“Yes, Miss Sanchez. I want to bring my son with me to view the box. Does he need to sign in also?”
“Is he on the account?”
“Yes.”
“Then just have him sign below your name.”
Bill gave the pen to Jason who felt very important as he signed his name, date, and time.
“I’ll be right back, Mr. Hunter,” Miss Sanchez told them.
After she walked away, Jason said to his dad, “I didn’t know you had me on the account.”
“Actually, I don’t. But this will save time. Since she’s new she probably won’t know how to check that out in their records, not that it even matters.”
A couple minutes later, Miss Sanchez buzzed open the entry door. Mr. Hunter and Jason entered the vault area and walked to his box number. Since his box was stored up high, Miss Sanchez brought over a stepping stool. Then the two of them inserted their keys and turned them.
“Something doesn’t feel right. There is no resistance when I turn the key,” Mr. Hunter commented.
“Mine seems okay,” Miss Sanchez replied. “Let’s get your box out and see.”
When they pulled the box out, it looked as if there were some dents in it and a lot of the gray enamel paint was blackened. Immediately Mr. Hunter said, with real concern in his voice, “What has happened here?”
“I don’t know, Mr. Hunter. Let’s take it to the viewing area so you can examine it.”
When Bill opened the box, he could see that his concern was justified. The box was completely empty! No cash, papers or legacy items.
“I can’t believe this,” he exclaimed. “Miss Sanchez, come here!” After she approached, he said, “Someone has completely cleared out my box! How could that possibly happen?”
“Oh, dear,” Miss Sanchez replied. “I have no idea. Let me get the bank manager.”
In a few minutes, Randall Thorne, the bank manager stepped into the vault. “I understand there is a problem here. What has happened?” When Bill explained, the manager said, “This is dreadful. Something like this has never happened before at this branch. Miss Sanchez, I want you to call in security and then shut down the viewing entrance. No one except our security people will be allowed in here until we find out what has happened.”
Within a minute, the bank’s security officer was there. When the situation was explained to him, he immediately said, “Let go take a look at the storage area.” When they arrived there, he got up on the stool and with his flashlight looked inside the doors. “It looks like there was some sort of small explosion inside. That would explain how the box looks and why your key felt loose in the key hole. I don’t understand how this could be done. We always have a bank employee here and everything is monitored with security cameras except inside the viewing rooms.”
“I want you to pull all of the tapes for the camera that monitors this area of the vault,” Mr. Thorne said. “When was your last visit to your safe deposit box, Mr. Hunter? What time did you come in?”
“A week ago from today, actually, at around 10:30 a.m.”
“Start with that tape and see if you can figure out what happened,” Thorn said to the security officer, who then left to get the tapes.
“I think I know how it was done,” Bill stated. “While I was in here, there was another customer who was already in here. Once my box was taken out for viewing he must have installed the explosives that were used, probably some very low-level plastic explosive that was powerful enough to break the lock mechanism for my key, but yet not make a lot of noise. I’m sure he was in collusion with your ex-bank employee Adrian Evans.”
“You can be assured that the bank will get to the bottom of this and catch the culprits who did this! Why don’t we go to my office where we can talk about this in a more private and comfortable environment.”
“All right,” Bill said. “Let’s go. Come on, Jason.”
“If you would like, Mr. Hunter, I can arrange for someone to be with your son while we talk.”
“That’s all right, Mr. Thorne. My son is already involved in this in more ways than you can know. I don’t have any secrets from him in this particular matter. He and his friend Daniel were the ones who figured out that there might be a problem with the safe deposit box in the first place!”
When they arrived at Mr. Thorne’s office, he had them sit down and offered them refreshments, which were brought in by his secretary. While Mr. Hunter and Jason were sipping their drinks, Mr. Thorne was doing some typing on his computer.
