Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained
Page 34
The robbers did have guns, but they were not used, and everyone involved thankfully went unharmed. Detective Henderson still had a feeling that he knew one, or possibly several of the robbers from their body shape under the disguises in the security video. For now, he cannot correctly put the pieces of the puzzle together. This particular case will remain pending, as he has done all the investigating he can do at this point in time. He has other cases to solve, and let’s this one rest for now.
Back at the van, the men are still on the highway heading towards “Home Base”. They virtually got away with the crime. Victor’s mishap aside, the men continue unnoticed down the highway, without anyone assuming at all they just robbed a bank. The police are not in pursuit of them. They do not know which vehicle the robbers used, so they have no way of tracking them. All of the guys, Russell especially, notice the police are not following them, and feel more comfortable over that. Although, Kevin continues to drive down the highway at a somewhat high speed. Russell doesn’t want them causing unwanted attention, and feels anxious over Kevin speeding. Russell removes his mask, and turns his head in Kevin’s direction. He begins to speak to him softly.
“Kev, it’s okay now. You can slow down. I think we’re good now. You can slow down man. It should be smooth sailing from here. Alright Kev?”
Kevin with his vision still directed forward, nods his head. He decreases his speed and drives at a more moderate pace. Kevin while driving then starts to speak with Russell.
“I can’t believe we really did it Russ. We robbed a fucking bank. I wonder how much we got? I knew we could do it, but we actually did it. I’m speechless Russ. I am.”
Russell laughs, and playfully punches Kevin on the shoulder. While he’s still holding the steering wheel, Kevin begins to take off his mask, dropping it center console of the van. Jesse then removes his mask, and Victor follows as well. Brian after realizing that the rest of the guys have removed their masks, begins to take off his mask as well. They all sit in silence heading towards “Home Base” for a few minutes. Brian then can longer keep quiet, and starts to shake his head. He then angrily expresses how he feels towards Victor.
“Victor, you’re such an idiot man. I’m sorry, but you are. We all planned for you and Jesse to not leave that area. When you did that, that was only costing us more time, and making the situation branch out to be more complicated than it needed to be. What’s worse is that you got dye packed. Look man, it’s all over your jacket. Lift your sleeve up man.”
Victor looks down on his jacket and notices bright red dye on the sleeve of his jacket. He pulls up his sleeve, and notices that his arm is stained with bright red dye. Jesse and Brian then gasps in shock and horror, and they start to shake their heads. Russell turns his head towards the rear area of the van and looks at Victor’s arm. He has an expressionless reaction to it, and turns his head back forward, looking out the windshield. Victor looks down towards the ground feeling humiliated and embarrassed at himself. He then speaks under his breath.
“I’m sorry guys, I felt that we had extra time, and I wanted to get in the action. I was bored I guess. I learned my lesson, and I won’t do anything like that again. When the dye pack exploded, I dropped the money bag. I’m so fucking stupid. I’m sorry guys.”
Brian stares at Victor sharply, and continues to lash out and attack him.
“Victor, it’s gonna be a bitch to clean all that shit off. You do understand that right? Now they are possibly gonna know it’s fucking us that did it. That ink doesn’t come off easy at all. I think maybe if I rub some ‘WD40’ on it, it might, but shit man. You just had to do that didn’t you? Fuck. You shouldn’t have done that man. You should not have done that.”
Victor continues to keep his head down towards the floor. Kevin who is driving, starts to speak towards all the guys.
“Wait, what? Victor got hit with a dye pack? Why didn’t you guys tell me this? I thought only Russ and Brian were supposed to be at the tellers? Why the fuck was Victor there? Maybe that was nature’s way of teaching him a lesson for not following what we agreed on? Ha-ha.”
Kevin then continues to drive the car, laughing to himself. Russell shakes his head at Kevin. Brian continues to give Victor a cold sharp stare, and returns to badgering him badly.
“When we go back to work, you have to wear long sleeves or something. That ink isn’t going to come off, and you walking around with bright red paint on your arm is going to get us all in fucking trouble man. I’m gonna try my best to get that shit off you, but from what I heard, dye pack is very permanent almost. You didn’t see her reach for a dye pack man?”
