Bank Job

by James Heneghan

  The man stared at me. Maybe he wasn’t a cop. Maybe he was looking to pick up a street kid. I knew that happened to kids, guys pretending to ask for directions and offering money for sex.

  Sicko.

  I jammed my fists into my pockets and turned my back on the guy.

  I checked my watch. It was 1:22 PM.

  Billy was taking forever. What was going on in that bank? He should have called off the holdup if it was too dangerous.

  The freaky guy in the Honda drove away. That was a relief. I wiped my nose on my sleeve again.

  Finally, at 1:26 PM, Billy gave the signal and I headed over to the bank.

  Billy presented his note, and as the terrified teller was reaching into the drawer for the cash, I left to wait outside.

  Billy came flying out of the bank, flipped off his ball cap, mustache, and glasses, and dropped them into my bag along with the money. Then he took off around the corner, heading for the mall.

  I moved down the street in the other direction, turned the corner and made the hand off to Tom. Tom grabbed my bag and disappeared.

  It was 1:32 PM.

  I walked back toward the bank, muttering, “Be calm. Be calm.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the beige Honda was back.

  The driver was watching me. It was creeping me out. Was this it? Was I was about to be arrested? Thank God I didn’t have the money. Had the Honda creep seen the handoffs?

  “Hey! Girl!” He pulled up beside me.

  He looked like an undercover cop sure enough. He needed a shave, and he had a bald head, pockmarked face and wet lips.

  “Hey, girl? Stop right there!”

  I turned to face him, head and heart pounding, nose running like a tap. He was close. Too close.

  He grinned, baring yellow teeth. “I been watchin’ you.”

  I said nothing and stared at the wet lips.

  “You’re real pretty. You know that, girl? You wanna make fifty bucks?”

  I spat a big gob of snot in his ugly face and bolted.

  The SkyTrain station was less than a block away.

  I ran as fast as I could. I took a quick look behind to see if the creep was following me, but I couldn’t see him.

  I was panting hard when I got to the SkyTrain station. I ducked inside and fed my pass into the slot. Then I jumped onto the train and dropped into the closest seat with a groan of relief.

  There were only a few people in the carriage.

  My nose was dripping. I was wet. I was cold. My head pounded.

  The three-tone bell rang out but before the doors could swish shut, someone jammed himself in between them and pushed his way inside.

  The creep? I got ready to run to someone for help.

  But it was only Tom.

  “What are you doing here?” I hissed, glaring at him. “You’re supposed to take a different train.”

  “Quit telling me what to do,” he hissed back. He yanked the shopping bag out of his pack, flung it onto my lap and thumped down on the seat in front of me.

  I grabbed the bag. “Look. The only way this will work is if we all do what we’re supposed to. That’s what Billy said. Okay?”

  “I’m sick of it,” he muttered. “I’m sick of you. And I’m sick of Billy.”

  “We’ll get caught if we’re not careful.”

  “So?”

  “So if we’re seen together someone might figure the whole thing out.”

  An old woman wearing a floppy rain hat turned and stared at us. Had she heard?

  I shot her my mean squinty-eyed look. She turned away quickly to look out the gritty window.

  “Anyway,” I said, poking Tom’s back. “You shouldn’t be here.”

  “Look,” Tom said. “Why should I stand out there in the rain freezing my butt off just because you said to?”

  “It’s all part of the plan. Surely even you can understand that?”

  “Like I said, I’m sick of this whole deal. It’s just not worth it.”

  “Not worth it? How can you say that? If we don’t do this, you know we’ll be sent away. They’ll probably send you to someone like Mrs. Osberg, and she’ll beat you with her cane. How will you like that?”

  Tom shook his head. “Look,” he said, keeping his voice low. “What we’re doing is wrong. Wrong. Period. Besides it just isn’t working. There’s no way we can get ten grand. Might as well be a million at the rate we’re going.” He cracked his knuckles. “I’ve had it. There’s no way I’ll let Billy talk me into it again.” He made a fist with one hand and punched his other palm hard— again and again.

