by Maisy Morgan
“Yeah,” Eddie said fiddling with the nearby coffee maker. “They have their own copy.”
Mary heard the coffee maker buzz to life, and she could already smell the grounds as they came in contact with the steaming hot water. “Do you mind if I get a cup of that?” Mary asked.
“Sure, give it a second though. It’s slow,” Eddie said.
They watched the footage of the day play out in real time occasionally fast forwarding or rewinding the events that had taken place that unfortunate afternoon of the robbery. Mary jumped forward a little when they arrived at the scene of the shooting. “We all know what happened here,” Mary said uncomfortably. “Wait, have we checked out footage from earlier in the day? To see if anyone had been scoping the place out?”
“Do you think a couple of robbers would have scoped the place out the same day as the robbery?” Preston questioned.
“Wouldn’t you want to know who was working? How many employees would be there?” Mary questioned.
“That’s not a bad point,” Preston confirmed.
Eddie passed out a full coffee mug to each of them while tossing Mary a creamer upon request. “Hold on,” Eddie said. “I can go back to the beginning of the day.” Eddie fiddled a bit with the computer. It wasn’t too long before he had the footage from the start of the day up and ready for their viewing pleasure.
“Have you looked through all of this?” Mary asked taking a sip of the coffee as they watched the tellers walk back and forth for a few minutes chatting a bit in clusters as they arrived one by one.
“No, I’ve just seen the actual robbery and about an hour or so leading up to it,” Preston said. “The Peachtree City police have all of the footage. I think they’ve been skimming through it all.”
“Wait, is that Josephine?” Mary asked taking note of a woman in a pink ballcap standing next to a man in sunglasses as they arrived in the banker’s line.
“It looks like it,” Eddie said.
“Was she there more than once that day?” Preston asked curiously.
Eddie thought for a moment before answering. “Yeah, actually,” he said. “I wasn’t the one who helped her, but I think that she made a cash withdrawal that morning. I had completely forgotten she’d been here already that day. The days kind of start to blend together after a while.”
“She made a deposit right before the robbery,” Mary said. “Why would she withdraw cash only to turn around and deposit it?”
“Eddie, can you go look up for me how much she withdrew that morning and how much she deposited?” Preston asked.
“Um, I’m not sure if I can do that for you without a warrant,” Eddie said.
“Okay, you’re right,” Preston said. “Forget telling me how much she withdrew and deposited. Can you at least tell me if it was the same amount?’
“Yeah, hold on. I think I can do that,” Eddie said jumping up and dipping out of the room.
“Why would it matter if it was the same amount or not?” Mary asked.
“Well, it would make sense that if she deposited less than what she withdrew that morning then maybe she took some out to go shopping or something that day realized she took out more than she needed only to come back to deposit what she didn’t need. However, if she came in to withdraw money that morning only to deposit the same amount later, well, it would look almost like she withdrew money to come and scope the place out and then deposited it later so that she would have something to do when the robbery was taking place. Perhaps, she was involved,” Preston explained.
Eddie arrived back shortly, nodding his head. “Yeah, Preston, you were right,” he said. “She withdrew the same amount of money she was trying to deposit during the robbery.”
While Eddie and Preston discussed with one another what this could possibly mean. Mary watched as Josephine withdrew cash from the bank and chatted with the man in the sunglasses. For a split second, the glasses were just low enough on his nose when he leaned his head downward and the camera caught it perfectly. Mary could make out a good bit of the mystery man’s face. She paused the footage. “Hey, either of you know who this guy is?” Mary asked. “Because based off his body type, I think this might be our mystery robber!”
Preston stared at the footage for a moment. “Aww, man,” he said suddenly. “Yeah, I’d say so.”
“Ain’t that her brother?” Eddie asked.
“That’s exactly who that is,” Preston said. “Josephine’s twin brother, Joseph.”
“So, Josephine and her brother were in here the morning of the robbery scoping the place out. Josephine made a cash withdrawal which gave her an excuse as to why she would be in the bank that morning while her brother checked the place out. Then that evening, wait,” Mary’s mind went back to the evening of the robbery for a moment. She remembered sitting next to Josephine while she was texting Preston. Josephine had started having a coughing fit, and that’s when the robbers noticed Mary texting. Josephine had known about the robbery! She had been the inside woman. She had been there to pose as one of the hostages to secretly help keep an eye on them to help the masked robbers. Josephine’s little cough hadn’t been a coincidence. She wanted Mary to get caught. She had nearly gotten Mary shot.
“Looks like we’ve managed to find our getaway robber,” Mary said. “And I bet that Joseph would have been recognized by Roger in the parking lot of the bookshop. Roger probably didn’t know that Josephine was involved, and he decided to blackmail his girlfriend’s brother. Joseph next probably gave Roger the cash to shut him up, and then he jumped him at the park. Josephine might have mentioned to Joseph that she and Roger went to the park to jog in the mornings. Josephine probably didn’t realize Joseph was being blackmailed by Roger; otherwise, she wouldn’t have sent us to her house so confidently to look around for anything Roger might have been up to. She probably hadn’t expected us to find that cash in his truck because she probably thought that her brother still had it!”
