Aoife nodded eagerly and packed a couple of things up before she rounded the teller desks to follow Adams out the door. Owens was still waiting outside, and I watched out the window as the three of them linked up and went on their way.
I waited until they’d turned the corner, then I left the bank and quickly crossed back to my car, rapping on the glass to let Alec and Fletcher know we were good to go. The two of them got out of the car, and Alec looked almost a little relieved to no longer be trapped in there with Fletcher, who had a slightly self-satisfied grin on her face. I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to know what they’d been talking about while I was gone.
“I sent everyone off to lunch,” I explained. “We’ve probably got about an hour.”
“That should be plenty of time,” Alec said as I led him and Fletcher over to the bank. “Walk me through everything that happened?”
I held the door open for Alec and Fletcher, and we made our way to the now vacant security office first. Martin had made a copy of the tapes to bring back to the station, but we still had access to the originals on site, and I keyed up the footage for the night of the robbery so Alec could see it. He was silent as I fast-forwarded through it all, though his lips pursed, and he hummed softly when some of the cameras went to static.
“Interesting,” he said as I hit pause at the end of the lost footage. “And you said there was a cut wire in a security panel?”
“Out the side door, yeah,” I said.
“I’m going to walk their route,” he decided. “I assume at least one of you wants to come with me?”
“I’ll watch the cameras,” Fletcher said. “I remember which ones went out. We’ll see if it actually matches up.”
I nodded, and Alec and I left her by the computers to make our way to the bank’s delivery entrance. The two of us walked side by side down the hallways, and I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my overcoat, the silence sitting uneasily between us.
“What have you been up to since we took down Holden?” I asked eventually, just as we turned a corner and our destination came into view.
“You probably don’t really want to know,” Alec replied and gave me a grin and a wink.
“I guess not,” I agreed. For as much as he wanted to get back to his family, he didn’t seem to be able to shake his old patterns.
I opened the door for him and held it as he stepped outside to look over the security panel. I reached into my pocket and passed him my penknife so he could pry the top off and get at its guts. He pulled thin leather gloves on before he touched anything, and then he carefully worked the screws through and poked through the wires until he found the cut one.
“A lot of people will slice as many wires as possible,” he explained as he fingered the frayed edge. “It’s usually a safer bet, just in case there are contingencies in place, so it’s interesting that your robbers only cut the one.”
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“It means that they’re smart, they’re very good at what they do, and they probably want you to know it,” Alec said. “Cutting this wire would still have pinged a warning back to the security guard, but they picked the one that wouldn’t set off any alarms or go back to the security company itself. Then they bribed the guard to ignore it and probably gave him a specific sequence of cameras to cut.”
“Why not just short out all the cameras?” I asked as Alec slotted the panel back into place.
“It’s a way to show off,” Alec explained. He moved past me back into the bank, and we began to trace the path the robbers took to the vault. “I’m guessing those aren’t the only monitors in the place, either. The bank manager no doubt has access to the feed in his office, as well, although he probably can’t see all of them at once, like the security guard can. So if he sees that one of the cameras is fritzing out, he might think it was mechanical rather than assuming sabotage.”
“Does all that sound like anyone you know?” I wondered. We turned a corner, and I glanced up at the camera mounted along the wall, giving Fletcher a wave since I knew she was watching.
Alec bit his lip in thought. “Maybe. Tell me about the murder itself?”
“Like I said earlier, we’re pretty sure it wasn’t planned. We think the bank manager surprised them. He was hit in the head, and then we found the murder weapon in the bin outback. It was a crowbar, still had blood on it, and we even pulled some prints, though we don’t have a match for them in our system.”
Just as I finished speaking, we reached the spot where Barney Crane had died. His body was long gone, of course, but his blood still stained the floor in a wide circle. It had turned a rust colour as it dried, and it was caked into the grout. They were going to have a hell of a time getting it out when it came time to reopen the bank.
Alec and I stopped by the blood, and he cocked his head to the side as he stared down at it, his expression sombre.
“Most thieves are not murderers,” he began, his voice soft. “At least the ones I know, especially if they’re taking so much care to sneak in and out.”
“That’s what threw us, too,” I said. “Everything seemed so professional, and then they not only killed a man but also simply dumped the murder weapon where anyone could find it? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Because the blood and death would have spooked the entire team,” Alec said. “I doubt they would have known what to do with it.” He massaged the back of his neck for a few seconds, lapsing into silence as he continued to study the blood. “I have an idea of who might have been in charge of the robbery, but this man’s death doesn’t fit with what I know of him.”
“Who is it?” I asked, an eager spark rushing down my spine at the thought that I might get a name out of Alec.
“Do you mind if I see the vault first?” Alec asked, and I scowled at him, hoping this wasn’t a trick. He raised his hands in the air when he saw my dark look and rushed to explain. “I just want to confirm my suspicions. I don’t want to send you off in the absolute wrong direction. This thief I know sometimes leaves these super subtle calling cards. Blink-and-you’ll-miss-it type stuff. It’s a little game he likes to play.”
