EARLY WITHDRAWAL (A Mitch Tobin Mystery Book 1)

by Mark Gannon

  “Colleen has been with the bank longer than anybody but Charlie and she are as honest as the day is long. I just don’t see her as a criminal.” Nods of agreement came all the way around. “Next I think we can eliminate Carol and Lucy. While they are young and could use the money, I find it hard to believe either one is smart enough to mastermind the robbery. They can’t balance their teller drawers two days in a row. Not that they aren’t good employees, but they don’t have the brain power. Judy, you agree with me don’t you?”

  Judy nodded her head, “Neither one of them is all that sharp. Carol once asked me if Canadian money was real money. And when I said yes, she wanted to know if Monopoly money was real too because if it was she had a whole bunch at home and she would be rich. I still am not sure if she was kidding or not.”

  Greta said, “I think it is safe to mark Carol off the list and if Lucy is along the same line we can take her off also.”

  Mary Beth jumped in again, “That leaves six employees. Ginny is the next on my list to eliminate. She is engaged to Bucky and I don’t think if you are engaged to a Sheriff’s deputy that you would be planning bank robberies.”

  I almost shouted, “She’s going to marry Bucky? The same Bucky that I know?” Judy laughed at me. “Is this like the usual bank gossip that I never find out until well after the fact?”

  Mary Beth went on, “So that leaves five of the staff left as possibles. The next one I think we can cross off is Janet. Her family is wealthy and she doesn’t need to steal. She has nothing to gain from robbing the bank, especially the safe deposit boxes. She and her family rent three of them, two of which were emptied out in the robbery. So I think we can cross her off.”

  I jumped in with, “You know, John, this is thirsty work. You mind if I liberate a beer from your cooler?”

  Greta said, “It’s probably a good time for a break. I threw some pizzas in the oven and as quiet as the boys are I am guessing they are done. I better go rescue some for us or they’ll eat them all.” Judy went up the stairs to help Greta while I rustled beverages from the cooler with John.

  Getting beverages with John is never a fast event. As we stood inside the cooler John said, “I don’t know whether to have the balanced round earthiness and hops of the Duck Rabbit Wee Heavy or the creamy mocha and smoky toffee of Skullsplitter Orkney Ale. What one do you think will go best with a Supreme pizza?”

  “John, as long as either one is cold it will be just fine.” John hated my lack of interest in his beer tastes. While he shook his head in disgust he pointed to the back of the walk-in cooler where my usual was stored right next to the blower from the condenser. “Ah. My good old generic. Thanks for stocking this. I hope it’s not too much of an insult to your beer shrine.”

  John picked up a couple of other selections and took a tray with frosted mugs and his selections out to the others. “Mitch, whatever you do, don’t let people know I let you have that kind of beer in my house. It will ruin my reputation.”

  As we all settled back in with beer and pizza I asked, “Well who all is left on the list Mary Beth?”

  Around a mouthful of pizza she answered, “Okay we were down to four. That would be Tina, Ruth, Bev and Deb. Tina went to school with me and I have known her all my life. I can’t think she would be in a bank robbery.”

  Greta said, “Mary Beth the problem is you don’t think anyone could rob the bank. Pretty soon we will be through all the suspects and we won’t have anyone left.”

  Judy chimed in with, “I don’t know Mary Beth. You remember Jeff Stoop? He went through twelve years of school with me and never made a peep. I don’t even remember him being in class half the time. The last I heard he was running a multi-million dollar ponzi scheme in the Bahamas. I mean you can never tell.”

  I said, “So we want to keep Tina as a possible since Jeff is bilking rich people out of their money. That makes good sense.” Judy stuck her tongue at me. “Do you have some other reason we should keep her in the mix?”

  Mary Beth said, “We agreed that somebody helped out with the robbery. So one of these four must be it. I thought we should keep Tina in because she is always talking about how tight the money is and how hard it is to raise a family these days.”

  John said, “Almost all the people I know complain about how tight money is and how expensive it is to raise kids. I don’t see how that proves anything.”

