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  “Good, then we’re covered at the parking lot. Amber and Kate, that sounds like a good job for you. Women have keener intuition and notice more. Peek through the windows of every vehicle and see how they look. Start with the ones closest to the building.”

  Amber and I took off for the parking lot.

  “Come on. Let’s check that black car first,” I said.

  We ran to the black Altima and cupped our hands against the glass. “This aftermarket tint makes it impossible to see inside. I need to call Jack and give him the plate number while we check the other cars.” Amber waited while I dialed Jack’s cell. “Aftermarket tint on the black Altima, Boss. We can’t see inside, but here are the plate numbers. We’ll start checking the other cars.” I hung up, and we ran to the car nearest the building’s entrance.

  We crouched at the trunk, and Amber jerked her chin to the right. “We need to stay on the passenger side of the car. They’re less likely to see us if anyone has eyes on the atrium, and it’ll give us cover.”

  “Okay, let’s do it.”

  We scurried to the side window and peered in. The vehicle had a car seat in the back, and in the cup holder was a coffee cup from the gas station down the road. We moved on to the next car. That one, although messy, didn’t look like something three armed men would have traveled in. The passenger seat was covered with paperwork, and the footwell had fast-food wrappers everywhere. I craned my neck to see the back seat floor. More junk filled that space. We had one car left when my cell phone rang. We sat at the back tire while I answered.

  “What have you got, Boss?” I listened as Jack explained what he had just found out. I hung up seconds later and relayed the information to Amber. “Jack said the black Altima was reported stolen last night from a residence on the northwest side of Milwaukee, so it has to be the one. He said to puncture all the tires and return to the cruisers.”

  Amber opened her folding knife and stabbed the first tire. A hissing noise sounded as we watched the tire go flat. She took care of the driver’s side, I flattened the tires on the passenger side, then we ran back to where the group was stationed.

  “The tires are flat. Now what?” I asked.

  “Now we wait.” Jack pushed up his sleeve. “The vault opens in five minutes.”

  Chapter 6

  Two sugar cubes and a tablespoon of creamer—that was the way he liked his morning coffee. Greg heated the water in a glass measuring cup and watched the digital countdown for two minutes and twenty seconds. The timer went off just as the water came to a gentle boil. He prepared his coffee, gave it a ten-second stir to dissolve the sugar, and headed for the master bedroom closet. He would eat his normal breakfast of two English muffins during his drive to work. The butcher shop opened promptly at ten o’clock Monday through Saturday and was closed all day Sunday, and with an hour to kill before time to leave, he wanted to check on the girl he’d abducted last night—and the results of the procedure. Greg crossed the threshold into the first room, set his coffee down, and made a beeline for the refrigerator as he pulled the roller cart behind him. With a jerk, he opened the door, slid the torso onto the cart, and wheeled it to a spot under the overhead lights.

  “Let’s see how you look.” He removed the reading glasses from his chest pocket and perched them on his nose. “Hmm… not bad. The skin color held up, and the position of the arms looks normal. Not my best stitchery but certainly nicer than before. I’m getting better at my craft.” He turned to look at the cardboard image of Kamila. “Morning, dear.” He took a sip of coffee and set the cup on the embalming table, then he crossed the room and picked up the cutout. He carried Kamila to the torso and set her down. “Have a look. What do you think? Pretty soon, you’ll be the same beautiful Kamila you were before I—” He stopped midsentence and thought about his words. “Let me rephrase that. You’ll look as beautiful as you did before.” He carried the cutout back to the wall and set it on the chalked pink X on the floor. “Now to see how Ms. Lola feels this morning.”

  He crossed the second room and entered the third. His forehead furrowed at how quiet the room was as he slapped at the wall switch and the overhead bulb sprang to life. The thick scent of pungent iron hung in the air, and the gruesome scene nearly made him sick.

  “Damn it!” He rushed in and sidestepped the blood pool as much as possible. Even from several feet away, he knew Lola was dead. Nobody could survive that much blood loss.

