A Shared Confidence by William Topek Read Free Book Online

Jimmy’s character. First he’s a virtuous heir, determined to make his own way in the world. Then he’s a lazy loaf and a careless one, making a greedy mistake early on and having to be lectured about it. That served two purposes: the first was to hand Ryland off to the inside man, Stanton. Thus a man Ryland had come to trust was supplanted by someone seemingly more trustworthy. Second, revealing Jimmy as a screw-up made it more believable that he’d do something colossally stupid like buy when he was supposed to sell. And for that matter, how about Stanton showing up with this incredibly sweet deal just when Ryland was about to get his hands on nearly half a million dollars?
    Ryland didn’t want to believe any of this, of course, but now that he wasn’t being blinded by easy money on the stock market or the threat of John Law breathing down his neck, he had little choice but to see the facts as I laid them out for him.
    â€œHow could they have known I’d go along with it all?”
    â€œThey didn’t, not from the beginning. These people are experts at what they do, Mr. Ryland. There are infinite variations to big cons like these, and big-time confidence men are fantastic improvisers. They got to know you, felt you out. That was the purpose of all those meetings and dinners. They learned more about you than you realized, figured out the best way to play you. Jimmy was keeping an eye on you day and night that last week, and Stanton even convinced you you were doing him a favor by keeping close to Jimmy.”
    Ryland stared down at the untouched pie on his saucer, raised his fork, then set it back down.
    â€œYou must think I’m the biggest dope in the world, Mr. Caine.”
    I laughed and shook my head, reaching for a cigarette. “No offense, Mr. Ryland, but I’ve known men a lot sharper than you who’ve been taken in, some of them for even more money and some of them more than once. It’s true. Hell, a lot of them never figure out they’ve been conned, and some refuse to accept it even when it’s explained to them.” I also pointed out that, while it had taken Ryland a couple of hours to tell me his story, he had lived it for weeks. And all that time, Stanton and Jimmy had been working on him, operating on his desires, his ambition, his nerves, and finally his greed. “Which we all have,” I added quickly. “Besides, Stanton and Jimmy knew you weren’t a fool or they wouldn’t have cooled you out so hard.”
    â€œThey wouldn’t have what?”
    I took a breath. “It’s called ‘cooling out the mark’. Once the big play has been made and the con is over, you have to find some way of getting rid of the mark. What’s more, you need to make sure he doesn’t kick up a fuss. Some guys you can just send on down the road. Hey, tough break, but we’ll keep you in mind the next time we got hold of a sure thing, after we fix this mess and are ready to go again.
    â€œBut you,” I took a drag off my cigarette and continued, “they had you pegged as smart enough to figure it out afterward, and they couldn’t risk that. So Stanton loads his gun with blanks and Jimmy gets some fresh blood from a butcher’s shop, keeps it warm in his mouth inside a tiny pouch of some kind. Stanton shoots Jimmy and now you’ve just witnessed a murder. In the ensuing shock to your nerves, you’re made an accomplice. It’s a fairly desperate gambit and most con men only use it as a last resort. But like everything else these people do, if it’s done right it works like magic.
    â€œTell me, Mr. Ryland, this past month as you’ve been bouncing around hotels from one city to the next, were you thinking about how this deal went wrong or was your mind occupied with visions of life in Sing-Sing?”
    Ryland nodded, exhausted from taking all this in. “Mostly I was trying not to think about frying