  Mary Beth continued, “It doesn’t prove anything. But it is a possible motive. Can you give me that?” We all shrugged our shoulders not willing to give her an argument. “So Tina is a possible. Now how about Ruth?” Mary Beth gave us a conspiratorial look. “You have to keep this confidential. Ruth is having a really difficult time. Her boyfriend is a leach and is draining her checking account all the time. She has been overdrawn three times in the last month. She is on probation at work because of it.”

  I gasped out, “Ruth is on probation? When did that happen?”

  Judy said, “Mitch, you really need to keep up and stay more informed. If I didn’t know better I would think you didn’t even work at the bank.”

  Greta was keeping score. “Okay. So we sort of have Tina as a suspect and we have Ruth as a suspect and we have Bev and Deb left to go. I want to talk about Bev. I know for a fact that she has been wearing some very high end clothing whenever I see her out and she is driving a newer Cadillac coupe. You don’t do either of those on a teller’s salary.”

  Mary Beth said, “I have had the same idea. You didn’t mention Bev’s boob job or the Gucci purse that is more than her monthly salary. But she was already buying those things before the robbery. It’s not like Bev went and splurged after the robbery. Maybe she ran up her credit cards on that stuff and figured a robbery was a way out of debt. I think she is a good suspect.”

  Greta chimed in with, “Bev had a boob job? When was that? I haven’t seen her in ages.”

  I smirked when I said, “Now that I did notice.” That drew a look of disgust from Judy, Mary Beth and Greta. John was smiling and thinking the same thing but was smart enough to hold his tongue.

  Mary Beth said, “I guess it was hard to miss. She went from an A cup to a double D cup over a long weekend.

  I couldn’t wait to get to my favorite, “That leaves my number one suspect – the Ice Princess, Deb Miller. And I know she never had a boob job, I don’t know about overdrafts.”

  Judy and Mary Beth said at the same time, “You just want it to be her.”

  “Well out of all the staff that are female, she has been there the least amount of time and we know the least about her. Who knows what her back ground is for sure? Robbie brought her in from somewhere back on the East Coast, at least that’s what he said. How do we know what she is capable of? She sure seems cold hearted enough to do something like rob a bank.”

  Greta said, “I think you are a little prejudiced on this one, Mitch. You want it to be her and so you are thinking of the negatives. On her plus side is the fact that she has to have a pretty clean history to pass the security background to be hired as an officer of the bank. You do have a stringent background check for that don’t you?” Judy and Mary Beth both nodded agreement. “Besides that she is an officer with good prospects. There is a good chance she could end up running the bank when Charlie retires. She has a lot of backing from Robbie.”

  John summed up with, “So you have three possibles from what I am hearing – Ruth, Bev and Deb. I doubt if you are seriously considering Tina. And quite frankly, Mitch, Deb sounds very weak to me as a suspect. I think you just want it to be her. So since none of them is confessing, I think we should all sleep on this and see if we can come up with something more solid than new shoes or we don’t like them. I can tell you as a lawyer, none of the things brought up here tonight are evidence. But as you have pointed out, somebody helped Nancy and Slick. So it must be one of them. Keep your eyes open and see what we can come up with.”

  Mary Beth put the action plan together with, “I’ll pump Ruth on her love life and J
udy can pump Bev on her fancy clothes and car. And Mitch can try to dream up something to pin on Deb Miller. Greta can do a thorough internet search on all three of them. We can try to compare notes next time we get together. Mary Beth looked around trying to gauge everyone’s buy in. “So is it a plan?”

  We all nodded agreement and John added, “Ordinarily I would say we could all share what we find on E-mail or Facebook. But I don’t want a trail on this in case something or” and he gave me a hard look “someone puts something down in writing that we can get sued for later. Accusing somebody of a felony is not light stuff to throw around.”

