EARLY WITHDRAWAL (A Mitch Tobin Mystery Book 1)

by Mark Gannon

  Chapter 28

  Big Hoopla

  Well not at the door. Police procedure for a bank robbery is to try to hide outside and call the bank. Which they did. Then I went out to meet them so they knew it wasn’t a hostage situation. How do you explain to an adrenaline fired policeman that yes you called 911 but you don’t know what the actual problem is? The police held me outside while they went in and swept the building. It doesn’t do any good to say the place is clear; they are going to check for themselves. By the time they were ready to let me back in Mary Beth showed up and we went back in together.

  “What are you doing? Mitch? Are you still out there?” Judy had the sound of hysteria in her voice. Mary Beth was much calmer than I was and soon had the door swinging open. Thank goodness the time locks had not been set! The police shoved me back and went into the vault with their guns drawn. “Lot of good those guns will do now.” Judy’s sarcasm rolled off the police as they went to Charlie who was down on the floor with blood pooling under him.

  The vault area was a screaming mess. Safe deposit boxes were scattered on the floor along with papers, documents, ribbons, and a mix of who knows what. It was a terrible mess and it was usually the most orderly room in the bank. What had happened?

  Judy escaped the vault and ran to me and hugged me hard. That was certainly nothing I was expecting but I hugged her back just as hard. I was so relieved to see her healthy. The emotion was much stronger than I expected. The police pulled her away and sequestered her in a different office from me. This was standard operating procedure. The ambulance crew had to shuffle their feet to scrape all the mess on the floor out of their way as they rolled Charlie out on a stretcher. Charlie gave me a ‘thumbs up’ when he saw me watching his exit.

  Spearfish police are about as experienced with bank robbery as I am which means not much. They went over my statement about six times and probably did the same with Judy. This went on for hours as they attempted to not miss anything. I heard snippets of action as the police interacted with each other. But it was hard to put the whole picture together. I did gather that Charlie was considered out of danger at the hospital and that there were road blocks out all over the area.

  I was finally cut lose about five PM and wandered outside to get my head together. I tried to remember where I parked my pickup. Before I could sort that out I was harassed by a series of bystanders all wanting to know what went on. Even if I really knew what happened I wasn’t supposed to tell them. After begging off giving out information for the third time I heard, “Hey cowboy. Are you looking for something?” I looked up and saw Greta motioning to me to come to her. “Your pickup is over here in case you forgot where it is.”

  “Greta I am so glad to see you. Yes I forgot where I parked with everything else that has gone on.”

  Greta wanted to know what went on at the bank. “What did happen, Mitch?”

  “That’s a good question. I came to the party late and don’t have the full story. I was hoping to catch Judy so I could find out myself.” As I said this I spotted Judy coming out of the bank. “Judy. Over here.” She was being harassed with questions just like I had been. I hollered a little louder, “Judy.” Her head came up and swiveled toward me. When she spotted me her smile lit up her face. I think my face returned the smile. As she approached I asked, “So they finally kicked you lose?” She nodded her head. “Did they give you the same directions they gave me not to talk about this to anyone?”

  “They sure did. So where can we go and talk about it?” Just what I was thinking. Greta invited us up to their place for some light supper and a beer. John was at a half marathon run in Rapid City and wasn’t aware of the situation yet. Greta said her house was close to the bank and that Judy and I could both use some food. She was right as usual.

  Greta shooed the boys away and put some snacks on the table while she put a pizza in the oven. Judy started to talk about the ordeal and Greta told her to wait until she put some food away. Finally after a beer and some Italian pie we were ready to trade stories.

  “I worked today so Mary Beth could have the morning off to watch her kid’s baseball game. If it wasn’t for that she would have been at the bank and not me. So I showed up and Nancy was the other teller for the day. It was a slow morning and nothing happened until right at closing.”

  “So when did Charlie show up?” I wasn’t a very patient listener.