Victor starts to feel guilty towards the robbery. He feels ostracized by the other guys, and starts to feel depressed over his actions. He knew he wasn’t supposed to act the way he did, but wanted to take advantage of the moment to include himself. He keeps his head down towards the ground, and under his breath responds to Brian.
“Brian, leave me the fuck alone. No I didn’t see her put the dye pack in the sack. I didn’t know she was going to do that. I screwed up, alright? I always fucking screw up. This is the last heist I’m gonna do with you guys. In fact, this is the last time I’m going to be involved in this group period. You guys clearly don’t like me. Once we get back, I’m going to get changed, get in my car and leave. You’ll never see me again guys, since I’m such an idiot and a dumbass.”
Victor finally raises his head and scrunches his face at Brian giving him an evil look. Jesse feels empathetic towards Victor, and starts to speak to the rest of the guys.
“It’s not his fault. How was he supposed to know a dye pack was going to go off? He was fired up in the moment, and he made a mistake guys. Let it go. It’s all over. Let’s move on.”
Brian turns his head towards Jesse and frowns at him. Brian then softly speaks.
“Maybe you’re right Jesse. I think I’m being a little too rough on him. I’m mainly mad because the dye pack exploded all over him, but I don’t know. Victor, I’m sorry man. I don’t like it when you make stupid choices like that, but you are valuable to us and we need you man. So don’t feel like we don’t need you. We don’t need your stupid choices, that’s all.”
Victor then starts to smile at Brian. Victor raises his arm up, and talks to him.
“Brian, I guess it’s not too bad. I’m gonna look at the bright side of it. I at least got a free tattoo from it. Red is not my favorite color, but I can live with it.”
After saying that, Victor then begins to laugh at himself very loudly. This causes Brian, Jesse and Kevin as well to laugh at him. Russell however does not laugh, and he is keeping quiet. Russell is slightly disappointed at Victor. Victor, Jesse and Kevin continue to laugh together for a couple minutes. Kevin while he’s still driving, then responds to Victor.
“Victor, don’t feel bad man. We need you okay? I know I’ve said some pretty shitty things to you, I know. Forgive me on all of that, but you made a mistake and it’s okay. We all make mistakes. The important thing is understanding your mistake was due to a risk you wanted to take. You didn’t ask to be hit with a dye pack man. It’s going to be okay.”
Victor starts to smile to himself, and begins to cheer up. The men continue to proceed down the road towards “Home Base”. Kevin still driving, starts to whisper to Russell.
“So Russ, you forgive Victor right? You’re not mad at him are you? I mean, if you don’t factor all of that in, you guys did a good job right? You’re gonna forgive him right?”
Russell turns his head towards Kevin and starts to smile. Russell then looks behind him towards the back area of the van, and he makes eye contact with Victor. He then talks to him.
“Victor, from now on, do what we planned man. You’ll be fine. Yeah that dye pack ink isn’t going to come off. We can make it fade kind of, but…”
Victor interrupts Russell, by laughing hysterically at him. Russell is not amused, and fires back at Victor.
“Damn it. Victor, never mind.”
“We still did an amazing job you guys. Yeah Victor fucked up, but we didn’t get caught. Nobody got hurt, everything for the most part went well. I don’t know what our loot us, but I’m happy that we finally did our first heist. Because we planned this one so well, I say we do one more, then that’s it. We’ll do another next Friday, just like we did today, but that will be our last. But for the next heist, let’s go bigger and better. Go out with a bang. I…”
Brian is interrupted when Victor begins to laugh loudly, causing Brian to be irritated and annoyed just like Russell was. Victor still laughing, responds to Brian while looking at him.
“Go out with a bang. Ha-ha. That’s what happened, we all went out with a bang. The dye pack exploded on me, and it went BANG! Ha-ha. Good one Brian. Go out with a bang.”
