‘No, not really,’ replied Simon, picking up a stick and stabbing a beached bluebottle. ‘Your idea of a bank job seems to be the most feasible, or appropriate, if there’s a word for such a decision. With so many ifs and buts to be considered, it will take a good lot of thinking to do it properly, and it’s not until you start thinking about it that you realise just how difficult it would be. I think it’s a case of easier said than done.’
‘What’s so difficult about robbing a bank? From what I’ve seen on the telly, it all seems very easy. “Stick ’em up mister, this is a heist. Hand over your cash and nobody will get hurt”. What’s so difficult about that?’ questioned Georgie.
Simon tossed the stick into the surf only to see a wave wash it back onto the beach. He turned to Georgie and smiled, ‘Georgie, I have this vague idea that robbing a bank isn’t quite so simplistic. For starters, which bank do we rob? If we choose just any old bank, Rosey will delegate the job to someone down the line and he’ll have no involvement in the investigation. No, we have to select a bank where we know Rosey will be directed to conduct the investigation himself, or at least have his hands on the case.’
‘You haven’t spoken to Noel about this?’
‘No. He’s getting himself organised to go back to general duties and I still have some time off that will give me a chance to do some thinking.’ Simon picked up the stick and threw it back into the surf, this time choosing to ignore the results.
‘Well, have you any ideas?’ asked Georgie as she pulled the hood of her jacket over her head as another squall of gusty rain blew along the coast.
‘Not really, ’though I do recall Chief Superintendent Paxton used to play golf with some bigwig from the Bank of New South Wales. I don’t know whether he still does, but it may be something to work on. If we did over a bank within our bailiwick that had a connection with Paxton, you could bet your life he would oversee the investigation, probably giving it to Rose to conduct. I’ll ask Noel to see if he can find out if Paxton still plays golf with the banking boffin.’
They turned, having just passed Shipmates, one of the few high rise residential buildings on the Collaroy-Narrabeen strip of coast, and started back towards Collaroy. Georgie took Simon’s hand and snuggled against him as the cold southerly wind continued to whip along the beach. Even the seagulls had given up any thought of taking to the sky preferring to nestle into the sand for some protection against the blustery conditions.
‘So, if we knock off this bank that belongs to Paxton’s friend, we assume, or hope, Paxton will direct Rose to conduct the investigation,’ said Georgie, trying to foresee some of the ifs and buts. ‘And what about Fisher? He stands between Paxton and Rose, so wouldn’t he be involved?’
‘Yes, he would be,’ replied Simon. ‘But Fisher’s too senior to do the hack work, and I’ve yet to see him get his hands dirty. An investigation would normally be conducted by an inspector, and in this case we hope a chief inspector. We’ll get Noel and Sue over on the weekend to have a chat and see what we come up with. If we’re turning to bad guys, it’s time we made up our minds just how bad we want to be.’
****
Typical of Sydney weather, by the Sunday afternoon the wind and rain brought by the cold southerly had cleared to be replaced with mild conditions and temperatures more commonly expected for September. Noel and Sue had driven over to Collaroy from Mona Vale just after lunch for the meeting that would probably decide the imminent future of the two couples.
‘You were right, Simon,’ said Noel after he had made himself comfortable next to Sue on the three seater sofa in the Webster lounge room. ‘Old Paxton has the occasional round of golf with a bloke named Howard Milner. Turns out he’s head of one of the departments within the head office of the Bank of New South Wales in George Street, you know, the one that looks up Martin Place. Seems they’re both on the committee of some charity organization and tend to concentrate their business towards the more affluent in society.’
‘Well, that is interesting,’ mused Simon. ‘I think that may be very helpful.’
Sue looked and Georgie with an inquisitive look only to receive an “I haven’t a clue” shrug of the shoulders. ‘You have something planned, Simon?’ asked Sue, raising her eyebrows.
Simon, sitting in his large comfortable lounge chair, pursed his lips, folded his hands on his lap and arched his thumbs together. ‘Well, it would be a rare job to go and rob the Head Office of one of the biggest banks in the country. Be that as it may, I think it would be a great idea and I’ve always had this wild fantasy of how to do it. But before we start throwing around any notions on the hows, whens and whys, we have to decide if we want to rob a bank. All in favour?’