  I flinched. I knew he was wishing it was Billy and me he was punching.

  “You guys won’t have me to boss around anymore,” he growled.

  He had quit for good this time. I could tell.

  When we got to Patterson Station, I pushed through the crowd to get off quickly, but Tom was right behind me. He was out of the train and running down the escalator. I tried to get away so no one would know we were together. But he stuck to me like dog crap to the sole of a shoe. I swung the shopping bag ready to wallop him, but he stayed just out of my reach. I powered up the hill to the Hardy house. Tom was right behind me the whole time.

  When we got to the front door, we were both breathless. He flicked his house key out of his pocket before I could dig out mine, unlocked the door and barged in ahead of me.

  He stopped dead. I ran into him.

  Uh-oh. Janice was here. She wasn’t supposed to be home until four.

  TWENTY

  Janice poked her head out from the kitchen. “Hi there, you two. You’re early. Want a cup of tea? I just made a fresh pot.”

  “Tea sounds good. Thanks,” I said, trying to sound normal as I peeled off my soaked jacket and draped it over the rack by the front door. But what should I do with the bag? I couldn’t leave it there.

  Janice touched my forehead. “You’re hot, Nell. And you look awful. A nice warm cup of tea and an aspirin is what you need. Then you should take a good long shower.”

  She disappeared into the kitchen. I followed reluctantly and grabbed a handful of tissues. Tom was right behind me. Janice gave us tea, scalding hot. “Did they let you out early today?”

  I racked my brain for an explanation.

  I started my lie. “The teachers let us out at noon because they have this very important meeting, so…”

  Tom interrupted, puffing air out of his mouth like a blowfish. “That’s a lie,” he said flatly. He cracked his knuckles. “A total lie. We skipped out.”

  “Shut up,” I hissed, glaring at him.

  “Not only that,” he went on, ignoring me, “We’ve been skipping out all month.”

  Janice said, “Skipping out of school? But…I don’t get it.” Her laugh was uncertain. “You’re good kids, remember? Good kids don’t skip out of school.”

  “Us? Good kids? Ha!” Tom laughed hoarsely. “That’s a joke. You know what your good kids have been doing?” He turned his back on me. “We’ve been robbing banks.”

  My heart plunged. How could Tom be such a dirty traitor? After taking the oath of secrecy. I was horrified.

  Janice’s mouth dropped open. In a state of shock, she couldn’t speak. Finally, she said, “Robbing…I don’t understand.”

  “Show her the money, Nails,” Tom demanded.

  Janice turned to me, face collapsed like a burst basketball.

  I clutched my shopping bag close and stood up.

  Tom growled. “Come on. Let Janice see what’s in the bag.”

  I backed away clutching it to my chest.

  Tom wrestled it from me and emptied it out onto the kitchen table. Billy’s fake moustache, glasses and ball cap fell out. A few bills fluttered out of the cap.

  “Go ahead, Janice,” said Tom. “Take a look at what your good kids have done.”

  Janice picked up the bills. “You want to tell me where this money came from?” she asked me quietly.

  I shrugged.
>
  “From a bank in Vancouver,” Tom told her. “Not much of a take this time though.”

  I was numb with shock.

  “This time?” Janice said, her voice cracking. “You mean…”

  There was a rattle at the front door and Billy came bumbling in, a grin plastered on his face. He noticed the shopping bag and its contents spread about the table. Then he looked at Janice holding the money. His grin vanished.

  “Billy is in on this too,” Tom told Janice. “We’re bank robbers, all three of us.”

  Janice dropped the bills like they were suddenly red hot.

  “I don’t believe it!” she whispered.

  “It’s true,” said Tom.

  Janice stared at us, her eyes huge. I wished with all my being that I was somewhere else. Anywhere.

  Janice made a visible effort to pull herself together.

  “Take off your jacket and come and sit at the table,” she told Billy in the voice she used when she wanted to sound tough. “And don’t any of you move.”

  We sat. Billy stared at Tom, his brow furrowed like he was wondering what was going on. Tom wouldn’t look at either of us.