  “Mitch you can just wait and listen or you can leave.” That was said with a very firm voice and direct menacing eye contact. I simulated pulling the zipper across my lips, locking it and throwing away the key. “Now just stay that way. Charlie showed up about eleven to do some light work. The drive up window was closed and I was counting money to check my balance. All of a sudden Nancy showed up and she had a strange man with her. He was grinning nastily and shoved a gun in my face. At first I thought this was some poor joke done in bad taste by Nancy. I mean that’s about her speed. But her friend was serious and so was she.”

  “Her friend’s name is Slick.” I blabbed. Judy shot daggers so hard at me with her eyes that I had to duck out of the way.

  “Are you done now?” I nodded my head. “Are you sure?” I nodded again. “So Nancy grabbed me roughly and twisted my arm behind me while she steered me to the vault. Nancy’s friend went and gathered up Charlie and brought him to the vault at the point of his gun. Charlie did just what he always tells us not to – he resisted. He tried to grab the gun from - Slick.” Judy looked in my direction. “Is that what you said?” I nodded my head again. “That was just the wrong thing to do. Slick moved like lightening and slapped Charlie alongside the head with the gun barrel. While Charlie was reeling from being hit this guy looks over at me and smiles wickedly and turns back toward Charlie. Calm as can be he fires a round into Charlie’s leg. Charlie went down like a lump and I was sure he had killed him. Then Slick says, “Now you know we mean business.”

  “Charlie was shot? How can you sit here? Good lord that’s horrible!” Greta was horrified.

  “Yes Charlie was laying there bleeding with a welt on the side of his head looking daggers at Slick. I rushed to Charlie to see how badly he was hurt. At the same time I was wondering if this nut was going to kill the both of us no matter what. Seeing your boss laying there leaking blood all over the carpet is damn scary. Damn scary, I can tell you.” Judy shook her head and continued, “Damn Nancy! Just damn her! I’m going to have that in my head for years and I hate it!” She shook her head again to try to throw the memory out of her mind. “Anyway Charlie was shot and bleeding but not too much. It was a small caliber gun and he was hit in the thigh – no arteries. “

  I blabbed, “A twenty-two. It must have been a twenty-two.” Both Judy and Greta looked at me, Judy like she was going to swat me and Greta like what does that matter? “Well he shot at me too!”

  Judy turned back to Greta and went on. “So Slick made us get into separate safe deposit viewing rooms and told us not to come out or he would shoot us. We must have been in there for over an hour. All the time I was worrying about Charlie and whether Slick was going to shoot us. That was the worst hour of my life. No way to escape, no weapon, no hope. I had no idea what they were doing at the time but I knew a little bit later.

  Slick came and got us and pushed us into the vault. I was glad to see Charlie had used his belt for a tourniquet. The bleeding had stopped but he was in a ton of pain. I thought this is it. He’s going to put a bullet into each of us and leave us there in the vault. Well he left us in the vault and I think he wanted to finish us off but Nancy wouldn’t let him.

  “After they slammed the vault shut I had time to take a look at Charlie. He was pretty woozy and soon passed out. I pushed the rubble on the vault floor to the sides so he had a decent place to lie down. That vault is a real mess.” Judy stopped long enough to shake her head in disgust. “I tried my cell phone to call 911 but there are no bars in a vault. I can’t begin to tell you the desperation of someone you care about being injured a
nd there is nothing you can do to help them. What a crappy feeling.”

  “So what had they been up to?” Judy gave me another dirty look. “Well you said you found out what they were doing. What was it?”

  Judy gave a large sigh, that said look what I put up with. “Well they had a high power drill and they drilled out the locks on a bunch of the safe deposit boxes. Papers were tossed all over the floor of the vault and the contents of about twenty large boxes spread around like a tornado went through. It was a full-fledged bank examiner delight. They were after valuables in the safe deposit boxes. They didn’t even bother with the cash vault.”

  “They just went after the safe deposit boxes? That was it?” Greta was as surprised as I was.

  “Well that was about it until Mitch came. Of course it took him a damn long time to figure out we were in the vault. And then after he talked to us he just left us sit there for how long.”