I ground my teeth for a second, trying to decide how smart it was to let a known thief into a bank vault, though I supposed with all the money gone, there wasn’t much more damage he could do.
“Fine, but--”
“But don’t try anything,” Alec interrupted. “Yeah, yeah. I get it. How did they get into the vault?”
“They cracked it,” I answered as we began to walk again. “No drill, nothing like that. They somehow managed to crack the code.”
“Impressive. I’m guessing it’s got a pretty hefty lock?”
“The regional manager said it has two combination locks that need to be opened within sixty seconds of each other, I think,” I said, casting my mind back to our conversation with Warren O’Donnell. “Is that even possible?”
“If you’re very, very good, yes,” Alec said thoughtfully.
“And do you know of anyone who’s that good?” I asked.
He nodded. “I just might.”
We arrived at the bank vault, whose door was still thrown open so that the lab techs could get in and out of it as they did their work. Other than the security boxes along the back wall, it wasn’t like there was anything left to steal, and those boxes were locked up tight. Alec went to examine the door just as my phone buzzed, and I left him to it as I pulled the device from my pocket and saw Fletcher’s name on the screen.
“What’s up?” I asked as I answered.
“I checked your path with the diagram you made on the bank blueprint,” Fletcher said, her voice filled with static since my signal wasn’t great at the back of the bank. “It matched perfectly.”
“Alec thinks he knows who our head robber might be,” I told her. “You want to come to join us?”
“I’ll be right there,” Fletcher said, and the phone clicked in my ear as she hung up.
Alec stepped away from
the door and moved into the vault itself, taking great care as he moved in a circle around the small room and studied the floor.
“Well?” I asked him, but he just held up a finger to tell me to wait. I sighed but didn’t press, leaning against one of the walls and crossing my arms. Alec seemed like just the type to purposefully make me wait all the longer if I tried to hurry him along.
The loose bills that the robbers had left behind were still scattered across the floor, each one marked with a yellow triangle. They’d get picked up soon, I figured, but for the moment, Adams had left them alone just in case we decided we needed another look at the crime scene, which we did, so I was grateful to her for that.
Alec stooped before one of them, shot me a glance, and then reached out and picked it up. I immediately pushed off the wall and started toward him, my expression harsh.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded.
Alec waved me off with the hand not holding onto the bill. “Hold on a second.”
“If you think I’m going to let you take it…” I threatened.
“I’m not trying to steal it,” Alec snapped, sounding exasperated. “Look.” He rose to his full height and shoved the bill in my face. I went cross-eyed, struggling to see the details on it at such close range, and I took a step back, pulling a glove from my pocket so I could pluck the bill from Alec’s hand.
“What am I looking at?” I asked as I studied the front of the hundred-pound bill. It looked perfectly normal to me.
“In the corner there,” Alec explained, pointing to the upper left-hand corner of the bill.
I squinted at the spot he’d indicated, still trying to find anything out of the ordinary, and finally, an itty-bitty drawing of a ram resolved into focus, drawn a mere shade darker than the rest of the bill so that it was hardly visible.
Fletcher appeared at the opening to the vault before I could ask him about it, panting slightly like she’d run here from the security office. She paused to collect herself before she joined us inside, tugging at the hem of her dark green leather jacket to make sure it was straight and brushing a loose strand of hair back from her face.
“So, what’s the sitch?” she asked.
I looked at Alec. “Well? You said you had a name for us. Does this confirm it?” I waved the hundred-pound bill in the air, and Alec slowly nodded.
“I’m about ninety per cent sure I know who was in charge of this little heist,” he began, and both Fletcher and I shifted our postures to give him our full attention at the same time. “I recognise the MO, bribing the guard, knocking out just enough of the security to get inside without totally fritzing the system, this little calling card.” He nodded to the bill in my hand, and I hunted around in my pockets for an evidence bag.
“I worked with him once, maybe five years ago now,” Alec continued as I slipped the bill into a plastic bag and sealed it up. “He rarely works with the same people twice. He likes to put together a new crew for each heist, and he likes to take young, budding thieves under his wing to show them the ropes. That’s probably how your bank manager got killed. One of his newbies freaked and overreacted.”
“I’m still waiting on a name,” I said, tapping one foot against the ground as I raised an eyebrow at Alec.
“Carmichael,” Alec replied. “No, I don’t know his last name. He never told me.”
“Do you know what he looks like?” Fletcher asked.
“It’s been a while, but yeah. I could probably give you a description,” Alec said. “He’s Scottish, about your height, MacBain, and when I knew him, his hair was black and long enough to touch his shoulders. He’s got a small scar right here.” Alec carved a short crescent down the left side of his jaw. He made a face as he tried to recall more details. “I think his eyes were dark. Couldn’t tell you if they were brown or black, though.”
“Any tattoos?” Fletcher wondered.
“None that I saw,” Alec said with a shrug.
“We need to get that information to Martin,” I said as I checked my phone to see how much time we had until the others got back from lunch. “They can start a search for someone matching that description while we decide on our next move.”