  It was turning into a nightmare. Tom was a dirty rotten fink, a traitor. He was our own Judas. Right then, I hated him.

  Janice punched phone buttons.

  Billy patted me lightly on the shoulder as if to say, “Don’t worry.”

  How could I not worry when bombs were falling all around, when the earth was opening to swallow me up, when my whole life was sliding down the garbage chute?

  Janice spoke into the phone. “Joseph. We’ve got a problem here. Can you come home? Nobody’s injured, but we need you, okay?”

  While we were waiting for Joseph, Janice started in with the questions. “Where is the rest of the money?”

  I told her.

  “Get it,” she said.

  Head pounding, I dragged myself up the stairs and got the shoe box from the closet. The running total on the lid was pitiful. A mere $5,470.00. We were only a little over halfway to our goal.

  I took my time plodding down the stairs. Then I plunked the box on the table.

  Janice looked inside, gasped, and then put the lid back on like it was full of deadly tarantulas.

  By the time Joseph got home, Janice had a good idea of what had happened, so she explained it to him.

  Joseph looked at Tom, then me and Billy, his kind face baffled, disappointed.

  “Just how many banks did you rob?”

  “Six,” I said.

  “Seven,” said Billy, “if you include one failure.”

  Joseph’s eyes popped. “Seven! How? How could three kids manage to rob seven banks and not get caught? I don’t believe it!”

  Tom told all.

  Janice was struggling to hold back tears.

  They listened. They didn’t interrupt. When Tom had finished, Joseph asked, “But why? Why would you kids ever do such a crazy stupid thing?”

  I said, “Because we don’t want to leave here. Don’t ever want to leave you and Janice.”

  Joseph frowned. “I don’t get it.”

  “The money was for a new bathroom,” I burst out. “We had no other choice.”

  Janice murmured faintly, “New bathroom?”

  By now, what with my headache and running nose, and the horrible way I was feeling about disappointing Janice and Joseph, I couldn’t stop the tears.

  “That’s why we needed ten grand,” I cried. “We had this great system going. We would never get caught if Tom hadn’t blabbed. We were going to get enough money to pay for the bathroom so none of us would have to leave.”

  Joseph shook his head. His voice rose. “Do you kids realize how dangerous it is to rob a bank?”

  He got up from the table and started pacing, trying to control his anger. “You could be gunned down by security,” he said. “You could be killed! And other people in the bank could be killed! For what? For a few lousy dollars?”

  We all watched him. Nobody said a thing.

  “Madness!” cried Joseph. “Were you on drugs?” He looked at me.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “We don’t do drugs,” said Billy. “You know that.”

  “I don’t know anything,” said Joseph. “Not after this, I don’t!”

  Janice said, “Take it easy, Joe.”

  Finally, he cooled down, stopped pacing and looked at each of us in turn—me, Billy, Tom—his face grim.

  “You know what we’ve got to do, don’t you?”

  “What?” I said through my tissues and tears.

  “Call the police of course,” said Joseph.

  Tom’s head snapped up. “Why can’t you just punish us? We’re just kids. We can’t go to jail,” he said.

  “We’ve got no choice. Robbery is a crime, you know that. Crimes must be reported to the police. What did you think would happen?” Joseph asked him, amazed.

  “I thought you’d just take the money and get the friggin’ bathroom.”

  “We couldn’t do that. It’s stolen money. We could never use stolen money. Don’t you see that?”

  We sat there silent for a minute while the truth of what Joseph said sunk in.

  Joseph gave a deep sigh. “You kids haven’t thought this through very well, have you?” he said, reaching for the phone.

  I dried my eyes with bunched tissues. “Wait,” I said. “What if we turn ourselves in? What then?”

  Joseph looked at Janice desperately.

  “It would keep you and Janice out of it,” I said to Joseph. “None of it is your fault.”

  “We don’t want to be kept out of it,” said Janice. “It is our fault. We knew something was going on, but we didn’t know what. We should have asked more questions. I blame myself.”