“I think that sounds about right,” Preston said, rewinding and then playing the footage from Joseph and Josephine’s visit to the bank that morning.
“Yeah, the more I look at this, the more Joseph looks like our escapee. He has the same walk and the same body build,” Mary stated.
“What a brave idiot blackmailing his girlfriend’s brother,” Eddie said with a smirk. “Are you guys pretty confident that was what was going on?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Preston said. “If we’re right, it means that we’ve identified our killer. Joseph, Josephine’s brother, murdered Roger.”
“You also might want to let Peachtree City police know that there was a fourth robber—Josephine,” Mary said.
“Agreed. Our next step is to talk to Joseph,” Preston said. “I think we might just have enough with this footage to arrest him on probable cause along with Josephine.”
“Sweet,” Eddie said. “I kind of feel like a detective.”
Mary smirked. “If you say so, Eddie. Preston, where do we find Joseph?”
Preston, who was already dialing a number on his phone, grinned. “I’m already on it. The station just got back to me with an address. Do you want to come?”
“You know it,” Mary said, already jumping up out of her seat. She turned to Eddie. “Thank you so much for your help Eddie.”
“Of course,” Eddie gladly replied.
“Can you stay here and get me a copy of all of this?” Preston asked waving to the televisions that were currently replaying the footage.
“I’m on it,” Eddie said.
“Great,” Preston said as he and Mary headed for the door. “Let’s go get Joseph. It’s time to wrap this thing up in a nice and pretty bow for both Brooks and Peachtree City investigators.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mary sat in the passenger’s seat of Preston’s patrol car as they zipped back into Brooks. He had managed to get the address of a rental home on the southside of Brooks that was Joseph’s last known address. Preston was just in the middle of trying to
tell Mary that he should drop her off at her house before going to confront a potential murderer and bank robber when she reached across to him and gave him a friendly smack on the arm. “Don’t even start with me Preston,” she firmly stated. “I want to see this thing through until the end.”
“You are really stubborn. Do you know that?” he said laughing. “Okay, well, the good news is that we are about there.”
Being almost to Joseph’s meant that they were almost in a place named Griffin. They drove down a backwoods dirt road where Joseph’s current residence was located. The low riding patrol car bounced a good bit as they headed down the unkept street, and eventually, they spotted a rickety mailbox with the number 431 with the 1 hanging upside down as it had come lose. They parked right at the edge of the driveway because they didn’t want the arrival of a patrol car to alert Joseph and cause him to flee. Instead, they crept out of the vehicle and began the long descent down the driveway and toward the small trailer-style home.
“How long has he been staying here?” Mary asked.
“From what the research at the station has managed to gather for me, he was living in an upscale neighborhood in Peachtree City for quite some time, but he lost his job a while back and wound up here about six months ago,” Preston said looking around at the various “NO TRESPASSING” signs posted here and there.
There was very little grass in the front yard. Instead, it was filled with piles of dirt and ant beds. Eventually, they arrived at the front porch which happened to be an unpainted, rickety porch built around the former trailer. “It’s not a bad lot,” Preston said. “At least he’s got a lot of acreage he’s living on. If he was living in that uppity neighborhood in Peachtree City before coming here though, it might have felt like a serious downfall for him. Shoot, I wouldn’t mind this place. You could set up a nice deer stand over there.”
“You hunt?” Mary asked.
“I’m from Georgia,” he said with a wink. He started to knock on the door, but Mary stopped him and pointed toward the side of the house where a patch of cracking cement was playing the role of a parking spot for two separate cars.
“Isn’t that Josephine’s?” she pointed to one.
“It looks like the twins are hanging out today,” Preston said in a hushed whisper. They could hear voices rather clearly coming from the house, and Mary pointed to the partially cracked camper window. The two of them slowly snuck over toward the window and knelt down underneath it.
Mary wasn’t sure why, but she felt the need to hold her breath while they sat there crouched under the low window listening to the raised voices of Josephine and Joseph. Preston peeked up for just a moment before ducking back down. “There’s a bunch of cash sitting on the table, more pearls, and some nice-looking watches,” he said in a soft tone. “It looks like we didn’t manage to get all of what was taken that day from Roger’s truck.”
“I thought that duffle bag looked a little empty,” Mary said softly but assured. “I’m guessing Roger didn’t take all of Joseph’s earnings from that day.”
“Honestly, Joseph!” Josephine was shouting. “You couldn’t have told me it was Roger who was blackmailing you?”
“Yeah, well, what was I supposed to do Joe-Joe?” Mary heard Joseph’s voice and recognized it instantly as the aggravated third robber working alongside his trigger-happy friends.
“What were you supposed to do? You were supposed to come to me, that’s what!” Josephine snapped. “I put this thing together for you, remember? Now, two of my best friends are dead, and my boyfriend!”
“You can’t blame that on me,” Joseph snapped. “Jacob Price and Savannah Bright, I mean are you serious? I should have told you no the second you told me those were the two you got to go in with me. Joe-Joe, you manipulated your old high school boyfriend and your college roomie to do the job. You’re an idiot.”
