I'd been called at jury duty a couple of weeks before all this happened.
And it was one of those kind of sensational trials.
The judge told us jurors not to go out to any public places where we might be approached or influenced.
So I'd been sticking pretty close to the hotel they had us in.
And it was a real treat when they said that we were free for a couple of days because a witness was sick.
So Ann and I went to the early movie across the street from the hotel and got out about half past nine.
I thought she was dying. I didn't care much for him, though.
I didn't think she was too hot either. What's the difference anyway?
The first movie I've seen since the trial started.
How about some ice cream?
We've got those little cakes at home. Some ice cream might go nice with them.
I don't know if I can go home. The jury thinks.
We'll just poof for a couple of days. Didn't know what the jury would do.
Well, it's not going to do you any harm to sleep home tonight.
Yeah, I suppose not. What kind do you want?
What?
Ice cream.
Chocolate.
Very well. Hello there. How are you this evening, folks?
Hi.
What can I do for you?
Oh, about a quart of ice cream. Chocolate.
All right.
Say, tell me, how's the trial going? You're on the jury, aren't you?
Yeah, but I'm not supposed to talk about it.
Oh, yeah, I should know better than to ask.
Aren't there five, seven jurors a day coming here from the hotel across the street?
Is that right?
Yes, sir. You think you've been on this trial a long time?
Some people stay on for months.
I'll tell you what I think about this harm and loss.
I'm not supposed to let anybody talk to me about it either.
Oh, yeah, you say that's right. Forget about that.
Well, that'll be 89 cents.
I got to dance. What does that do with my wallet?
Oh, yeah.
Thank you. Out of one.
One dollar and thank you.
Thank you.
I hope now that you know us, you'll trade here sometimes, even after the trial is over.
My name is Iblison.
Well, I'm Mr. Benwick. It's my wife Anne.
How do you do? Happy to know you.
How do you do?
I hope you'll be good with anything real soon.
Yeah, I hope so, too. Good night.
Al?
Yeah.
Look what I found.
What?
An envelope on the floor.
Right here.
Somebody dropped something, huh?
It's open, too.
I wonder if we should... you know, to find the owner?
Hey.
Hey, Bill.
Money. Bill, here, let me see.
How much is it, Al?
Al? How much is it?
Ten thousand dollars.
Ten thousand dollars?
Who dropped ten thousand dollars on the floor of a drug store?
Ten thousand dollars? You mean the envelope was just laying down on the floor?
Yeah, I almost stepped on it and then I picked it up.
I saw there was something in it.
Al, what should we do?
Well, gee, a thing like this, I don't know what to say.
Well, if I was you, I would keep it. That's what I would do.
And since it was in my store...
No, we couldn't do that.
I could.
The day stealing, you found it.
If it's my store, you found it in.
We'd better turn it in.
If there's a reward, we'll get together on it, won't we, huh?
Oh, look, there's some kind of note in it.
A note?
Into the money.
The first half of the reading and...
No signature.
It doesn't make much sense to me.
Me neither.
Say, where are you going with that money?
If anyone comes looking for it, we live on 5th Street, 229.
If there's a reward, we'll see you get your share, Mr. Adelson.
Come on in.
Don't worry, Mr. Adelson.
Don't worry. Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money.
Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money.
An awful lot of money.
Ann was still trying to figure it out when we got home.
One thing I'd always said about Ann, she had a good mind.
And now she remembered the note, and she took off from there.
But, ah, it must mean something.
It was written to somebody. It must mean something to them.
After all, ten thousand dollars.
Let's get on with the ice cream.
Well, all right. But what I think...
Look, Annie, if nobody claims it by tomorrow,
we'll put an ad in the paper or something.
It's not our worry.
Chocolate.
But we could keep it, couldn't we?
I mean, the law says find a keeper.
If nobody can prove it's theirs, we can keep it, can't we?
Isn't it our law?
Well, I guess as far as the law is concerned, we could keep it.
Of course, and we'd have to get part of it to Mr. Adelson.
Mm-hmm.
So... Oh, I don't know, Al.
That money belongs to somebody.
All right. If they claim it, all right.
And if they don't, well, all right. Why worry about it?