  Joseph hung up the phone.

  “I’m not turning myself in!” Tom said. “No friggin’ way!”

  Janice got up from the table and started filling the kettle. We all watched her in silence. She plugged in the kettle, and then turned to face us. “Turn yourselves in or…”

  We waited.

  “Or we call the police.” Joseph finished. “Now.”

  Head pounding, eyes watering, I said, “Don’t worry, Janice. We’ll do it.”

  Joseph said, “I’ll drive you over there.”

  I looked at Billy. Billy put a hand on Tom’s shoulder. Tom took a deep breath, and then he shrugged. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s do it.”

  “No,” I said. “You can trust us. We’ll SkyTrain over.”

  I dragged myself upstairs to the shower.

  TWENTY-ONE

  I felt better after the hot shower and dry clothes. I emptied the money from the shoe box into the shopping bag and we SkyTrained downtown to the police station.

  We were the Three Musketeers, together still, even though our secret was out, even though Tom had ratted us out.

  It was funny, but I was feeling relieved, almost glad, and so was Tom. I could see it in his face. The crime spree was over. He hadn’t cracked his knuckles once since his confession.

  I wasn’t sure about Billy, but I thought he might be looking forward to the new adventure that would come once the police had their hands on us. It was odd, and I didn’t understand it, but it was like an unspoken agreement kept us together to face this next challenge: the law.

  I’d never been in a police station before, not that I could remember anyway.

  I sneaked a look at Billy’s calm face and wondered if he knew something about police stations.

  There were a bunch of people milling about at a high counter. Staffing the counter were two police officers in blue uniform shirts, no hats. Behind the counter, two more police officers sat at a table, one writing, the other talking on the phone.

  We sat on a bench at the back of the room and waited for the hubbub to die down.

  After most of the people were gone one of the police officers noticed us. “You waiting to see someone?” He was an older man, wit
h thin gray hair and a ginger, nicotine-stained mustache.

  I stepped forward. Billy and Tom followed. The counter came up to my nose. “We’ve come to confess,” I told him.

  Billy nodded. “We’re turning ourselves in,” he said.

  Tom cracked his knuckles.

  The officer smiled. “Oh, yes? Robbed a bank then, have we?”

  “Six,” I said.

  “Seven,” said Billy.

  The officer turned to his partner, laughing. “You hear that, Beckett? These kids robbed banks.” He pointed. “She robbed six and he robbed seven.”

  “Thirteen!” his partner cried.

  “No,” said Tom “seven in total.”

  “Oh, well now, seven’s not so bad.” He laughed.

  I held up my bag. “And we’re returning the money.”

  The officer named Beckett took the bag and looked inside. He did a good imitation of fish eyes. “Well, I’ll be…!”

  The first officer looked in the bag. His grin disappeared. Fish eyes again. “How much money is in here?”

  I shrugged. The total wasn’t important. Why didn’t they arrest us and get it over with?

  “Stay right there,” Beckett told us. He picked up a phone and spoke into it. Then he hung up and stared at us, shaking his head. “Come with me.”

  We followed him along a corridor to a door marked “Chief Inspector Teal.” Beckett knocked on the door before pushing it open. Chief Inspector Teal was wearing a dark suit with a green tie. He got up from his desk as we entered. “Sit down,” he said. “Could you bring an extra chair, Beckett?”

  Officer Beckett put the bag on the Chief Inspector’s desk and left. Seconds later, he was back with a chair.

  We sat facing the Chief Inspector’s desk. Billy was on one side of me, Tom was on the other.

  Officer Beckett left again.

  “Now what’s this all about? You robbed some banks, is that right?” The Chief Inspector used the friendly tone adults often use for children. He smiled at us the way a fond father smiles at clever but naughty kiddies.

  I pointed to the bag on the desk. “The money we stole is there, every penny.”

  The Chief Inspector looked in the bag and then emptied it onto his desk. The bills fell out, and formed a paper mountain in the middle of the desk. A few of them fluttered to the floor.