“I can’t believe they are questioning me
about this again! How many times do I have to tell them I know
nothing about what happened at the bank.
I was just minding my business when the shot was fired.”
“Man!
These dudes are screwed up if they think I’m going to admit to
anything. Yeah, Paul and me thought this
would be an easy way of getting money, me going in as a customer and him coming
in as a bank robber, but they’ll play hell getting me to admit to anything.”
“I’ve never been so afraid in my
life. There I was standing in line and
the next thing I know the man behind me pulls a gun and threatens to kill all
of us if he doesn’t get what he wants.
Now the police are trying to get me to remember what the man looked
like. How am I supposed to know what the
man looked like when I was afraid for my life?”
“Why people crying? What’s that man all covered in black? Is he like Spiderman? Why Mommy crying? Ow!
Too tight, Mommy. Hand hurts.”
“Thank you, God. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I was so scared. So scared.
Penny is safe and so am I, that’s all that matters. Penny!
Where’s my baby? Oh, there she
is. I’m holding her hand.”
“Two more weeks till retirement and this
shit happens. That ass had to come in
and ruin my perfect record. Now there’s
a mar on my record and no way to wipe it clean. That rat bastard boss of mine is claiming I
was too slow to react do to age. Two
weeks shy of forty years and they want me to retire now instead of at the forty
year mark when I’d get full benefits.
They screwed everyone else out of their full retirement; I guess I
shouldn’t have expected any better from them.
Hell, I have vacation time, I should have taken it and then there wouldn’t
have been anything they could have done.”
“I really hate this job! If I wasn’t so sure that Bobby would leave
his wife and marry me if I just hang in long enough, I would have blown this
job off as soon as he made me his mistress.
He was paying all my bills, I got a monthly allowance, and a credit card
for whatever I wanted. The only reason I
continued to work here is that I wanted to make sure some other bimbo didn’t
get her claws into my man. I just needed
to wait for him to realize that I could offer him so much more than his frigid
wife.”
“Damn!
This is all I needed. Once
Barbara heard about the robbery she was all over me. I can’t go two steps without her breathing
down my neck. What’s more, she’s asking
me a bunch of questions about Tiffany.
How many times do I have to swear the woman is just an employee of the
bank? Barbara’s like a shark that scents
blood. Vindictive bitch! If she didn’t have control of all the money I’d
divorce her in a heartbeat.”
“One fifteen p.m., suspect enters
bank. He’s close to six feet, within a
couple inches either way. Lean frame,
like a swimmer or tennis player. Voice
slightly elevated, maybe do to fear of getting caught. He kept looking to the right, like someone
would if they were working with a partner.
There were three people in that area.
One woman around sixty, a young woman early twenties, and a man in his
mid to late twenties. Both women seemed
genuinely afraid, but the young man seemed to be trying to look more like he
was concerned rather than actually bothered by the robbery. His features were relegated to memory as with
everything else that had happened since the gunman had entered. Some days it paid to have a photographic
memory.”
“Get in and out, that what we’d
planned. Jeff on the inside and me
coming in and getting the cash. Then once
I had the money, leave, get changed, and come back to comfort Jeff as if we
were lovers. No one the wiser. That’s what we planned. And it was working. No one was giving us a second glance.”
“I wanted to see my grandson just once
before I died. That was all I was
thinking as that man came into the bank and pulled that gun out. I was just thankful to still be alive. I was so grateful that Jane, my aide was all
right too. She was so young and full of
life.”
“I knew we shouldn’t have gone to the bank
today. Why is it I never listen to
myself about shit like this? The gunmen
seemed to be focused more in our area than on the teller who was filling the
bag with money. What I couldn’t figure
out is why no one was doing anything.
The President of the bank was standing next to one of the other
employees, and if body language was anything to go by, those two were heating
up the sheets. The guard was hiding
behind one of the columns at the edge of the lobby so as not to draw attention
to himself. True, he was up there in age
but at least he had a gun. He hadn’t
even attempted to make himself known when the gunman first entered. None of the tellers had tried to press that
little button that would tell the police that a robbery was in progress. There was a lot about this that didn’t make
sense. Why is it that I couldn’t get the
gunman out of my head? I closed my eyes
trying to bring him into better focus, and then it hit me. The man in the ski mask, black shirt and
slacks, looked almost exactly like the man who’d been standing beside Genevieve
and me during the robbery. There was
something else…what was it? I had
it! The tattoos! Both me had the same demon tattooed onto the
back of their hands. Shit!
Just like the man standing beside him now.”
“Out of all of these witnesses, we have
two that gave us anything useful. Jane
was making her way over to me. Wonder if
she thought of something else that might be of some use?”
Jane stopped beside Detective
Falcone. She leaned in, keeping her
voice whisper soft as she said, “The two men standing together over there, they
both have demon tattoos on the backs of their hands. The gunman had a tattoo like that and he kept
looking over our way. The man there was
standing near us.”
Falcone smiled. “Thank you, miss.” He stood up and made his way to the two men
in question.
Just as he got close, Paul and Jeff got
nervous and bolted. They didn’t get far,
Falcone’s partner was standing in front of the door with his weapon drawn. The two men stopped with their hands in the
air.
Well done. Hard to take in but good.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I had a lot of fun writing this one.
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