Three hands went up simultaneously. ‘Well, I’m all for it,’ said Georgie as she uncurled her legs from underneath herself then paused before getting up from the chair opposite Simon. ‘Just one thing,’ she said and sat back down. ‘I take it Sue and I will be involved in whatever you plan to do?’
‘If Noel thinks for one minute he’s going to rob a bank without me going along with him, he’s nuts,’ rebuked Sue before Noel had a chance to open his mouth.
‘Hey girls, calm down, okay,’ entreated Simon. ‘There’s no question as to whether you’ll be involved or not. Do you think my little bank robbery fantasy would be a fantasy without beautiful women being involved? Noel, you seem very quiet on the subject. Any thoughts?’
‘I think it’s a great idea, to rob a bank, I mean. It’s just that I had this stupid notion it would be some small, out of the way bank, like the one at Mona Vale, not the Head Office in the middle of Sydney.’
Simon shook his head and smiled. ‘Noel, I know it’s a bit of a disappointment for you, but you ain’t Jessie James and we’re not knocking off a Wells Fargo Bank in Dodge City. Okay, so we’ve agreed to rob a bank, but we must not lose sight of the fact that we are not robbing a bank for the pecuniary advantage. We’re doing it to try and stuff Chief Inspector Rose’s career, as he’s stuffed ours.’
‘Damn,’ said Noel and immediately received a friendly punch of admonishment from Sue sitting beside him.
Georgie got up from her chair and crossed to the kitchen door before turning. ‘Come on Sue, let’s make some coffee and bikkies while the boys plan the heist.’
Noel stretched and gave a yawn before kicking off his sneakers and putting his feet up on the sofa. ‘So, by doing a job in the middle of Sydney, you think Chief Superintendent Paxton will get all bitter and twisted, especially if it’s his mate’s bank that’s been robbed?’
Simon folder his arms and hunched his shoulders in a shrug of uncertainty. ‘Well, the bank’s in the Day Street response area and I’m counting on Paxton being involved from the start, only if it’s to appoint an investigating officer, hopefully Rose. I don’t think he would pass the investigation to Fisher, he and Fisher don’t get on too well, which is understandable.’
‘No, it’s strange, isn’t it?’ replied Noel who was now suitably comfortable on the sofa. ‘We don’t like Rose, Rosey doesn’t like us, Fisher loves Rosey, Rosey crawls to Fisher, Fisher seems to keep a low profile with Paxton and I think Paxton sees Rosey much like we do. It’s all terribly unhealthy. At least you’re on leave for a while and won’t be going back to Day Street, thanks to Sergeant Mathieson, and I’m out of that clique and pounding the beat.’
At that moment Sue and Georgie entered the lounge room carrying all the essentials required for a tea party. ‘Noel, get your feet of the sofa,’ scolded Sue as she set a tray on the coffee table before pushing Noel’s feet out of the way to sit beside him. ‘And have you got it all planned out yet?’ asked Sue with more than a hint of sarcastic expectation.
‘No,’ replied Noel, ‘we were waiting for the attendance of your astute and perceptive brains before we got down to the finer points, if that’s okay? Now, are we ready to proceed?’
‘Ah, for Christ sake, cut the crap and get on with it,’ commanded Georgie as she sat down with
a cup of coffee and two Monte Carlos. ‘Come on, Simon, let’s hear your fantasy, and not the one you told me last night.’
CHAPTER 9
Simon always believed in the sayings “keep it simple, stupid”, and “bullshit baffles brains”. Put these two sayings together, add Simon’s bank robbing fantasy and the mixture is one that would, in all probability, hold the attention of a captive audience.
‘To begin with,’ said Simon leaning forward in his seat, elbows on knees and hands clasped, ‘now we’ve decided to do a bank job, we must get it right as we can’t afford to be caught. The life expectancy of a policeman in jail is not long.’