“No, you’re an idiot,” Josephine said. “Jacob and Savannah got themselves killed. They should have followed you out of that employee entrance the second we realized they were sending in the SWAT team. I was giving all of them the signal, but you were the only one who noticed. I had been watching those windows the whole time. You’re alive because you followed the plan. Jacob and Savannah, I can forgive you for, but Roger?”
Preston and Mary exchanged glances. Mary had her phone on record and held up it toward the window. It seemed too easy. It seemed like they were going to get Joseph on the robbery and murder in one go by confessing the crime to his sister on tape. “That’s not my fault Joe-Joe, and you know it!” Joseph exclaimed, and it sounded almost like a frightful whine. “You told me no one was going to get hurt, and we’ve got three dead bodies on our hands!”
“Three bodies of people I care about. Ones that you don’t,” Josephine cried out, “so get over yourself.”
“Get over it?” Joseph snarled.
“You realize I led the police straight to the other half of the stash. Right?” Josephine snapped. “I could kill you. I gave them permission to search my house because I knew they wouldn’t find anything since we planned everything here. Then I gave them permission to search Roger’s car! I didn’t know you idiot! I didn’t know the cash was in there!”
“What did he even tell you that day at the park?” Joseph asked.
“Uhg!” Josephine growled. “I told you. I dumped his butt after that stupid fight with Nathan. I was getting tired of his attitude. He wound up circling back and following me after I decided to do a final lap around the lake. I thought we were going to talk it out, and then he whips out that necklace. He says he bought it for me from you. I made up this stupid story about you selling jewelry to make some extra cash. Roger was an idiot. I knew then that something was up because I knew the pearls came from the bag you got away with. I can’t believe you gave him half of our stash.”
“Yeah well, I put the dye in the bag,” Joseph said like he thought this was funny. “It didn’t wind up going off when I left the bank, but I found the device inside, so when Roger made me give up the duffle bag, I shoved it in there and gave it a shake.”
“Yes, and that made things worse!” Josephine grimaced. “The police knew it was from the bank robbery thanks to that genius move on your part. Right now, I think the police believe Roger was the third robber. For now, we’ve just got to let them think that. I think we might be okay.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t have to kill him, Joe-Joe,” Joseph said, and Mary’s jaw dropped.
“Yes I did, to protect you! You oaf!” Josephine snapped. “If Roger had known I had been involved, if you had just come to me, he might would have backed off. But, no, you being you thought you could handle this one yourself. Obviously, that was not the case. You can’t do anything right! I swear.”
“You’re the one who stabbed him,” Joseph said. “You didn’t have to do that. The poor guy probably didn’t even know why his girlfriend went after him like that.”
“Shut up!” Josephine shouted. “I had to do it. He would have blabbed and told everyone who you were.”
“If you were so sure he would have backed off if he knew you were involved, why not tell him then and there?” Joseph asked. “When he showed you the pearls?”
“It was because I had just dumped his butt!” Josephine snapped. “What if he decided to be bitter about it? He could have gone off and told the police that I was involved and that you were involved. I had no idea he knew until he showed me those pearls and stupidly told me that he got them from you. That’s why I did it Joseph. I had to in order to keep you from getting us both in trouble. If you had just come to me to begin with, none of this would have ever happened!”
Mary pulled her phone down from the window and shot a smirk in Preston’s direction. Preston put his finger to his lips and stepped around Mary encouraging her to follow. They headed halfway back up the driveway before Preston pulled out his phone. “I’m going to call for backup,” he said. “I don’t know if Joseph has his gun in there or not, and Josephine’s in t
here too.”
“I can’t believe Josephine played us,” Mary scowled. “I was convinced she had nothing to do with it.”
“Same here,” Preston said. “But she did it. She killed Roger after realizing he knew about Joseph.”
“Oh no Preston,” Mary said suddenly gripping him by the arm and pointing toward the house. Josephine was looking out the window staring right at them. “She knows,” Mary said. “She knows that we know.”
“Let’s not panic yet. Let’s just calmly walk up to the house,” Preston said. “We’ll just act like we heard she was here and need to do a follow up interview.”
They heard the sound of a shotgun going off from the house, and they both immediately sprinted behind a nearby barn that was just barely standing upright. It was worn down and beaten by the weather and old age. “They’re shooting at us!” Mary screamed as they ducked down behind the barn.
“Joe-Joe! What are you doing?” Joseph shouted. “You can’t be shooting my gun off like that!”
Josephine was marching up the driveway towards them. Preston had his gun drawn and ready. Mary could hear Josephine reloading the shot gun. “She’s crazy,” Mary said with no doubt in her muttering voice.
“Josephine!” Preston called from their hiding place. “Josephine, we know, all right? We know you planned the robbery and sent in your brother and friends to be the masked villains of this whole thing. I already called in for backup. They are on their way now. You best put that gun down before you get yourself in even more trouble.”
“I am not about to let you cart my brother and me off to jail,” she snapped, and Mary could hear the woman getting closer.
Josephine fired the gun off a second time, and split bits and pieces of wood went off in all directions around them. “Dang!” Mary cried out.
“Come on out Preston because I’m gonna blow your head off!” Josephine declared.