What pissed off Deuce most as he relived those bizarre thirty-five minutes at Klaus’s Rocky Mountain Coin & Stamp Exchange, was Gage’s lack of attention to detail.
His instructions to Gage were quite specific: First, take Klaus and anyone else in the shop into the bathroom; second, make sure Klaus doesn’t go near any alarm; and third, gag them and tie them up nice and tight until it’s time to relieve Klaus of all the goodies in his display cases.
Deuce figured those instructions were simple enough, even for his newly minted accomplice. But Gage had missed on all counts.
Not only did Klaus manage to trip a silent alarm as Gage was leading him away, he also managed to maneuver Gage to a back office instead of the bathroom, where Klaus had long since stashed one of two revolvers for just such an occasion.
And as for Gage’s failure to follow Deuce’s third instruction, well, that’s the one that eventually would prove to be the killer, the one Deuce would later see as the root of the fiasco.
Truth be told, however, Deuce also had to admit his own failure to take notice that his robbery victim was wearing cowboy boots. Although a seemingly minor detail at the time, it was one that would haunt him the rest of his life.
What Deuce had learned on his previous sojourns out West is that you should at all cost avoid messin’ with anyone wearing cowboy boots—trouble being that people who wore cowboy boots often saw themselves as cowboys.
Klaus Degler, in particular, had just such a mind-set. He also had those two .38 caliber revolvers to go with it.
As Klaus later tells it, he was dumbstruck when Gage started hog-tying him in his office while Deuce emptied his display cases.
The “friggin’ idiot” was wrapping his hands with electrical tape over his cowboy boots, so all Klaus needed to do later was slip out of his boots to get free and reach for one of his guns.
But even for a cowboy, it struck Klaus as unwise to make his move too early. He didn’t want to take a chance with his wife and one of his customers in the line of fire.
Besides, since he had already secretly tripped the silent alarm, all he really needed to do now was wait for the cops to arrive.
That’s when the thunder rolled twice for Klaus.
With sirens still wailing and two cops brandishing their .45s as they burst into the storefront, Deuce looked up with a slightly bored but embarrassed expression.
Klaus couldn’t help but admire the ice in the robber’s veins as Deuce, without missing a beat, leaned nonchalantly against the display case.
Sorry to trouble you boys, Deuce told the cops, but I guess I must have tripped the alarm by mistake. Klaus would have cursed the two cops then and there if Gage hadn’t slipped back into his office and threatened to blow his head off if he opened his mouth.
After a bit of small talk and a few chuckles, the cops assured Deuce it was no bother at all and quietly went on their way.
Klaus was seething. The fuckin’ display cases were in disarray, emptied of everything save items that Deuce had deemed of little value. The cops, he figured, had to be in on it in some way. It was some kind of setup.
Deuce, meanwhile, was furious as well, but at Tom Gage. After the cops had left him to finish the heist they had so rudely interrupted, he took time to berate his protégé in no uncertain terms.
Klaus had finally had enough. He decided it was time to stop listening to all this bickering and take things in hand. If the cops weren’t going to stop these characters, he’d do it himself—with one of his .38s.
But when he peeked into the storefront from his back office a few minutes later, Deuce was nowhere to be seen. Must have left in a huff, he figured, to load more of the swag into a getaway car.
Once again, Klaus decided to hold his fire. Might as well wait till the iceman returned before making his move.
Only Deuce never did come back. He’d apparently had enough of what he came for and figured there was no percentage in continuing to babysit the incorrigible Thomas Gage.