‘Amen to that,’ broke in Noel. ‘But let’s be positive. We have a fair idea of how the police will go about the investigation so that puts us in the driver’s seat. Now, about this fantasy of yours, Simon?’
Simon settled himself back in his seat, the hint of a smirk on his face. ‘There are two attributes the police never seem to acknowledge in an investigation and yet they are attributes they possess in abundance.’
‘And they are?’ interjected Georgie who had never heard her husband mention these qualities with which Simon would no doubt be endowed.
‘Simplicity and stupidity, the two things police never consider,’ replied Simon.
Georgie nodded, a smile on her face. ‘I’ll vouch for that. How does Noel stack up, Sue?’
‘Definitely. Simon has described Noel to a T,’ returned Sue, putting a placatory hand on Noel’s knee. ‘Don’t worry, sweetie, I still love you. So, Simon, now we have the foundations for a bank job that’s to be simple and stupid. It sounds like you’re anxious to get to Long Bay.’
Simon shook his head vigorously. ‘No, no, no. The more complex the job, the more there is to go wrong, and the police look for the complex, it seems to satisfy their ego. My idea, or fantasy if you like, is to rob a bank, without the cash ever leaving the bank. That’s why the Head Office of the Bank of New South Wales in George Street would be an ideal target.’
‘Now this I’ve got to hear,’ said Noel scratching the back of his head. ‘Rob a bank and the cash never leaves the bank. Somehow I don’t think that amounts to a robbery having been committed at all.’
‘Please let me explain and the simplicity will become evident,’ replied Simon. First of all, the bank itself. If I remember correctly, the bank’s safe deposit boxes are located downstairs via an entrance right at the front door to the main banking chamber. The whole idea is we rob one of the tellers, and stash the cash in one of the bank’s own safe deposit boxes.’
‘You’re going to rob, okay, we’re going to rob the bank and put the money into one of the bank’s own safe deposit boxes?’ Georgie asked, a look of incredulity on her face.
‘Why not? Who’s going to look there?’ said Simon simply. ‘Apart from that, the more simplistic it is, the greater fool our Rosey will make of himself, hopefully.’
‘Yes,’ exclaimed Noel, ‘simplicity and stupidity it is.’ And just how do we get the cash from the teller to the safe deposit?’
‘Basically, we’ll do a switch and handover job, that’s where the girls will come into it. Noel and I will do the actual heist and the girls will do the cash stashing,’ said Simon, with an air of excitement in his voice. The thought that they had finally reached the stage where the actual planning of a bank robbery was being considered prompted unexpected enthusiasm and excitement throughout the group of prospective bandits, not the least Simon who was enjoying the opportunity to display an initiative for so long repressed by the seniority, notably Chief Inspector Damien Rose.
‘It sounds like the actual robbery will require a lot of co-ordination and timing, even choreographed,’ said Sue who, up to this point had remained silent.
Simon nodded. ‘Yes, and that’s a good way to express it. The actual cash handover must be perfectly timed and executed otherwise we’re really headed for Long Bay. Apart from the timing of the cash hand-over, I thought Noel and I would use a planned anti Vietnam march along George Street for our get-away so, again, our timing needs to be spot on. Noel, you need to find out the timings for the march. Georgie, I want you to open an account and become one of their regular customers, at least to the extent the tellers recognise you. Sue, you have a look at the safe deposit area. You can even take out a safe deposit box, and make it about the size of a large corn flakes package. I know the boxes come in all sorts of sizes but we’ll have a specific size requirement.’
‘Why so specific on the size?’ Sue asked.
‘Well,’ replied Simon, ‘what if you took out a box too small for all the cash we’re going to rob? That could prove rather embarrassing. A corn flakes packet should just about hold all the notes we’ll be ripping off one of the tellers. Look, let’s call it quits just now and do whatever we have to do. I suggest we all go and have a look at the bank, at different times so we know the lay out. I’ve no doubt we will need a few meetings to get everything sorted and the whole thing choreographed, as Sue put it. Apart from that, Noel and I need to figure out how to actually rob a bank teller. Any questions?’
