NYPD-SIS RECORDING #146-83C.
HASKINS: About this time, Duke told. …
QUESTION: What time was it?
HASKINS: Oh, I don’t know exactly, Tommy. It was getting late—or rather early in the morning. I thought the sky was getting light, or perhaps I was imagining it. In any event, I had pointed out to the Brodsky brothers what was to be taken from Apartment Four B. As I had suspected, it was a veritable treasure trove. The tech sprung a huge old-fashioned trunk, brass-bound, with a hasp and padlock on it. And he also opened a few odds and ends like jewel boxes, file cases, and even a GI ammunition box that had been fitted with a hasp and padlock. It was really hilarious what those old biddies had squirreled away. Quite obviously, they did not trust banks! There was one diamond pendant and a ruby choker—all their jewels were incredibly filthy, incidentally—and I judged those two pieces alone would bring close to fifty G’s. In addition, there was cash—even some of the old-style large bills that I hadn’t seen for years and years. There were negotiable bonds, scads and scads of things like Victorian tiaras, bracelets, “dog collars,” headache bands, pins, brooches, a small collection of jeweled snuffboxes, loops and loops of pearls, earrings, men’s stick pins—and all of it good, even if it did need a cleaning. My God, Tommy, it was like being let loose in Tiffany’s about seventy-five years ago. There were also some simply yummy original glass, enamel, and cloisonné pieces that I couldn’t bear to leave behind. Duke had told us to hurry it up, so we disregarded the rugs and furniture, although I saw a Sheraton table—a small one—that any museum in the city would have given an absolute fortune for, and there was a tiny little Kurdistan, no bigger than three by five, that was simply exquisite. I just couldn’t bear to leave that behind, so I had Billy Brodsky—the one who had the wet brain—tuck it under his arm and take it down to the truck.
QUESTION: Where was Anderson while all this was going on?
HASKINS: Oh, he was—you know—here, there, and everywhere. He checked on the crippled boy in Apartment Five A, and then he went out on the terrace of Five B to look around. Then he checked how that monster from Detroit was doing with the tenants who had been moved across the hall to Four A, and then he helped the Brodsky boys carry some things down to the truck, and then he prowled through some of the empty apartments. Just checking, you know. He was very good, very alert. Then, after I had finished in Apartment Four B, he told me to go down to the basement and see if the super was still sleeping and also check with the spade who had been stationed in the lobby. So I went down to the basement, and the super was still snoring.
QUESTION: Did you take anything from his apartment?
HASKINS: Oh no. It had been cleaned out earlier. The only thing we got was an antique triptych.
QUESTION: The super claims he had just been paid, he had almost a hundred dollars in his wallet, and this money was taken. Did you take it?
HASKINS: Tommy, that hurts! I may be many things, but I am not a cheap little sneak thief.
QUESTION: When they searched you at the station house you had about forty dollars in a money clip. And you also had almost a hundred dollars folded into a wad and tucked into your inside jacket pocket. Was that the super’s money?
HASKINS: Tommy! How could you?
QUESTION: All right. What happened next—after you checked on the super and found he was still sleeping?
HASKINS: Duke had told me to check with Skeets Johnson in the lobby on the way up. He was in the doormen’s booth in the rear of the lobby so no one could see him from the street. I asked him if everything was all right.
QUESTION: And what did he say?
HASKINS: He said he hadn’t seen any beat fuzz or squad cars. He said the only person he had seen was a man carrying a newspaper with his jacket over his arm go humping by on the other side of the street. He said the man hadn’t turned his head when he went by so he didn’t think that was anything. But I could tell something was bothering him.
QUESTION: Why do you say that?
HASKINS: Well, everything he had said up to now had been in rhymes, some of them quite clever and amusing. The man was obviously talented. But now he was speaking normally, just as you or I, and he didn’t seem to have the high spirits he had earlier in the evening. Like when we were in the truck, on the way to the apartment house, he kept us laughing and relaxed. But now I could tell he was down, so I asked him why. And he said he didn’t know why he was down, but he said—and I remember his exact words—he said, “Something don’t smell right.” I left him there and went back upstairs and reported to Duke that Skeets hadn’t seen any fuzz or cars but that he was troubled. Duke nodded and hurried the Brodsky boys along. We were about ready to leave. I figured another half hour at the most and we’d be gone. I wasn’t feeling down. I was feeling up. I thought it had been a very successful evening, far beyond our wildest hopes. Even though I was working for a fixed fee, I wanted the whole thing to come off because it was very exciting—I had never done anything like that before—and I thought Duke might give me some more work. Also, you know, I had pocketed a few little things—trinkets … really nothing of value—but the whole evening would prove very profitable for me.