It belongs to whoever that note was written to.
Uh-huh.
Listen.
This is the first half as agreed in the E.H. business.
But if they are not hung up when the time comes,
don't expect to get the rest or stay healthy very long.
No signature.
Al, that last part about staying healthy.
That's a threat. That's what it is.
Threat?
Well, yeah, yeah, it could be.
The man is giving the money, threatening the man who's getting it.
If he doesn't...
Doesn't what?
Oh, Al, don't be so tense. Help me a little.
Doesn't do what they're paying him to.
Why, it's a bribe.
A bribe, yeah, that's right, Annie.
You could be right at that.
Well, now we're getting somewhere.
All right, a bribe.
And it has something to do with something being hung up.
Look, if they're not hung up when the time comes, it says.
What could be hung up that's so important to bribe somebody in jury to...
To what?
Oh, those little things.
It's Whit Harmon, the man in the Amazon trials.
The jury that you're on.
Oh, no, G. Anne, I don't think so.
They all seem like such nice, decent people.
Listen, listen.
This is your first half, the $10,000, as agreed in the E.H.
That is, the Edward Harmon business.
But if they're not hung up, the jury don't expect to stay healthy.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, it does make some sense, huh?
Well, we've got to call the police.
Police?
Yes, we've got to report it right away.
Well, maybe I should...
I could give it to the district attorney in the morning.
Oh, no, don't you see, Al, you're on that jury.
Yeah, I know, but...
If we delay telling them for even an hour,
they may think that you've got something to hide.
No, I think I'd better wait until morning.
If you don't phone them, I will right away, now.
All right, all right, I hope you're right.
Oh, that must be them now, Al.
I'll go.
I must say, they took their time about it.
Ah, good evening, gentlemen.
Come in.
Thanks.
You're Mr. Benning, Albert H. Benning.
That's right, and this is my wife.
How do you do?
Oh, I sort of expected to see someone in uniform.
Oh, I should have known, I suppose.
Uniform?
Yes.
Well, you gentlemen aren't from the police, are you?
No, no, we're not.
Oh?
You were expecting the police, lady?
Well, yes, we were.
You better not take too much time, Johnny.
I think you people got something that belongs to...
Something you found in the drugstore on the corner.
Oh.
We lost it there.
The drug has told us you had it.
Well, we did find something, yes.
Ten grand in 500s in a white envelope.
Well, I guess there's all right, Aunt.
Oh, yes, but...
But what?
Well, I'm sure it's yours, but there was something else, too.
Look, we better just give it to him, man.
The note, I always said that was foolish.
There was a note.
Yes.
Did you read it?
Oh, we got through it, of course.
We thought it might tell us who the money belonged to.
And it's this, isn't it?
No.
Oh, no.
Come on, lady.
Oh, wait a minute, this is a gun.
The note told you that the dough was to buy off somebody on the jury of the Harmon Trial, didn't it?
You talk too much, Johnny.
Let's get out of here.
What's the difference?
Use your head.
What about it, Mr. Benwick?
What do you know about what was in the note?
We gotta know these things.
We work for Mr. Harmon.
We know you're on the jury, too, Mr. Benwick.
Well...
Where are you from, Mrs. Benwick?
I mean, where do your folks live?
What part of the country?
Washington.
Fulcrum, Washington.
All right, Mr. Benwick, you go on down to that trial tomorrow, just as though nothing had happened.
Anybody ask you about your wife?
You tell them she's gone on a little visit to her folks in Spokane.
Excuse me, my folks?
The case will go to the jury on Friday.
If everything goes like it should, your wife will be back here safe and sound first thing Monday morning.
Oh, good Lord.
You can't do a thing like this.
You can't.
Be reasonable, Mrs. Benwick, we gotta.
You people know too much about this thing.
Look, but we won't say anything, I promise, I swear it.
Now, how can we take a chance like that?
Harmon is up for murder.
I better get your things together, Mrs. Benwick.
Go with her, I say.
We ain't got all night, though.
I'll take the money, Mr. Benwick, before I forget it.
Thanks.
I hope you understand our position.
What are you gonna do?
Obviously, the money went to the wrong party.
So we gotta use another method.
