, walking down the side of the building, and eventually realised that all was well at the depository. But he noticed the white builder’s van parked next door. That’s strange, he thought, over a holiday weekend, but perhaps a new tenant would be working in the morning. He went up to it, shone his flashlight inside. All looked normal, it was empty. He still thought it was strange for builders to leave their van outside a job all over the weekend, but he shone his flashlight in the front door and windows. He saw nothing, and went back to his car. The officer said to his colleague, ‘Better make a note of the number of that van parked out there for the record.’

They then drove off happy that all was well. In the meantime, the men downstairs had turned off the generator and stopped drilling. The lookout wondered if there is any vibration with the generator going, so he told Randy, ‘All clear up here.’

Randy started the generator again. The lookout got out of the car and waked across the road. Standing on the sidewalk, he could only feel a slight vibration in the soles of his feet, so he made a mental note that he had to stay awake in case anyone was walking down the sidewalk.

The drilling went on all night. At 5 a.m., there as another visit from the police. A repeat performance,