Brian looks at Victor in disapproval. Victor continues to laugh very loudly, and the rest of the guys are getting fed up with it. The men try their best to ignore him, but due to how loud he’s laughing, and how distinct his laughter is, it’s causing a lot of annoyance to them. Russell then loses his patience. He turns his head towards Victor, snapping at him.
“Victor, shut the fuck up man. God. That’s quite enough of all of that. Shut up.”
Victor smiles at Russell and halts his laughter. Kevin then while driving, turns his head towards Russell shaking his head at him. All of the men seem to be irritated by the way Victor is acting. A minute later, Kevin decides to speak to Russell.
“Hey Russ. As to what Brian said, we’re only going to do one more heist right? Then that’s it? I know you said you only wanted to do one, but yeah Victor got exploded with a dye pack, but if you never mind that, we all worked pretty well. I can do one more of these. I’m here if you need my help Russ. Then after that we all call it quits, no more robbing banks. Ha-ha.”
Russell still looking out towards the windshield, responds to Kevin softly.
“Yeah Kev, we’ll do one more, and I’m done. I’m only doing these to get back at the industry that fucked my life over. I think if we do one more heist, and pick a bigger bank, I’ll be satisfied. Even though we won’t be robbing banks anymore, we’ll all keep in touch with each other, and move on with our lives as normal as we can. It will all be good.”
Kevin continues down the road, and up turns the stereo in the van.
“It’s too quiet in here Russ, I had to turn the music on. Everybody is acting all tense and shit. We should be celebrating and having fun. Speaking of celebrating, Russ when we get back and we all change, let’s get so shitfaced drunk tonight. Let’s get some Chinese food, and all the booze we can all drink. Let’s get so wasted. We all robbed a bank together, we deserve it man.”
Russell turns his head towards Kevin and laughs at him. He then responds.
“You want Chinese food Kev? You can have whatever you want. You want all the beer you can drink Kev? You can have that as well. I agree, it’s time to celebrate.”
Brian then snaps back at Russell.
“Wait, before we do any celebrating, we count everything we got. I want to know how much loot we have. That’s my main thing. After that, we can party and do whatever the fuck we want. I first of all, want to know what our total take was. I have to know, I’m so anxious.”
Kevin continues to drive, and agrees with Brian, directing his comments to the group.
“I agree. Let’s count all the money first, then we can have a fiesta, and get drunk, and do whatever. We robbed a bank. I still can’t believe any of this shit. Everyone in this van is batshit crazy Russ.”
Russell looks down towards the floor and shakes his head. He then responds to Kevin.
“You can say that again Kev. Isn’t that the fucking truth? We are all a bunch of loonies.”
Kevin laughs at Russell, and continues to drive. The men listen to the car stereo in silence for several minutes. As they get closer to “Home Base”, they each feel more calm. However, Victor then starts to laugh again for no reason, causing Brian to become irritated over this. He reaches over and pops Victor in the back of the head very hard. Victor shuts himself up, and suspends his laughter after being hit by Brian. Jesse starts to shake his head, feeling more empathy towards Victor. Kevin and Russell who heard Brian hit him, both start to chuckle to themselves. Following this, Brian starts to speak to all of the guys.
“As I was saying before, we did relatively well this time. For the next heist we should go bigger and badder. We don’t have a choice, we have to. This shows we have the potential to work tougher and accomplish anything we set out minds to. Following the next heist, we take our money, and we all go our separate ways; still remaining friends. That’s going to be the plan.”
The rest of the guys do not respond to what Brian said, but mentally they are in agreement towards him. The van continues down the highway, now only a short distance from “Home Base”. Traffic becomes loosely tight, until all of the cars become slowly packed together. Eventually cars stop moving altogether, and the guys then become stuck in traffic. Kevin starts to grunt and feel aggravated over this. His turns to Russell, and angrily chats with him.
“There must be an accident or something up ahead Russ. None of the cars are moving. I hope we aren’t here all night. Damn it, I hate it when traffic gets like this Russ.”
Russell looks down towards the ground, and speaks to Kevin in a quiet manner.