If everything goes like it should on that jury, your wife will be okay.
But if it doesn't...
Oh, you can't. You can't do that.
Oh, we can.
It saves us a lot of money, too.
And, uh, Mr. Benwick...
Not a word to the authorities.
Your wife would make a huge cause.
After they left, I just sat there.
Maybe another guy would have rushed right off, done something.
But I couldn't.
I had to think.
It all happened so suddenly.
In less than an hour, the whole thing.
I'm picking up the money on the floor of the drug store,
and then figuring out from the note that it was a bribe to someone
on the jury of the Harmon Triad, the jury I was on.
The police never showed up,
so I sneaked out of our building the back way,
took the side streets,
and went to the office of the chief of detectives.
So you came down here.
What are we sitting here for? Why don't we do something?
We gotta know what we're doing before we start doing it.
Anyway, from what you tell me,
I don't think she'll be in any real danger.
No real danger. She's been kidnapped by gangsters.
But why? That's what doesn't make any sense to me.
I told you, the money was some kind of bribe.
They thought we knew about it.
But you didn't.
Well, how could we?
Anne just picked the money up off the floor and...
They said they'd have her back by Monday.
That's what they said. You can believe them if you want to,
but she's my wife.
Okay, okay.
What do these two cookies look like?
Oh, I don't know. They're average size. Dark, I think.
I... I... I...
No, I don't remember what they look like.
Did you catch their names?
I didn't ask them.
You're not gonna be much help for a while, are you?
Okay, it's all right.
Now, by the way, my name is Dan.
Oh, mine's Al.
You'll probably be seeing quite a lot of me in the next day or two,
so we might as well get acquainted.
And Al...
Yeah?
Take it easy.
We'll find your way.
Dan's being friendly made me feel a lot better,
but we still weren't doing anything.
First he got out a lot of pictures, and I had to go through all those,
but of course I couldn't recognize anybody.
Then he started making phone calls. That didn't make much sense to me either,
except that he figured they might have a stolen car,
and he was trying to check on it.
Finally he called a police car, and we drove back towards the courthouse.
It was 12 o'clock, but Mr. Adelson hadn't left the store.
He was anxious enough to talk,
but it didn't look as though he was gonna get us anyplace.
I... I tell you, Lieutenant, it was right there on the floor.
It was right there.
Yeah, but when you talk to these two men...
Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. Well, I talked to them, the one that is,
and he said he lost an envelope, he thought, in my store,
and I said, yes, he found it, and Mr. Benwick had it.
So he talked to them. What did they look like?
How can I know what they looked like when they called me on the telephone?
Okay, I guess that's all, Mr. Adelson.
I'm sorry, Lieutenant, I wish I could help you.
That's all right.
But if there's anything else you'd like...
We'll call you.
Say, Mr. Benwick.
Yeah.
Did you tell him about the note?
Note?
Yeah, the note that was in with the money.
So there was a note?
Sure, in with the money. What's in, Mr. Benwick?
What about it, Al?
Well, I'm sorry, I... I guess I forgot.
We drove back to Fifth Street and parked in front of my apartment.
Dan didn't say a word until we got into the elevator.
And then he spoke to the elevator boy, not to me.
You're talking Mrs. Benwick and a couple of men down tonight, about 10.30?
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Police?
Yes.
What did they look like?
Well, I couldn't really tell you. They had their hats pulled down, sort of.
Well, one was tall, the other was short. That's about all I noticed.
Oh, wait a minute.
Now that you speak of it, the short one called the tall one Johnny.
That's funny I didn't think of that.
A tall one and a short one, and the tall one's name was Johnny.
But that breaks the case wide open, huh?
Yeah, I'll see to you. You get a citation.
We got off at my floor and I opened the apartment when we went in.
He still didn't say anything.
He growled around the apartment, poking into bureaus and clottons, not saying a word.
Then he came out in the living room and sat down in the big armchair and just looked straight at me.
All right, Al, what about the note?
I'm sorry, Dan, I didn't think it was important.
Yeah, and you couldn't remember that one was a tall guy and the other was a short guy.
And the tall guy's name was Johnny.
I was all upset. I don't even know if I heard his name.
Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute. Why didn't I think of it?
Think of what?
Bill Quinlan, the defense lawyer in the Harmon case.
Those are his boys. I've had those guys up a dozen times.
He always comes and gets them off.
The Harmon trial?
Al, this Harmon is up on a murder rap.
Bank robbery and a guard was killed.
His lawyer is Bill Quinlan.
Quinlan's bribed more juries than I've got hairs on my head, if you could ever prove it.
You get a couple of hung juries and they let you off the hook.
He's pulled it plenty of times.
Boy, isn't that a little far-fetched?
Like I say, Al, it's all we've got.
Come, I'll have the boys check the jury list anyway.
Where's your phone?
Oh, in there. Dan?
Yeah?
Dan? I'm on the jury.
You're black?
Yeah, don't you see?
Look, if I opened my mouth, they'd kill her. They told me so.
So that's it.
I didn't dare to tell you, Dan. I hoped you'd find her out.
You long-legged, thick-headed idiot.
Don't you think I've been in this business long enough to know it a little better than you do?
Don't you think I know how to give people protection when I have to?
Do you think we go around trying to get people killed?
Do you know any more you haven't told me?
No.
Do you know who the juror is that they're trying to bribe?
No.
Okay.
Well, now at least we know where to start looking.
Look, Dan.
Yeah?
You're not sore at me, are you?
Me? No. What have I got to be sore about?
To your wife.
We knew where to start looking, but it wasn't as easy as that.
I was still on the jury, of course.
They didn't dare make a move against Harmon because of Ann.
The case went to the jury Friday, and there was still no word of her.
And of course, I had to vote not guilty. They understood that.
But as it turned out, the vote was eight to four, so it didn't really matter with a Harmon jury.
Harmon was scheduled for a new trial anyway.
But now it was Monday, the day Ann was supposed to return.
But there was no word.
What if they found out the police knew that I was on the jury?
It was nearly midnight, and Dan came to the apartment.
He looked as though he hadn't slept for three days.
I hadn't either. He told me to come along with him.
He didn't say much until we were way down on Avenue C on the Lower East Side.
Don't let her get out, fella. I think we're going to come out all right.
When did you find out?
About an hour ago.
We trailed Harmon. That's why he got bailed.
Dan, don't kid me. Are you sure that he's...
As sure as we can be. We know where they are. She'll be there.
There, that's the place. The third house down.
Ellis, you and Mooson will stake out the back.
Farley and Edward stake the front. I'm going in.
All right, get going.
Dan.
Yeah?
I want to go with you.
No, you stay in the car.
I'm going with you.
Okay. Come on. Let's go.
There's a light in the front.
Let me give us a little reception, Al.
They wouldn't do anything to her, would they? Would they, Dan?
Try the door.
Locked.
Can we...
I've got a skeleton.
Close it behind you, so the streetlight won't show us up.
Okay.
All right, let's try here.
I don't think anybody's around.
Come on.
Maybe they took her someplace.
Quiet.
I don't know.
No. Al, you better stay out.
Why? What is it?
It's her, Al, your wife.
She's dead.
She was dead.
And the next day there was a funeral.
A lot of friends came round, shook hands, looked at me sad.
And I stood by where she was lying with all the flowers around her.
This wasn't the way it was supposed to work out.
Dan was there, too.
For a long time he stood there, looking at her, my friends, and me.
You called Johnny and Sam, didn't you?
I called them.
Yeah.
You called them.
She thought you were calling the police.
That's why the police never showed up.
I called them.
If she was so insistent that I had to call somebody,
I didn't think they'd take her away.
I thought they'd just take the money and leave, forget the whole thing.
But they took her, too.
What about the money?
The money they paid me for the trial.
The money for the trial of $10,000.
I told you, they took it.
They took the money and they took her.
Well, I kept $500. I kept that in my pocket.
I didn't get that.
That's what I... what I paid for the funeral with.
Yes, I know.
We had the numbers of the bills.
When we picked them up later that night, they had it all except $500.
And that's what brought me back to you.
It's funny.
I did it for her to buy her nice things, huh?
And all I bought her was her funeral.
Say goodbye, Al.
You'll have to come with me.