  After the brain storming session it was nice to sit around and visit for a while with John, Greta and Judy. I stayed longer than I planned because it was an excuse to spend time with Judy. Since we shouldn’t date, this was one way of spending time together. Did I admit that to myself at the time? No. But when I finally got home I did confess to Dan and Biscuit while watching them eat out in the barn. “So our group is going to figure out who in the bank is the accomplice. We have it narrowed down to Ruth, Bev and Deb. My personal vote is for Deb. It would be great to find out she robbed the bank and had to leave.”

  Biscuit as usual wasn’t paying any attention to me but Dan gave me one of his ‘go ahead with the story’ looks. At least he pretended to listen. “The best part is I get to spend time hanging out with Judy while playing detective and trying to figure out who the bad guy is. Now that I see Judy as a woman and not as my coworker it is hard not to be around her. But being around her at work is difficult and being around her with my friends is worse. I need to pretend there is nothing special going on inside me but there is. It’s really confusing. Do you know what I mean?” Of course they didn’t know what I meant but I always pretended they did. Who else was there to talk to about this kind of stuff?

  I finished my Jack and Coke while enjoying the smells of the horses and the barn and the quiet of the evening. I made sure to leave my cell phone in the house when I spent time in the barn. This was my sanctuary and I didn’t want daily intrusions. Some people have a fancy man cave or a stylized grand home office or a wood workers dream shop. I have a broken down tiny old horse barn and I love it.

  The only other comparable sanctuary was my parent’s barn on the ranch. That was a true horse man’s sanctuary. Besides being a quaint, timbered, larger better kept version of my little barn, it had one other feature. My family ancestors used to be saddle makers. The saddle shop was in the barn. Even after a generation without a saddle being made in the shop the perfume smell of leather still hung over the leather craft tools and work bench. It was a piece of heaven on earth.

  Maybe I should add a small shop area to my old barn. Would the extra atmosphere be worth the energy it would take to build the shop? Even with a shop I needed somebody to work the leather and practice the craft to imbue it with the same spirit. But for now it was bed time in my double wide trailer.

  Emily thought I needed a better house and I think I need an addition to my ratty old barn. The divorce made sense when I thought about it on that basis. It was probably the first time since the divorce that I felt right about giving up on the marriage. I kept trying to think what I did wrong. It wasn’t about that. It was about the basic difference between our value systems. We never would have reconciled those extreme viewpoints.

  Plus Emily was running around on me and wouldn’t have quit. But - Wow! A feeling of peace with my life settled over me for the first time in many years. I was going to think on this change in view point – with my eyes closed. I was bone weary and tired beyond reason. My bed was going to feel wonderful.

  Chapter 38

  PLAYING DETECTIVE

  Work the next morning was more focused. Instead of suspecting everyone in the building I was focused on only three – Ruth, Bev and Deb. One of the first things I did was pull up the personal accounts belonging to Ruth. I made it a practice a long time ago not to snoop on my fellow co-workers finances. I have system authority to pull up any accounts in the bank.

  Occasionally in the past I would pull up an employee account to see what they had for money in the bank. What an ass – I know. But afterwards I always felt slimy so I quit doing it. Now it was for a good purpose – trying to find the robbery conspirator. Mary Beth was right. Ruth’s account was a mess. She had no savings and hardly any checking balance. There was no current overdraft history but the previous two months showed multiple overdrafts.

  In a bank continual overdrafts can be reason for dismissal. I can see why she was on probation. Well that was all confirmation of reason for theft, but there weren’t any large new deposits and no evidence of any stolen money. It just made me feel bad for Ruth. And according to Mary Beth it was all for some slimy boyfriend. Sounds a lot like Nancy.

  As long as I was at it I pulled up Bev’s and Deb’s accounts also. The bank computer gives current balance and year to date average balance for the current year and the previous year. It also shows how many times an account has been overdrawn. Bev had a small positive balance that was slowly growing. Nothing in her accounts looked suspicious.