“Kev, these things happen man. Just try not to let it get to your head alright? We shouldn’t be in this mix for that long hopefully. Listen to the music Kev. Relax. Alright?”
Kevin nods his head towards Russell, and turns the stereo in the van up. The rest of the cars then little by little start to advance in the highway. The traffic jam is beginning to subside itself, and traffic is beginning to come to a faster flow and rate. Eventually, the highway returns to its normal condition, and to its regular custom pace. Kevin finally approaches the highway exit, leading towards “Home Base”.
A few minutes later, they finally reach the safe house area. Kevin stops the van right outside the driveway to the second unit, which is outside of “Home Base”. Russell gets out of the vehicle, and starts to unlock the unit door. After opening it, Russell gets back into the van, and Kevin pulls up inside the unit. He then turns the ignition off and grabs his laptop case. All of the men get out of the van. Russell walks towards the unit door he opened, closing and locking it. The men at this point, start to take off their jackets, and their boots. Brian takes Victor’s stained jacket, and puts it in a black trash bag, tucking it in a deep corner of the unit, hidden away from view.
All of them each proceed to change into their regular clothes they all put aside before they left for the heist. Kevin puts on a T shirt and jeans. Jesse puts on a tank top and shorts. Victor puts on a plain white T shirt and some khaki pants. Brian puts on a blue button down shirt and some jeans, and Russell puts on a black polo shirt and some jeans. Once they have changed, Brian takes all of the guns they used during the heist, and empties all the bullets and magazines. He places the guns away in the unit. Brian then takes two black trash bags, and puts each canvas tote bag that contains their looted money inside the black bags. Brian gives one of the black trash bags to Russell, keeping the other one to himself. Immediately following this, the men then walk towards the “Home Base” unit.
Brian reaches the gate of the unit, and starts to unlock it. As the door opens, the men all go inside. Brian locks the gate, and sets his trash bag over by the sofa areas. Russell then sets his black bag right in that same area. Brian then goes over by his bed to get his phone, and he begins to order some Chinese food. While Brian is ordering the food, Kevin sits down on the sofa, and turns the television on, which is showing “Family Feud”. Jesse t
hen sits down on the sofa next to Kevin, and watches the program. Victor during this time walks over to Brian’s automotive tool area, looking to see if he has any “WD40”, so he can conceal the dye pack paint on his arm.
Russell takes the black bag he set down, and dumps it all on the table in front of the sofas. Russell looks at all the loose cash that has formed a big pile, and starts to shake his head for a few seconds. He then starts to laugh to himself, while still looking at all the money. Kevin stares at Russell and proceeds to laugh at him, while Jesse gives Russell a puzzling look. Russell who’s continuing to laugh to himself right after that, takes the bag that Brian set down, and dumps the contents of that bag on the table as well. He looks at the even bigger pile of cash, and laughs out loud. Russell then starts to speak to both Kevin and Jesse.
“That’s a lot of money you guys. Shit. It belongs to all of us too. I don’t know how much it is, but damn that looks like a substantial amount to me.”
Coincidentally as Russell finished talking, the program went to a commercial break. Kevin looks at the large pile of cash on the table, and starts to shake his head.
“Well, we have to count it all Russ. Jesse and I can do that right now. I’m curious to see how much all of it is. It seems like a lot of fucking money Russ. I agree.”
Russell smiles at Kevin, and walks over to where Brian is. Brian is still on the phone ordering Chinese food. Kevin turns off the television set so they can be totally focused, and he Jesse then begin to count all of the money they plundered. Once they count to a specific amount, they put the bills in separate piles on the table, counting only to one thousand for each. Victor finally is able to find a can of “WD40”, and begins to rub some of it on the area of his arm the dye pack hit him. The paint although not coming off completely, does begin to vanish itself away slightly. Kevin and Jesse continue to count all of the money, being focused on this tedious and repetitious task. Taking note, the large amount of bills they have to go through. This more than likely will take quite some time for them to finish. Brian gets done ordering the food and starts to speak to Russell.