The Gangster (Isaac Bell 9)

“Read the name.”

“Stevens.”

“You can’t buy the Stevens brand in New York City. It’s made in New Jersey by a subsidiary of Dupont’s Eastern Dynamite Company and distributed to small-town hardware stores. It’s a short stick, shorter than what you’d find in mining or big excavation jobs. For farmers blowing stumps.”

“Where’d the Black Hand get ahold of it?”

“Some hardware or feedstore in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, I’d guess. Point is, they didn’t buy or steal it in New York City.”

Bell remembered that Giuseppe Vella claimed that his foreman, Russo, had discovered the overcharge too late to stop the water main explosion. It was a long shot, but he wondered whether Russo had noticed in the confusion the type of dynamite in the overcharge?

Vella had no telephone since the Combustibles Department put him out of business. Bell hurried downtown and found him at his house on 13th Street. Vella greeted him warily, and Bell guessed that he had paid the ransom the Black Hand had demanded for the rescued Maria. He showed Vella the empty Stevens dynamite tube.

“Have you ever seen this brand?”

“In the countryside.”

“Not in New York?”

“Not on my jobs.”

“Did your foreman Russo happen to say anything about the dynamite in the overcharge?”

“He was excited, yelling, ‘Big-a bang! Big-a bang!’”

“But when he disconnected the detonating wires, would he have noticed what brand it was?”

Vella shrugged. “Who knows?”

Only Russo, thought Bell. “Is it possible, Mr. Vella, that Russo himself laid the overcharge for the Black Hand?”

Vella shrugged. “Who knows? Anything is possible.”

“How likely?”

“Not likely. Sante Russo is a good man.”

“Do you know where he is?”

Vella hesitated.

Bell said, “I am hunting the criminals who ruined your job. The criminals who kidnapped your daughter. Russo can help me find them.”

“How?”

“It is important that I learn if this is the same dynamite that ruined your job.”

Vella nodded. “O.K. I understand . . . Russo sent a telegram asking would I wire him the money he was owed for hi

s last week of work. His salary.”

“Where did you send the money?”

“What makes you think I paid him?”

“You’re an honest man, Giuseppe Vella. It would never occur to you not to pay a man who worked for you. Even if he’s on the run and can’t collect it. Did he come for the money or did you send it?”

“He asked that I wire it to St. Louis.”