Free Final Confession by Bill Crowley Dennis Lehane Gilbert Geis Brian P. Wallace Page B

weren’t going to steal
current
postage stamps, he felt a lot better. From that night on, Percy Rideout’s habits were under intense scrutiny, although Rideout never had a clue.
    â€œThere was no way of knowing exactly what Rideout had in his apartment and his office, which were on the second and third floors of the building,” Phil explained. “Though Rideout was clearly one of the top collectors of stamps, coins, and historical documents in the United States, nobody had ever estimated how much he or his collection was worth. We didn’t know if we were looking at two mil or only a hundred thousand dollars,” Phil said, “but we knew it was big.”
    Phil, Angelo, and Tony tailed Rideout for over a month. They learned his habits, his hangouts, his friends—and when he got his weekly haircut, which ultimately proved to be more important than all the other tips combined. Rideout was a creature of habit, and every Wednesday at one o’clock he sat in that barber’s chair and issued the same instructions to Frank. “Not too much off the top, just even the sides and trim the back.” Cresta and his partners took turns being in the barbershop when Rideout came in so that he wouldn’t recognize them. “But,” as Phil observed, “that guy was so caught up in himself, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Roger Maris could all have been sitting there for a haircut and he wouldn’t have noticed.”
    One Wednesday afternoon Phil took a call from an excited Angelo. “I just left the barbershop,” he sputtered. “Rideout told Frank he wouldn’t be in next week because he’s going to Maine on a fishing trip.” The break they’d sought had finally come. They put everything into motion for the Memorial Day weekend, just a few days away.
    Rideout’s building had two elevators, one for residents, the other a service elevator for deliveries. On Saturday, May 29, Phil placed an Out of Order sign on the service elevator. Phil, Angelo, and Tony were dressed as painters, complete with those white masks for keeping out dust and fumes—and for preventing curious residents from getting a good look at their faces. Their white uniforms had even been painstakingly soiled with three different paint colors. Phil was again acting on his observation that normal people didn’t pay much attention to workmengoing about their duties; they had their own problems to think about. Rich people paid absolutely
no
attention whatsoever, as long as the workmen seemed ordinary.
    â€œThe place was deserted as we put the sign on the elevator and headed up to Rideout’s apartment. We even had a work order with Rideout’s forged signature, in case anyone questioned us,” Phil explained.
    Phil picked the lock easily, and they entered the apartment. They were stunned by the size of the safes.
    â€œThere were two huge safes in one room and another one in the downstairs room,” Phil said. “Anyone with that many huge safes has a lot of stuff he doesn’t want other people to get their hands on. From the minute we saw those safes I knew this was going to be a good score.” But Phil’s exuberance was dampened when he got a close look at the top-of-the-line locks on Rideout’s safes: he’d never seen any locks like them. “We’ve got trouble, Ange,” Phil said. “These boxes won’t be easy.”
    Phil spent the next two hours trying to crack the safes. Nothing worked. Angelo and Tony were downstairs in Rideout’s office. When they came back, Phil told them it was no-go. “Let’s blow ’em,” Angelo suggested. “What, are you, crazy?” Tony responded. “We’re in an apartment building in the middle of Kenmore Square and you want to blow three safes?” Angelo shot back, “I’m not walking out of here empty-handed.” “Let’s think this thing over,” Phil