  “Your stitches must have pulled apart.”

  I bet she thrashed in pain and ripped the stitches wide open when she woke up.

  As he leaned over her body, he stared at the open holes that, until last night, held arms. He’d have a mess to clean later, especially after the blood had hours to dry. He marched back through the rooms and checked the time on the wall clock. He had to leave the house in a half hour to open the butcher shop on time. He thought about Lola’s black locks as he headed to the shower and turned the dial to the hottest setting.

  I still may be able to use her hair. I’ll work on that tonight after I clean up the mess on the floor.

  Chapter 7

  It was time. The alarm on Jack’s phone went off, indicating it was nine o’clock. He looked at Matt then at the building. He didn’t see any movement. “Are they going to call you once they’ve taken what they want out of the vault?”

  “As far as I know, that’s the plan.”

  Jack nodded. “Okay, we’ll go along with everything they demand as long as they don’t take any hostages. We’ll back away the cars and give them a false sense of hope. Then as soon as we see they’ve come out and are making a run for the car, we’ll surround them on foot and move in. They aren’t going to get anywhere with four flat tires. They can’t see us from our position, so they only know that Jackson City PD and our patrol vehicles are outside. That means the five of us can be hidden alongside the building when they make their escape.”

  The adrenaline ran high as we waited for word from the men inside the bank.

  Matt’s cell phone rang at a quarter after nine. The robbers were under the impression that Matt was the man in charge. He gave Jack a nod and clicked over to Speakerphone as he answered. “Officer Simpson here.”

  “We’re coming out in five minutes, but we need to see all the cop cars leave first. We know there are six vehicles out there, and I want them to head east on Highway 60 until every car is out of sight.”

  “That’s a demand we’re willing to accept, but it’s conditional.”

  “We’re calling the shots, not you!”

  “You’ll never leave the building unless you agree to our terms. We’ll move out as soon as we have confirmation that the innocent people in the building are safe and everyone is accounted for. I want them to go in a room with a door they can lock. One of them needs a cell phone to call me and tell me they’re safe. That’s when we’ll leave according to your demands, but no funny stuff. I’m going to speak to each person holed up in that room.”

  We waited as silence filled the other end of the line until that same voice spoke again. “I’ll have somebody call you in five minutes when they’re in a secure room.”

  The call abruptly ended, and Matt clicked off. He let out a sigh as Jack patted his shoulder. “Good work, Simpson. Go ahead and line up your cars on the road, where they have a good view of them.” Jack turned to Silver, Ebert, and Lawrence. “You guys do the same. We’ll wait here out of sight. Call my cell as soon as you speak to every employee and customer and confirm they’re safe. Find out from the people you talk to what kind of weapons the bank robbers had and how many they were armed with too.”

  The group of six headed to their cars.

  Jack scanned the parking lot then pointed at the far end. He addressed Amber, Clayton, Billings, and me. “We’ll wait behind those bushes for them to come out. There’s plenty of cover back there.”

  I chimed in. “But once they realize they’re sitting ducks, it could turn into a firefight, and we’d have nothing solid for prot
ection. That shrubbery isn’t going to stop a bullet from hitting our heads or limbs. How about the dumpster instead?”

  “Yeah, good call. Let’s get our vehicles out of sight and grab a few rifles. We need to get stationed right now.”

  Jack and Clayton moved our cruisers another hundred feet back, where the tree cover along neighboring roads would keep them well hidden. We positioned ourselves behind the dumpster, and the privacy fence that wrapped it gave us another layer of protection. The parking lot lay directly to our south, and we’d have eyes on them whether they exited the building from the front or back door. With our deputies moving in from behind, the robbers would be surrounded by eight well-armed law enforcement officers.

  Jack’s cell phone chirped at 9:23. “Lieutenant Steele here. Yep, we’re in position, and you spoke to every person in the bank? They’re all safe? Okay, we have our eyes peeled for movement. I can’t see your vehicles anymore, but I need my deputies to head back here on foot ASAP. Thanks for your assistance, Matt.” Jack clicked off the call and pointed toward each entrance. “Apparently, the robbers have handguns and long guns, so keep your heads down and watch both doors.”