  “I was busy.” I sounded indignant and I was. “After all I was busy getting the cops, the ambulance and Mary Beth so we could open the vault and get you out.

  “Okay so you were slightly busy.”

  I continued, “So we opened the vault and Charlie was loaded into the ambulance by the paramedics. Then we spent about thirty hours going over it time and again with the cops.” I relayed my adventures in the basement. I don’t know why it was important that I get some cred with Judy but it was.

  So it was great when she said, “So that’s what you mean when you say you were shot at too.”

  “Yes three times at least. It seemed a lot more.”

  Greta jumped in, “What about Charlie? How is he?”

  Judy responded, “They hauled Charlie out right away and took him to the hospital. The cops said he was doing well. The gun shot went cleanly through the thigh without hitting any artery or bones. He should recover well. He was already out of surgery by the time we were kicked loose.”

  My cell phone rang, “Happy trails to you until we meet again.” Sang Roy Rogers. I had some terrible taste in cell phone rings. I cut Roy off before he got to the second trails and answered. “Mitch here.”

  It was Sheriff Rawlins. “Mitch I am glad I caught you. Do you have any cell phone numbers for Nancy?” I relayed the cell number I kept in my phone for her. In a small bank we loaded the cell phone number for all the employees in our phone memory in case of a disaster or emergency. “That’s the same number I already have. I was hoping you had another one for her. We put a trace on that number so we could track her. We thought we were going to nab her as the signal moved toward Rapid City. Nancy was smart enough, or someone with her was smart enough to give her phone to a teenager and paid the kid money to call all her friends. So we have been chasing the phone and it was a red herring to lead us in the wrong direction. We found the phone abandoned in the food court at the mall.”

  I relayed the other half of the conversation when I hung up. Judy said, “Well so much for catching them right off. If they wanted another number it means they are still chasing them. Damn I wish they had caught them. I want that Nancy to spend some time in the slammer.” Judy apparently believed in revenge. That was something I stored away for future reference.

  Chapter 29

  So That is Who it Was

  Greta was quiet which meant she was thinking. “If you were Nancy and you robbed a bank what would be your get a way plan? If you sent your phone to Rapid City does that mean you are going a different direction? You know throwing the cops off the trail?”

  Judy perked right up. “Yeah. If they left a false trail to Rapid City which direction did they actually go? I would have gone to Rapid because that is where the most people are. You know - try to lose yourself in the crowd.”

  That put me to thinking, “Rapid City isn’t that big. Nothing around here is that big. The closest metro center is Denver. You can get lost in the Denver crowd. But that is four hundred miles away. That is a lot of open space to cover if you are on the run.”

  Greta was back at it, “How would you get out of the area? All the local roads and transportation will be watched. The cops know what car Nancy was driving. So they had to find some other way to travel. Either Nancy’s accomplice had a vehicle or they had some way to go that the police wouldn’t think of. But what way?”

  Judy said, “Mitch is right. There aren’t that many people around here. So there is no crowd to hide in. So if you can’t hide in a crowd, you hide out.” Greta and I gave her a look to say we don’t get it. “You hide out. Lay low. Stay out of sight until the heat dies down. The best place to hide is right here in town somewhere.

  “The cops tossed Nancy’s apartment and all the local cops have a picture of Nancy and Slick from the security cameras at the bank. So they aren’t out driving around. So where could they hold up?”

  The room got quiet while we all gave this some thought. “Nancy was new at the bank and I have no idea who she might have for friends in town. Besides flirting with all the men, I don’t think there was anyone in particular that was a buddy. And I don’t even know Slick.” As Greta listened she was running her tablet. Sometimes I think she grew that computer as another appendage. Right about than she was pulling up the most recent news reports on the robbery. As I tipped my beer back to finish it off a photo on the computer flashed past that made me choke on my beer and sputter trying to finish swallowing. “Wait! Back up!”

  Judy and Greta both looked at me like I was bonkers. “Back up?”

