Ticky Edris and Phil Algir plot to rob the impregnable Florida Safe Deposit Bank. Previous robbers' attempts to burgle the bank from outside have failed and only led to loss of lives. A mole on the inside is needed for successful robbery. How is this to be achieved? The estranged wife and daughter of the Vice President of the bank (Muriel Marsh Devon and Norena Devon respectively) are murdered and Ira Marsh (Muriel's sister) planted on the Vice President to impersonate Norena. . .
DETAILS
CHAPTER 1: Harry Browning is the owner of the La Coquille Restaurant, one of the top 3 restaurants in Paradise City. He is a personal friend of the Mayor and of the Chief of Police, Captain Frank Terrell. (The other Paradise City cops mentioned in the novel are Joe Beigler, Fred Hess, Charley Tanner, Max Jacoby and Tom Lepski.) One day, Browning phones Sergeant Joe Beigler to come and clear out the corpse of a woman who died of heroin overdose at his restaurant and ensure there is no negative publicity. Beigler goes there with Fred Hess. A suicide note lies by the woman, containing the words, "You'd better go to 247, Seaview Boulevard. He had it coming. I did it. To save trouble, I'm taking the easy way out. Muriel Marsh Devon". Ticky Edris is the misshapen dwarf (only 3.5 ft tall) waiter who served Muriel her last drinks and lives on the apartment opposite hers. Seaview Boulevard (where Muriel lived) connects Paradise City with the town of Seacombe (where Ticky lives). The boulevard has large villas at its Paradise City end and shabby houses at its Seacombe end. The corpse of Johnnie Williams (Muriel's lover who lives in the room next to hers) is found riddled with gunshots at 247, Seaview Boulevard.
CHAPTER 2: Phil Algir is a handsome conman who has been jailed for 14 years in New York before leaving for Florida to escape another arrest. After chatting with Ticky, he goes to Greater Miami. The cops find the photos of a 17-year-old girl in Muriel's apartment and letters ending with "Your daughter, Norena". To shield Norena from her (Muriel's) drug and prostitution escapades, Muriel sends her to a boarding school (The Graham Co-Ed College, Greater Miami) and takes her on sea trips during the vacations. Ticky tells Dr Wilbur Graham (the owner of the school) on phone," Norena's mother is seriously hurt in an accident. Please allow Mr Stanley Tebbel, her mother's attorney, to collect her from school. She can call my number for confirmation. She knows me as a family friend". Algir collects her from the school and stops her from asking too many questions so he can kill her (without feeling guilty) easily later as he did to Johnnie Williams! Another 17-year-old girl, Ira Marsh, Muriel's youngest sister (who is the same age as Norena and born after Muriel left home) alights from the New York plane at the Miami airport. Ira is the youngest of their mother's 11 children. "Four of the boys had been killed in a drunken car crash. 2 others were serving life sentences for armed robbery. 4 of the girls (including Muriel) had walked out of the slum...and hadn't been seen or heard of since"(page 40). Their father is a lecher. Four months earlier, Ticky (after hearing her age similarity to Norena and investigating her background through an agency) tells her, "Norena died in a swimming accident last week. Her mother is dying and has about 4 months to live. Norena's dad hasn't seen or heard of her for 16 years and will easily accept you as his daughter after Muriel dies". Ira is desperate for money and agrees.
CHAPTER 3: Instead of driving to Paradise City, Algir heads with Norena to the seaside. As the car stops, she runs out inland for safety. Algir can't run as fast on foot so he re-enters his car to take a shortcut and lie in wait for her at a hummock. He strangles her and takes her corpse back to the beach. He removes all her clothes (so that the college laundry marks on them won't help the cops identify her), drops her at the foot of a sand dune and shifts the dune onto her body. The cops find out that Muriel owns the gun used to kill Johnnie Williams. The handwriting on the suicide note matches the one on the specimens found in her apartment. Captain Terrell tracks Melville Devon (Norena's father) down, tells him about Muriel's and Williams' deaths and Norena's arrival from school to live with him. Terrell shows him Ira's photo that Ticky had planted in Muriel's bedroom. Algir picks Ira up at the Seacombe bus terminal and goes to Ticky's apartment. Ira changes into Norena's clothes and waits for Mel Devon's arrival.
CHAPTER 4: Joy Ansley has been Mel Devon's fiancee for 5 years. 2 weeks after Ira's arrival, Joy advises Mel to get her a job at the bank to cheer her up out of her "depression". Within weeks, Ira finds out how the bank operates. "Customers rent safes, put their money there and lock up the safe. Each safe has 2 locks: one for the customer and the other for the bank. Both parties must be present before the safe can be opened and each party goes away with their own key". She also finds out the numbers of the dead safes (whose owners are usually away for long). Algir is to rent a safe at the bank, take a look at Doris Kirby (who is in charge of the vaults) and arrange a fracture for her at her home (so that Ira can step in until she recovers).
CHAPTER 5: Ira gets an impression of the bank's passkey and gives it to Algir to duplicate. She decides to bring in Jess Farr (her gangster boyfriend in New York). Mr Hyam Wanassee, a Texas millionaire, arrives at the vault to deposit money and gives Ira his key to open the safe. While he flirts with her, she presses his key into the putty concealed in her left hand. She gives Algir the key impression to duplicate. She is emptying money from Wanassee's safe into Algir's (for him to take out as a customer) one day when Mel walks in & almost catches her.From then on, she keeps watch at the vault's entrance while Algir empties the safes himself.