“Mr. Hunter, again I want to offer the bank’s sincerest apology for what has happened to you. I see that you and your company have been long-time customers here. I want to assure you that the bank will do everything we can to get to the bottom of this and, of course, we will do our best to compensate you for any losses for which we are deemed liable. Can you give me, in confidence of course, any idea as to what was taken?”
“Personal and business papers, some of our working capital, plus legacy items that we were holding in trust for clients. I can’t give you a total estimate until I talk to some of our client’s attorneys.”
“We will do everything here to expedite the paper work. In the vault, you seemed to have an idea of how the crime was committed. Do you have any ideas as to the why?”
“We believe that this is connected to another serious crime, my son’s kidnapping.”
“Oh my gosh, now I know why you look so familiar! Jason, our whole family was shocked when we heard what had happened to you, especially my eleven-year-old son, Justin. He was really upset for some reason. He kept telling us, ‘That’s not right what they did to Jason. He’s really a nice person and shouldn’t be hurt like that!’ I don’t know if he actually knew you from somewhere or not but he really admires you for some reason. You and your family have already been through so much and now this! I am so very sorry.”
“Thank you for your kind words, Mr. Thorne,” Jason answered. “I think I remember your son. When he was first starting out in Little League, some of the older players, including myself, were asked to go help out some of the younger kids who were struggling with basic skills like batting and fielding. Justin was one of the kids I worked with. Tell him hello for me.”
“You can count on that. Justin will be thrilled that you still remember him.” Just then the telephone rang and Mr. Thorne answered. After a brief conversation he hung up. “That was my security chief. They think they have found on the security tape how and when your box was broken into. Let’s go over there and take a look at the tape.”
When they arrived at the security office, Mr. Thorne introduced everyone. “This is Ryan Nash, our bank’s chief security officer. Ryan, this is Mr. William Hunter, the account holder of the safe deposit box and his son, Jason.”
“Let’s take a look at the tapes, gentlemen. Okay, this camera shows your box storage area Friday morning. Then here you can see yourself and the bank employee at the time, Adrian Evans, unlocking the box and then starting to carry it over to a viewing area. Right after the two of you leave, this third person goes up to your box storage area and uses this glue-gun type tool inside the box. What he is doing is putting strips of plastic explosive along the inside of the customer side and all around the lock mechanisms. Now here it appears that he attaches a little thread, which I believe is probably fuse material. He quickly puts his tools away into a brief case and then goes away, probably back to his viewing area since he most likely was posing as a customer.
“We then see you and Evans return with your box. The box is replaced, the door is locked, and the two of you leave. About five minutes later, the unknown man returns. It looks as if he is pointing some sort of laser device at the tiny fuse and it ignites. Next, you can see a slight reverberation as the plastic explosive detonates. After everything settles for a minute, we then see the bank employee, Evans, open the box garage using only the left key. The door opens with only the bank key because the right key lock been disabled. The two of them then remove t
he box and take it to a viewing area where they must have removed the contents, and most likely the man carried them out in his briefcase.”
“So it seems clear that a major crime has occurred here,” Bill Hunter stated, “and that it was executed in a very bold and shameless manner. Now what can be done to catch the perpetrators?”
“Don’t worry about a thing, Mr. Hunter,” Thorne replied. “I am about to call the head office and they will put an entire team on it and notify the authorities. We will track down our recent employee, Adrian Evans, and do everything we can to find the other customer, who obviously had some involvement. Do you have any pictures of the other customer, Ryan?”
“Yes, I believe I can get him off of our other cameras. I will check his entry time against our bank records and see if I can profile his entire stay in our vault.”
“Excellent, Ryan. Do everything you can to make an airtight case of this. Let’s meet again on Monday, Mr. Hunter. I suggest you prepare an inventory sheet so we can look at what items for which the bank can provide restitution. I am sure by then that our entire bank investigation team will be in place and we will get the people that did this!”
“Okay, I am counting on you, Mr. Thorne,” Bill replied. “Jason, let’s go. I need to get back to the office to contact all the people affected by this crime.”