  I actually shouted, “Greta back up. Back up the computer.” Comprehension dawned for her and she started arrowing back going slow enough for me to shout out when she was at the right page. “There. Stop there. Let me read the caption.” Greta tilted the tablet toward me so I could read the caption – ‘Buddy Morrison believed to be armed and dangerous’. I gave a gulp and said, “I was a long ways off but I’m sure that was him.”

  “Him who?” asked Greta.

  “That’s the guy that came into Ned’s hospital room when I was sitting with him.” They both gave me a strange look. It dawned on me that I hadn’t told anyone about the strange orderly. “An orderly came into Ned’s room and was acting strange. I didn’t think much about it at the time but remember his voice being familiar. It was the same voice that I heard coming from Larson’s trailer on the trail ride. And that’s the guy.”

  “Well Mitch you should know that already. He’s the same guy that was shooting at you in the bank.”

  “But I didn’t see his face. The first shot was when my back was turned to the stairs. By the next time he shot I had my head low and all I was seeing through the storage racks were his boots and that gun. I never did see his face.”

  Greta chimed in, “Too bad you don’t have Slick’s cell number. If you did I could run it through my new software and see where he is.”

  “Well I don’t have Slick’s number but I do have Larson’s. If Slick was talking to him in the woods he may be their local connection. You want to try Larson’s number on your new software?”

  Greta plugged in the number and ran her program. “It shows that he is in town operating off the west tower on Crow Peak. That makes sense if he is home because that’s the tower closest to his ranch. Now until you get a direct line on his phone I can’t give you any more direction.”

  “What do you mean a direct line?”

  “Well the ability to check which tower was last pinged by his cell phone is old technology that the phone company has had in place for years. But what my new software does is give you the direction to the individual cell phone. Once you have that direct line as long as their phone is active, my software can point the cell phone out so you can walk right up to it.” With that she sat back with an expectant satisfied smile.

  When Judy and I both sat there mentally scratching our heads she went on. “With the cell phone tower identified all you know is that the cell phone you are searching for is within signal distance to the tower. Maybe it is somewhere within a circle as big as a ten mile radius. With my s
oftware I can track that cell phone down to where I can walk right up to the particular cell phone user.”

  “Okay. I may not understand all of the applications or why you want to walk up to someone. But at least we know Larson is in town and probably at his ranch. Well there is one way to find out if he is sitting at home.”

  Chapter 30

  Horse Chasing

  We had a hunch and not much more. In thinking back I should have called the police to check it out but I didn’t. Judy and I jumped in my pickup and drove to Larson’s ranch. We wanted to see if we could spot any sign of Nancy or Slick. As we drove closer I wondered out loud, “You know we aren’t going to be able to sneak up on Larson’s place. He has an open area of pasture along the drive way to the main house. As soon as we round the next corner he will see my pickup.” By this time I had stopped behind a line of trees right before the final corner.

  Judy was not about to be put off by something that simple. She jumped out of the cab and scouted ahead before I could tell her to let me do that. I was trying to decide whether to follow her through the trees to spy on the house when she came back with a big smile on her face. “You are not going to believe this.” She was actually laughing.

  What was there to laugh at? We are trying to spy on a possible accomplice to bank robbery and on someone who shot Charlie. “Guess who is blocking the drive way with his pickup and trailer?” She couldn’t wait. “Frank. Frank is out in that front pasture trying to catch that nasty horse of his and his pickup and trailer are backed into an approach but the front of the pickup is across the road.” The last barely escaped her as she giggled. She had to put a hand over her mouth to avoid an outright laugh.

  “Frank? Our Frank? He’s up here finally trying to pick up that nasty horse of his?” Judy motioned me to follow her through the tree line. I joined her on the edge as we scrunched down to watch. Sure enough Frank was out in the pasture trying to coax his nasty dun horse into a corner so he could rope it. I had to drop my mouth against my arm to keep from laughing out loud myself. Tall carrot topped Frank was alternating between running and walking in his heeled over cowboy boots while he slowly twirled his rope.