"Coming right up," Slim said.
Then he looked at me. I looked at him. "Get that safe open," he jerked out. I dived for it.
I was spinning the combination when I heard the voices. The building inspector was riding the ramp down to the basement. Then I heard more voices and saw the bottom half of two cops and Richard LaBombard on the freight elevator.
Slim hissed to me. "Make it snappy!"
I was trying to, but I couldn't get the thing open. Five thousand dollars in that safe and I couldn't get it. I spun the dial frantically and started over.
But now the ramp was filled with people. The cops were getting off the elevator. I jumped up and ran over to where Steve was standing.
The building inspector was staring bug-eyed at his huge car. Somebody went around the stall and saw the six-inch car crawling out. Somebody else took hold of the stall and shook it. "Where's my car? What's going on?"
Well, a mob is a funny thing. In about half a minute there were eight hundred people in that basement, and all of them tearing apart the reducing stall.
Slim and I hesitated no longer. We ran up the stairway and sifted out through the crowd....