“Thank you for your patience and understanding, Mr. Hunter. We will do everything in our power to make things right for you!”
Bill and Jason quickly made their exit from the bank and got into Bill’s Explorer.
“Can you believe what we just witnessed, Jason?”
“Unfortunately, I can, Dad. Everything seems to be falling into place as to the why of this crime.”
“You and Daniel have done amazing work so far, Jason. I guess I owe you both.”
“Well, yes and no, Dad. I’m not doing this just for you as much as I would like to say I am. I really want to know who did this as well. But we’ll take any perks you offer us!” Jason replied with a big smile.
“Just name it, Son!”
“I’ll get back to you on that, Dad. You have enough to worry about right now.”
“Let’s do this for now. We’ll stop by the sandwich shop on Santa Clarita Street near our house so we both can have some lunch. Then I am going to drop you off at home and get back to the office. As you can imagine, I have a ton of work to do now. I want you to check in with me if you decide to go anywhere or come up with anything new.”
“Okay, Dad. I will be going to Daniel’s house around 1:00 p.m. That is our agreed meeting time during the week.”
CHAPTER 33
MOTIVE, MEANS, AND OPPORTUNITY
(Friday Afternoon)
When Jason rang the doorbell at Daniel’s house, he immediately heard footsteps inside and the front door was quickly opened. “Jason...come on in!” Daniel said a little out of breath. “I’m dying to know what you found out this morning. Let’s go up to my room, talk and work on the board.”
The two rapidly went upstairs into Daniel’s room. Immediately Jason recounted the latest news. “The safe deposit box was the key. When we got to the bank, we discovered that my father’s part of the locking system had been blown with plastic explosive and the box itself was completely empty. We are pretty sure the theft of the safe deposit box contents was the crime being covered up. It might have been a couple more weeks before Dad ever went back there and discovered the theft if we hadn’t made a point of it.
“The bank security officer pulled the videotape of the camera which monitors that part of the vault and we could see how the guy did it. And the bank employee, who conveniently had his last day on Saturday, has to be in on it as well as this other man who was in the vault at the same time as my dad. Those two boldly committed this crime without any regard for the consequences, so stealing the legacy items in that safe deposit box was what this whole sequence of events, including my kidnapping, was about.”
“Wow, Jason, you have made a lot of progress today! Those legacy items must have been worth a lot of money.”
“My dad said we really have no way of knowing. He is contacting the attorneys for each item. His best guess and mine too is that these boxes must have contained high-quality precious diamonds or gemstones.”
“And even a small box could hold dozens of them probably worth millions.”
“There’s more. When Dad and I were at his store, he asked Ellie if Mr. Ricardo happened to mention why he finally decided to buy the Albioni necklace. He said that a long-lost cousin had sent him a check for $15,000 to repay a long-forgotten loan. The note specifically encouraged Mr. Ricardo to go out and buy something really nice for himself, which is why he came in and bought the necklace that Friday. And get this—he couldn’t even remember making the loan!”
“So now we know how the kidnappers ensured that your dad would be in the office to receive the ransom package they sent there.”
“Yes, and we have the name of one of the criminals—the bank employee, Adrian Evans, and a videotape of a second person, still unknown, but obviously possessing good criminal skills in the way he blew out the locks on Dad’s safe deposit box.”
“Too bad Evans has had nearly a week to get out of here,” Daniel said.
“I don’t think he was one of the kidnappers,” Jason answered. “But he had to know at least one more name—the other guy in the vault. The bank security guy is working on getting his face from the security videos for last Friday and the bank is putting a team of investigators on the robbery. The bank manager said that the complete team would be in place by Monday.”
“You know, Jason, there is another link to follow-up on—the long lost cousin of Mr. Ricardo. I would think there is a very good chance that the relationship is real. Otherwise, how would they know so much about Mr. Ricardo’s habits and wishy-washy behavior when it was time to spend money?”