  Amber and I watched the atrium entry, Clayton and Billings watched the back, and Jack stationed himself in the middle, where he could see in both directions.

  I nudged his arm. “Here we go, Jack.” There was movement in the atrium, but I couldn’t tell what was happening. They were possibly gathering their wits to make a run for the car—we didn’t know. We couldn’t tell if all three were in the atrium, only that somebody was.

  “Keep your cool, guys, and don’t make a move until I say so. I want all three of them outside and preferably in the car, where they won’t be able to get off shots that easily.”

  We waited. Suddenly, the three men charged out the front door, each with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder. They ran to the black Altima—just as we’d thought—and dove in. With his rifle propped on the lid of the dumpster, Jack fired two rounds through the car’s hood.

  “Now! Hit everything except the gas tank and the men inside. Completely disable that car!”

  Rounds of bullets blew holes in the vehicle. Seconds later, Jack held up his hand for us to stop. He’d made his point. We saw our deputies hugging the front and back walls of the building. They were working their way in, all with guns drawn.

  Jack cupped his mouth and yelled out commands. “Get out of the car now and lay flat on the ground! You’re completely surrounded. You have five seconds before the gunfire starts again, and I doubt if you want this day to be your last.”

  The driver opened his door. “Okay, okay, we’re coming out.”

  Jack continued as we cautiously approached. “Hands in the air where we can see them! Down on your knees and then flat on your stomachs.”

  Our deputies rounded the corner of the bank and stepped off the curb. The driver and passenger lay flat on the ground.

  “Man in the back seat, get out now, or I’ll start firing. Don’t try to be a tough guy. You won’t succeed.”

  Gunfire cracked, and glass exploded as shots blew out the Altima’s back window. We took cover where we could find it. The two men on the ground jumped up at their only chance of escape and sprinted south. Heavy woods lay on the other side of the road. Silver and Ebert quickly apprehended the men and cuffed them to the building’s outer doors. We had one person remaining to deal with and plenty of bullets zinging by.

  Karen crouched at the curb and slowly made her way toward the car. The assailant in the back seat focused in our direction, and his bullets pelted the ground around us.

  “Jack, it’s too risky. What the hell is she doing?”

  “Karen has this, Kate. Just keep him distracted.”

  We continued to fire rounds but kept our aim a good distance from our deputy, and the car’s open doors kept the shooter from seeing her. I held my breath as I watched her next move.

  With her long gun jammed in his back, Karen yelled for him to drop his weapon. “Do it now, or I’ll shoot you where you sit!”

  He tossed his gun on the seat.

  Karen yelled “Clear!” as she kept her gun jammed against his back. We raced to the car, cuffed his hands behind him, and took him into custody.

  Karen took in a deep breath. She closed her eyes for a second, likely to regroup.

  “That was one brave act, Karen. We owe you one.”

  She nodded. “It’s the job I signed up for but still damn scary.”

  Jack gave her a shoulder squeeze. “Nice work, Lawrence.”

  “Thanks, Boss.”

  “Kate, take these deputies back to get their cars. They can transport these pieces of crap to jail while we get things situated here.”

  “You got it, sir.”

  Chapter 8

  It took until three o’clock to wrap up everything at the bank. The armed transport company collected the money, the crooks were in jail, and nobody had been taken hostage or killed. All in all, I considered that the best outcome anyone could have hoped for. Now the paperwork would begin, and the bank would have to come up with better security measures. I smiled as I thought of Karen’s bravery. We had the best team of deputies and detectives imaginable, and I was thankful for that.

  I sat at my desk and thought about tomorrow. I’d be flying out at noon and arrive in Atlanta at one thirty. An easy flight yet not the city I’d normally choose to visit. I had too many bad memories associated with Atlanta, and they still haunted me regularly. I hadn’t seen my mom for three years, and the last time I did, we spent five fun days in Chicago. It was time to go whether I liked it or not.