  Next I pulled up Deb Miller’s accounts. This was a little dicey. The forensics built into the computer system tracks anyone that accessed an account. If Deb was aware I was pulling up her accounts it might be difficult to explain. But I was determined to check her out even if the others weren’t. It was a seriously deflating effort. The lady had bucks. It was not just her checking account that was loaded, but she had IRA savings, kid’s college savings and a hefty chunk in a Certificate of Deposit. Compared to my monthly scraping by, she was financially healthy. It was severely disappointing on many levels. Like I said before, a lot of times it is better not to know so much.

  After that bit of snooping I decided I should get some actual bank work done. My e-mails were pretty mundane. The first was from the South Dakota Bankers Association announcing the Ag Bankers Conference. I went to that every year and was on the planning committee. It was good to see the association secretary was on the ball and getting it advertised. The conference alternated between Sioux Falls and Rapid City. This year it was in Sioux Falls, four hundred miles away. I would get a trip out of the event this year.

  The second e-mail was from good old Deb Miller. The e-mail was a reminder of upcoming sales training. If only she could be the robbery accomplice and have a vacation with the state, my life would be easier. I would give most anything to get rid of the ‘sales culture’ she was shoving down the bank’s throat. Well I needed to do some serious thinking so I could tie her into the robbery. I sat there daydreaming of putting her in jail until the phone rang.

  The call was from Coach. He thanked me for having a talk with TT and getting him back on track. Coach said TT appeared to have flipped completely and was now helping the new quarterback in every way he could. TT came by the house when I was trying to recover from the beating by Slick. I was a little choked up that he cared enough about me to see how I was doing after the robbery.

  While I had him at the house with just the two of us I told him about how I had screwed up resisting the leadership of a new quarterback when I was a running back at Black Hills State. Honestly I had thought TT wasn’t listening when I talked to him and told him to get his shit together and not screw up like his father. It just shows you never know.

  The next e-mail was from Judy. She forwarded a clip from the Pink Panther with the text ‘Since we are playing detective I thought you should have a role model.’ I got the impression she didn’t have a lot of hope for my detective skills.

  As I tried to come up with a smart ass reply to Judy’s e-mail I was gazing out my window with a view of the back parking lot as Bev arrived for work. She pulled up in a newer black Cadillac CTS Coupe. After financing one of the Cadillac Coupes for Mr. Cooper, an affluent older customer, I knew the cost ran more than John’s new diesel pickup. Well an expensive car wasn’t proof of a robbery and now that I thought of it, Bev had been driving that car before the
robbery occurred. I did notice it was a tighter squeeze for her getting out of the car due to her new chest size. Her clothes looked sharp and flashy but there was no way I could tell a Gucci handbag from something from JC Penney.

  It was going to be interesting to hear the reports back from Mary Beth and Judy on their investigations. That ladies kept track of other women’s clothes was not a surprise. It was like guys knowing who had the new expensive rifle or the newest and best four-wheeler. It was just a different set of measurements.

  Watching Bev reminded me that I hadn’t seen something when I pulled up her accounts. So I went back on the computer and looked at her checking debits and credits. The strange thing was there was no monthly payment for that fancy new car. As I looked I realized there were no payments at all, not even a mortgage or a rent payment. How does a wage earner like Bev pay cash for a new Cadillac? How does she own a home or get rent free? I was going to run that past Judy and Mary Beth.

  At lunch I caught Mary Beth in the employee break room and waited until we were alone to ask, “I looked at Ruth’s account this morning. It is a mess. It isn’t like she just had one overdraft; she has them all the time. I think I counted five in the last month. What did you find out?”

  Mary Beth looked around to make sure we were alone and said, “I talked to Ruth for a little bit this morning. She said she broke up with the lug over the weekend. Ruth said he asked her for money for his wife’s birth control prescription. Well if he wasn’t still being intimate with the wife, why did she need the pills? He had told Ruth he was getting a divorce, the louse.”

  I shrugged to indicate ‘who cares’. That was not enough empathy for Mary Beth. “He never intended to marry her. Do you understand that?” Apparently my dumb look indicated I did not understand it well enough. “Never mind. The main point to take away is she is still broke and was so wrapped up in her love life she hardly noticed the bank was robbed. I don’t see how she can be the mastermind.”