****
It was more than a week later before Simon called for the next meeting, many of the problems and unknowns relating to the proposed robbery having been addressed. Noel and Sue arrived at the West Bank Lane bungalow after dinner on the Tuesday evening to find Georgie had already made coffee, tea and snacks in anticipation of a long night. Simon, as the implied leader of the group, had decreed that all discussion would be dry until after the event.
‘Right,’ said Simon as he pushed himself back into his favourite lounge chair. ‘Let’s get this underway as we have a stack to talk about. Georgie, you’ve opened a bank account?’
‘Yes. I thought they would need stacks of identification but you were right; they didn’t even ask. Seems the banks are eager to sign up anybody. There was no problem in obtaining a couple of the bank’s cash bags either. I just asked this nice teller for a couple and he just handed them over. They’re white calico with BNSW stamped in black on the side. I also took the opportunity to suss out the banking chamber and the safe deposit area.’
Simon smiled and nodded. ‘Yes, I thought you wouldn’t have problems with identification. There’s so much competition and with so many banks around at the moment, one of these days the bigger banks will buy off the smaller ones, so everyone is trying to expand as much as possible before that happens. Sue, how’d you go?’
‘You were right. The entrance to the safe deposit box area is just inside the main door to the bank and just outside the main entrance to the banking chamber. There are actually two doors, the main door to the street which gives access to the bank’s vestibule, and another door leading from the vestibule into the banking chamber. There’s a stairway leading from the vestibule down to the safe deposit box facility. I made a few enquiries then arranged for a box about the size of a weeties packet. I have a key and they keep one. You need two keys to open the box, so the bank attendant unlocks his and then leaves you to it.’
‘I hope you didn’t give them your real name and address,’ said Simon.
Sue shook her head and made a face. ‘Come on Simon, all they needed was a signature. The very nature of safe deposit boxes is to maintain anonymity. See, I have done my homework.’
‘Right.’ Simon took a deep breath, clasped his hands behind his head and stretched. ‘I’ll go through how I see we go about the robbery. If there are any glaring blunders, please point them out straight away because a minor hiccup could have dire consequences. Basically the idea is Noel and I go to the furthest teller from the main door to the bank and I rob him of all his ten pound notes. The teller places the notes into one of the cash bags and gives it to me. I slide the bag down behind the counter where Noel takes it and hands me a cash bag full of newspapers. We then head down the banking chamber towards the front door. Noel has a collision with Georgie who is carrying a similar looking cash bag and heading out of the bank after doing some of her
own banking. During this collision another switch is made meaning Georgie has the money, and Noel and I both have an empty bag, or at least bags full of newspaper to make them look as though they’re full of money. Georgie heads towards the front door and makes another switch with Sue who drops the bag into a brief case and immediately heads for the safe deposit area.’
‘Now just back up a bit,’ said Noel as he swung his feet off the sofa where he and Sue had been lounging. ‘Why the teller furthest from the front door?’
‘Because,’ said Simon, ‘you and I will be dressed in opposites, me in black trousers and dark blue shirt, you in dark blue trousers and a black shirt. Not necessarily those colors, but you get the general idea. We will both be wearing wigs, one black and the other blond. The idea is that people generally only recall what they think they see so dressing like that will cause a whole number of different witness reports.’
Noel nodded in acceptance. ‘And you’ve mentioned the size of the safe deposit box. Is that why we rob the teller of his tenners?’
‘Yes. Enough of those to fill a corn flakes box, or whatever, will amount to quite a large sum of money.’
Sue frowned, a dubious look on her face. ‘Okay, so you and Noel walk up to the teller and ask him for all his tenners, just like that?’
‘No, not really. I’ll have to produce an incentive for him to hand over the cash,’ replied Simon.
‘And that incentive?’ Sue asked although anticipating the likely answer.
‘Okay, I’ll produce a gun, obviously a replica but the teller won’t know that.’
The frown deepened on Sue’s face. ‘All right, the teller won’t know it’s a replica, but neither will the security guard sitting halfway down the banking chamber. He’s got a real gun and if he sees you with a gun, replica or real, he might come out shooting.’
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