The receptionist knew that no one was supposed to come behind the desk. If anyone tried to without permission, she was to push the button on the floor under her desk. But this time she didn’t even think of the button. She reached, instead, for the package. Suddenly, the mailman grabbed her wrist, yanked her from the chair, and hurled her into a corner. She landed heavily on her side, knocking her head against the wall. When she looked up dazed, the mailman had an automatic trained on her. “Can you scream louder than this gun?” he said in a low voice.

She stared at the gun. She couldn’t have screamed if she’d wanted to. She couldn’t even breathe.

The outer door opened and the four men came in, two carrying shotguns, and two machine guns. The girl couldn’t believe it, it was like something in the movies. Gangsters carried machine guns back in 1930. There was no such thing as a machine gun in real life. Machine guns and Walt Disney mice, all make-believe.

The mailman put his gun away under his coat, and removed the mailbag from his shoulder. He took cord from the mail sack and tied the receptionist’s hands and feet. She gaped at him unbelievingly as he tightened the knots. They were in the wrong office, she thought. It might be a television show shooting scenes on location, they must have wanted the office next door and these men had come into the wrong place. It must be a mistake.

The mailman gagged her with a spare handkerchief as one of the other men brought the two musical instrument cases and two briefcases in from the outside hall. The mailman took the briefcases. The men with the machine guns led the way. They all walked down the inner hall and stopped at the door next to the book-keeping room. The mailman opened the door, and all five of them boiled into the room.

This was the room where the alarm buzzer would have rung if the receptionist had remembered to ring it. Four men in brown uniforms wearing pistols and Sam Browne belts, were sitting at a table playing poker. They jumped up when the door burst open, then they all froze. They believed in machine guns.

-Richard Stark, The Outfit.

True story. I did the Newsarama post and promptly went on vacation. I came back from vacation, ready to respond, and bam, laptop’s power cable dies. I don’t know if any of you own Macbooks, but their battery is for crap. So, I’m waiting on a replacement cable. Super suck!

I’ve got a few things coming, including a look at Richard Stark’s Parker books (since I’ve read 9 and a half of them over the past two or three weeks) and how Parker relates to Batman. The podcast should go up Monday as usual, but blogging from me is going to be light until I get this sorted.

Esther and Gav got you covered, though.

Similar Posts:

• The Man With the Giveaway Face
• Are you buying stuff on Amazon tomorrow? Or ever?
• Seriously?
• Are you going to Emerald City Comicon?
• 4thletter is for… Domino!

Posted in brief bits by david brothers |