  “Damn it!”

  Amber jerked her head toward me. “What?”

  I swiped the air, knowing full well I’d get a lecture about worrying what other people thought.

  She tapped her desk. “I’m waiting.”

  “Fine. I was supposed to call Kim this morning to let her know when I was arriving or if I was arriving at all. She’s staying in a hotel near the airport and was going to book a room for me too. We’d spend tomorrow and Friday night there and surprise my mom on Saturday. Mom’s dearest friend and neighbor, Beth Reilly, is supposed to get her out of the house for a few hours so we can get in, decorate, and have everyone there when they return.”

  “Sounds like fun. So why wouldn’t you and Kim bunk up together? She’s your sister for God’s sake.”

  I frowned. “Yeah, we don’t do that kind of thing. We aren’t close like you and Jade.”

  “Well, that’s just sad.”

  I doodled on my notepad and wondered why my only sibling and I had never had that sisterly bond. She was several years older than me, and our lifestyles were so different—maybe that was why. The words I remembered overhearing years back still stung. “Mom, Kate’s a wacko, and that psychic crap? What normal person takes her seriously? No wonder she’s never been in a committed relationship.”

  Amber interrupted my thoughts. “So call her now and give her your flight schedule. She is picking you up at the airport, isn’t she?”

  “Nah, she found a hotel that has a shuttle service. I just need to know if she reserved a room for me or not.”

  “Jeez, maybe it doesn’t sound that fun after all.”

  “I know, plus it’s Atlanta.” I pushed back my chair. “I’m going to run to the ladies’ room and get the phone call over with. I’m sure I’ll hear how irresponsible I am because I didn’t call her this morning.”

  “Yeah, you were a tad preoccupied trying to apprehend bank robbers while she was likely having her nails done.” Amber whispered sarcastically as I walked to the door. “And make sure you tell her that.”

  In the privacy of the ladies’ room, I took in a deep breath and tapped Kim’s name on my contact list. I couldn’t understand why I let my sister get to me. Maybe she had a dominant gene that came from our absentee father, yet I didn’t know that because I barely remembered him. The phone rang on Kim’s end, and I waited for the sarca
sm when she picked up. It began, and I wiped my eyes as she berated me.

  Five minutes later, and after dabbing my flushed face with cold water, I returned to the bull pen. I still had a stack of reports to complete before I left for the day. I wouldn’t be back until next week, and I couldn’t leave important paperwork unfinished.

  Amber smiled. “Feel better?”

  “No, and I can’t wait until Tuesday when I’m back at this desk.” I dug into my paperwork and tried to get the upcoming trip out of my mind.

  Chapter 9

  He cleaned the smudged window and peered out.

  Hmm… quiet afternoon. Maybe I should close shop early and head home.

  Greg thought about the cleanup that lay ahead of him. It would take a scrub brush and a lot of elbow grease to get that dried blood off the floor. And then there was Lola—or what was left of her. Greg couldn’t dispose of the body with her head still attached. She could easily be recognized with the help of a sketch artist and airtime on the evening news. It wasn’t a risk he was willing to take, and he needed her hair, anyway. He thought back to last week, when he’d buried Ginger’s arms in the backyard. Luckily for him that day, he caught the neighbor’s dog—the one that was always loose—after it had dug up the arm and had it between its teeth. Greg saw the mutt and coaxed the arm from him before the dog reached the end of his driveway. Sacrificing a perfectly good filet was the only way to get the dog to release its find, but it was well worth it.

  Can’t take that risk, especially when that damn mutt is always loose. Better to get rid of body parts far from home.

  Greg waited for the clock hands to hit five o’clock before killing the lights. With the door locked, the shades lowered, and the alarm set, he climbed into his truck and headed home.

  At the house and with his jacket hung, he started the teakettle and double-checked the calendar. “Yep, yesterday I had chamomile.” He decided on green tea—he needed the boost of energy to get through the task ahead.