CHAPTER 6: Mr Lanza Junior also falls into the flirt's trap, but his safe contains only stock coupons and share certificates. Mr Ross holds on to his key and opens and shuts his safe himself. Ira wants to quit from the plot (having been softened by interacting with Mel, Joy,etc and the financial security and peaceful home) but Edris blackmails her. Jess too forces her to continue the "job" and steals part of her money. He stays hidden for some time in Mel's beach cabin.
CHAPTER 7: Jess finds a gun in Mel's cabin. Mel and Joy agree to get married at the end of the month. Mrs Marc Garland comes to the vault and Ira is able to get her key's impression. Jess rents a shabby Ford and drives after Algir (who has just parted from Ira) to Edris's apartment. Fred Hess goes with his wife (Maria) and his son (Fred Junior) to the beach for a picnic. To get some rest from the "naughty" boy, Hess tells him to dig out an old man from a certain distant high sand dune so the old man can give him meat pies. Ten minutes later, Junior digs out a stinking woman. Hess and other cops find a pair of pale blue plastic framed spectacles Norena was wearing at the hummocks where she was killed. The heel impression of Algir's shoe is also found there.
CHAPTER 8: The following morning's newspaper carries the story, "Unknown blonde found strangled at Coral Cove". Algir wants to run away immediately but Edris tells him to get the Garland money first before leaving the next day. Algir books a flight to Havana (by phone) against the next day's afternoon while Edris takes a "10-day leave to New York" from the restaurant (in order to lie low). Since the article has said nothing about the spectacles, Edris feels safe. The lab boys find that the owner of the spectacles had acute astigmatism and would have to wear them constantly. The report on the plaster casts of the heel impressions shows that the killer is about 6 ft tall, weighs 190 pounds and wears new number 10 shoes. Lepski remembers that "Norena Devon" falls in the victim's age range but doesn't wear spectacles. Mr Harry Tullas, who has heard the broadcast, tells the police about his seeing a man (Algir) and a girl (Norena) driving ahead of his own car towards Coral Cove, and his coming back alone later to pick up another girl (Ira). Mr Tullas describes Algir's Buick Roadmaster convertible and physical appearance (which reminds Beigler about Algir, whose photo has been sent to them as a wanted man by the New York police). Mr Tullas identifies Algir's photo as that of the man he is talking about. Hess goes to the airport, describes Ira to the officials and gets her full names and New York address from the murder date's flight list.
CHAPTER 9: Algir has left his Regent Hotel room and now hides in Edris' apartment. The next day's newspapers mention Algir's real names, Regent Hotel address, "Harry Chambers" alias used to rent the Buick Roadmater convertible and his physical description. A guard from the Florida Safe Deposit Bank phones the police about the wanted man's close resemblance to their "Lowson Forester". Edris sneaks out to tell Ira to bring out the Garland money alone because Algir is in hiding, showing her a newspaper and revealing for the first time that Norena was killed. He tells her to stick the money in her pants and sneak out to see him at the restaurant near the bank. She will then be free to enjoy her new home with Devon once he and Algir leave town. After hiding the money, she is summoned to Mr Devon's office, where she meets Detective Lepski. During the interview, Ira denies knowing Dr Weidman of Miami (who tested Norena for her eyeglasses), reads the tiny handwriting used to record her answers without glasses and turns pale when asked if she knows a girl called Ira Marsh. She denies knowing Ira (whom she would have known as her aunt if she were Norena). On getting out, she quizzes Edris into revealing that he killed Muriel and wrote the suicide note and the other letters found in her apartment. He also admits Algir killed Williams. Ira tells him she has returned the money to the safe. Jess Farr watches Edris and Ira part and trails Edris back to his apartment. Lepski gets Norena's real photograph from her school and shows Algir's photo to Dr Graham (who confirms him as "Mr Tebbel").
CHAPTER 10: Edris gets a gun with a silencer and tells Harry Morris to get him a night boat to Mexico. He tells Algir he has got the Garland money and shows him his photo in a newspaper deliberately dropped on the floor. As Algir stoops to read the newspaper, Edris shoots him dead and packs all the money (belonging to both of them) in the apartment to pay for the boat ride. As he tries to leave the apartment, Jess Farr enters, knocks him unconscious and takes the money away. The facts on ground show Ira impersonated Norena. Captain Terrell orders the arrest of Edris (as the one who sold Algir to Dr Graham). Jess is caught with the money and a gun by cops after driving recklessly in a traffic jam. Edris wakes up later, finds his money gone, and gets drunk in sorrow before the police arrive to arrest him. "It's the way the cookie crumbles", he says as he gets into the police car, blaming Algir's carelessness for the failure of the plot.
Ira Marsh writes a farewell letter to Mel Devon, saying that she didn't know Norena was killed and that she will drown herself to spare him the embarrassment her arrest will bring him. Then she goes for her last swim on earth................
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OTHER CHARACTERS : Louis ("maître d'hôtel", French for "head waiter", at the La Coquille) ;Dr Lowis (the medical officer who examined both Muriel and Johnnie Williams); Bert Hamilton (a reporter from The Sun).