“Let’s head back to the car first, though,” Fletcher suggested, nodding to Alec.
I bobbed my head in agreement. We needed to get him out of there before someone saw him.
“You take him,” I said, passing Fletcher my keys. I held up the evidence bag. “I’ll get this to Adams when she returns. Then we can call Martin.”
Fletcher put a hand on Alec’s shoulder and began to lead him out of the vault back toward the front of the bank. I hesitated for a few seconds before I followed them, taking one last look around the robbed room.
“Carmichael,” I murmured, feeling out the man’s name. It felt good to finally have a name and a description to put on our robber, even if that description was five years out of date. “Be seeing you soon.”
Nine
I called Adams as I made my way back to the bank lobby. I felt a little guilty for disturbing the lunch that I’d sent her on, but I knew she’d want to see the vandalised banknote as soon as possible.
“I’ve got something for you,” I said the moment she picked up.
“You found something?” she practically squealed, then didn’t even give me a chance to reply before she continued on. “We’ll be right there.” And then she hung up at me.
I took the phone away from my ear and stared at it for a second before putting it away, shaking my head slightly. I had to wait about fifteen minutes for them to return, leaning against the front of the teller desks as I scrolled aimlessly through social media on my phone.
When the doors opened, letting in a cool gust of wind, I looked up and put the phone away, still holding the bagged dollar bill in my hand. Adams made a beeline for my position, Aoife and Owens trailing along behind her.
“Well?” she asked, and I held the evidence out to her.
She took it from me and flipped the plastic bag over and over again as she searched for something out of the ordinary, just as I had before Alec had pointed the ram out to me. Adams looked up at me and shrugged, giving up, so I took the bill back and put a finger just above the tiny bit of graffiti.
Adams squinted down at it, and Owens and Aoife crowded in close to get a good look as well, curiosity writ across both of their faces. Adams finally spotted what I was trying to show her, and her face lit up.
“It’s a calling card,” she said, whistling softly as if she were impressed. “Almost impossible to spot, too. How did you ever find it?”
I shrugged. “Dumb luck, I guess. I was curious as to why the thieves would leave even a couple of bills behind, so I went to take a look at them and managed to spot that guy.”
“I will make sure to analyse the hell out of this,” Adams promised. “Did you find anything else back there?”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Just that.” I clapped my hands together, indicating that I was getting ready to go. “Alright, well, I have to head out. Would you mind getting that tagged and processed for me back at the station? Fletcher and I have a couple of other things to run down today.”
“No problem,” Adams said. “I’ll see you back there later.”
“Thanks.”
Adams, Owens, and Aoife slid to the side so I could get past them and head for the door. As soon as I was outside, I headed for my car, which was still parked a couple of buildings down from the bank with Fletcher and Alec inside.
They were sitting in silence but for the radio when I climbed in, and I immediately twisted the key in the ignition to turn the car on the rest of the way, slightly warmer air jetting out of the vents in a vain attempt to push away some of the day’s chill.
“Do we still need to call Martin?” I asked Fletcher.
“I took care of that while you were waiting for Adams,” she said. “I gave him the name and the description, told him we’d gotten an anonymous tip. He said
it’s not much to go on, but he’ll do his best to track him down.”
“And no new word on that number plate?”
Fletcher shook her head. “Not yet.
I nodded slowly and pulled a face while I thought about what to do next. While we had new information, we didn’t have anything actionable yet, so I twisted in my seat so I could look back at Alec.
“Tell us more about Carmichael,” I requested. “You worked with him, so what’s he like? What does he do after he pulls a job? Especially if he robs banks a lot, he has to have a way to clean up the money so it can’t be traced back to him.”
“Carmichael’s smart. Maybe one of the smartest thieves I’ve ever met,” Alec said, shifting slightly in the backseat of the car. “He’s got an entire post-job system laid out, he knows just how to get the loot off his hands safely. He usually goes to a fence to trade out for clean notes, then he splits the haul with his crew, and they all go their separate ways.”
“Any idea who he might go see in Inverness?” I asked.
Alec pursed his lips and drummed his fingers against one thigh. “I might know a guy. His name’s Barron. I’ve used him a couple of times for my own work, allegedly, of course.”
He grinned at us, but Fletcher and I just rolled our eyes.
“Do you think he’s been there yet?” Fletcher asked.
Alec shrugged. “That I can’t say for sure. When I worked with him, we laid low for a couple of days before we moved the dosh to the fence, but I know he’s also gone there straight away when he thought that was the right move.”
“Where--?” I began, but before I could get the rest of the question out, my phone rang, and I cut myself off to tug it out of my pocket. Martin’s name sat on the screen, so I answered it, figuring it might be important. “Martin, hey. Did you find something?”
“Hey, Callum,” Martin replied, an eager note in his voice. “I know Fletcher and I just talked, but ten minutes after we hung up, I got a hit off that number plate.”
Fatal Transaction: A DCI MacBain Scottish Crime Thriller Page 12