“Possibly, Daniel. But Mr. Ricardo is a very wealthy man. Or he has enough money somewhere to buy very expensive jewelry and other items from Dad’s business. Someone had to be spending a lot of time watching Mr. Ricardo, or keeping track of his activities in order to know that he was just about to purchase that necklace. The long lost cousin doesn’t seem like a good candidate for that. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be a long lost cousin!”
Daniel said, “Then we need to find out who has been spending a lot of time with Mr. Ricardo. Or at least enough to know some of the purchases that he was making. And the number one thing he had to know was that Mr. Ricardo was thinking of buying the Albioni necklace. Only a purchase that big would guarantee that your dad would go into the office. If this person was somehow affiliated with the kidnappers, they would know that your dad would be spending all his time waiting to hear from them or receive a ransom call on the telephone.
“That was the point of the $15,000 check. To push Mr. Ricardo into buying the necklace so that Dad would have to go to the office, taking him away from home and the police. They also delivered to his office the package that would be sure to compel Dad into going through with the phony ransom payment without any police knowledge. Do you remember what Mr. Connor told us about the advice of Father Brown? ‘Look for the unseen person in the background.’ Now who would that be for Mr. Ricardo? A servant? Housecleaners? Caregivers that come to his house on a regular basis?”
Daniel was making notations on the board about Mr. Ricardo while Jason was talking. “Jason, this is great! You really do have an investigative mind! I knew you could get into this! Look at all of these new leads since we started working on this.”
“We haven’t solved anything yet, Daniel. But thanks for the compliment. By the way, I have more good news. Dad was really pleased by the work we did to focus on the safe deposit box theft as the real crime. So I asked him if we got any perks for doing that. He said, ‘Name it.’ Let’s think of something fun we can do this weekend. Remember what they say about all work and no play.”
“You are outstanding, Jason. Give me five!”
Daniel exclaimed putting his hand up and hitting Jason’s. “Now we need to take one of those recreational breaks. How about shooting some more baskets? I’m too worked up to concentrate any more. I need to burn off some energy before I can focus again. But I will work on thinking about something fun to do this weekend.”
* * *
When the boys went back to Daniel’s room, after a great half-hour of hoops, Jason was the first to talk. “Daniel, we have been concentrating on the end game for this whole incident, and a lot of progress has been made. We pretty much have the ‘why’ figured out. But as for the start of the kidnapping—what happened in the park—there has been no progress, whatsoever, on that. I have to believe that the main masterminds of this crime had to be directly involved. How did they know I would leave Vic and his brother and start to walk home on the eastern side of the park? And how did they know when it would happen? This has been bothering me since day one of the actual kidnapping and I still don’t feel I’m any closer to knowing the answer than I was on that terrible day.”
“Jason, my friend, I know this is the one thing that frustrates you more than anything. While we were out shooting some baskets, I had an epiphany...you know, a revelation that just opened my eyes to how clueless we were being about it. It’s all in the last name, I guess, but suddenly those words of the fictional Sherlock Holmes were in my head—‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’
“Almost every normal possibility is impossible here. How could anyone, outside of you and your cousins, know what was going to happen? We have to eliminate Kyle, right? From what you have said, that kid is totally clueless about most things in life. So that just leaves you, Vic, and Vic’s mom as the key players. Vic’s mom as the culprit has some potential. After all, she was away from the park doing her shopping thing or whatever she did during your ‘family’ visits. She had plenty of freedom to contact the criminals and let them know you were in the park. But then how would she know you were going to leave suddenly and in the middle of the time that she expected the three of you to be in the park? Wasn’t she counting on you to be the babysitter, so to speak? You were there to be with her two kids. She counted on you to watch them while she was running her errands. What mother would endanger her own kids to get at another kid? It doesn’t make sense to me. So cross Janet Encino off the list.
The Kidnapping Page 17