“I am not a fool! And you are right, I don’t like being duped but what I don’t like even more is not being able to trust someone I care about. And, right now I don’t trust you.”
“How could you not trust me? We are about to commit a major felony together!”
“That’s exactly why I don’t trust you. Who’s to say you won’t rat us all out and then change your identity again and run?”
“I wouldn’t do such a thing!” Claire slapped the steering wheel with the palm of her hand for emphasis but I heard the hesitation in her words.
“I thought we were all on the same page two days ago. Four middle class women. Broke and constantly struggling to keep our families afloat in the middle of a recession. That’s what made this such a good idea. I had no idea we were just helping you to fuel your own obsession.”
“My obsession? Just what is that supposed to mean?”
“Once a thief, always a thief, right? Seriously, did you actually think you could just quit cold turkey forever? You totally have genetics working against you if nothing else!”
Instead of getting angry at my last accusation, Claire burst out laughing. “Genetics! Ha! I never thought of it quite like that! So, according to your theory, I am preprogrammed to steal! It’s in my genes, so therefore, I am not responsible!” She slapped the steering wheel with the palm of her hand and laughed even harder. “I like the way you think! That’s gonna be my defense when I go to court!”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny.” I tried to sound firm and aggravated but her laughter was contagious.
“Are you still mad at me, Susie?” Claire turned serious. “Because if there is any animosity in our relationship this won’t work. You know that, don’t you?”
“I’m not mad so much as I feel betrayed. We were supposed to be amateurs working together. I can’t imagine what it was like for you to lose your parents but your career choices, well, those are something else. The other girls and I agreed to this because we thought it would better our situations but your situation doesn’t need bettering, does it, Claire? You were just bored and lonely.”
“We went over all of this yesterday.” Claire sounded exasperated. “I told you, I suggested it to help my friends. I knew I could pull it off. The little details like the costumes made it fun. Besides, we had to hide you. Someone might recognize the wife of a cop.”
“You do have a point there,” I conceded.
She pulled up to the curb in front of the Bank of Virginia. I looked up at the brick building and considered for a moment what we were planning.
“I never noticed before how run down this place is. It looks like a crack house.”
Claire chuckled at my blatancy. “Look around you! This isn’t Sandbridge, you know. That place over there”—she pointed a few houses down the block—“probably is a crack house. That one is probably the friendly neighborhood meth lab.” She indicated a faded blue cottage across the street from the bank.
“What’s your point?” I asked Claire.
“It’s the perfect target, Susie. There isn’t a cop in sight.”
I looked up and down the block. She was right about that.
“And it’s my guess that most of the residents of these homes aren’t going to be too anxious to call 911.” She looked at me pointedly.
I could see what she meant. “Ah, so you are saying we have more of a chance of getting away with it because the cops are further away and no one here is going to willingly invite the cops into their world.”
“Exactly.” Claire looked jubilant.
“You do know your business.”
“That’s because I am the professional!” Claire crowed with laughter at her own joke.
“Ha, Ha,” I muttered sarcastically. That just made Claire laugh harder. I wonder if robbing a bank would be like foreplay to Claire.
“So, Ms. Professional, have you decided where we should park the getaway car yet?” I asked impatiently when she couldn’t seem to get the laughter under control on her own.
“Well, that’s why I brought you along.” She wiped at her eyes to dry the tears her fit of laughter had brought on. I still didn’t see what she thought was so funny but maybe I took felonies more seriously than she did. “I checked the surrounding buildings for security cameras.”
“When did you do that?”
“Yesterday afternoon. I was wired after our big ‘discussion’ and needed to get out of the house so I took a drive. Anyway, I checked around and the only place I could see any sort of video surveillance is that gas station over there.”
Claire pointed across the street about half a block down. My eyes followed the direction that she indicated and saw that there were indeed several outdoor cameras pointed at the gas pumps.
“It doesn’t look like any of them really aim in this direction,” I mused aloud as I studied the gas station premises.
“I didn’t think so either but I still think it would be a good idea for us to park up the street a bit. Maybe in front of the actual crack house or the meth lab? I doubt either of those are highly secured with video surveillance.”
“Good point. But I don’t want us to have to run to far either. We need to get out of here as quickly as we can.” I surveyed the area and my eyes fell on a one-way arrow pointing down a side street next to the bank.
“Why not park the car there?” I pointed at the street. “There is nothing there but an abandoned lot and a couple of run down houses. We would be out of sight of the gas station and away from the front of the bank. Did you consider that they might have hidden cameras out in front of the bank for security as well? There is an ATM outside the glass doors.”
“I did think of that, Susie, and I checked into it. The only camera I saw sat on the ATM itself. It doesn’t face the street. Still,”—she rubbed the side of her nose as she considered the issue—“it is a good idea to be tucked away out of sight of the doors.”
“It will still be close enough to get in and out very quickly. We will just have to cut across the grass.” I was secretly proud of myself for coming up with such a tactically sound idea.
Claire nodded her agreement. “Definitely. Parking on that side street is also a good idea. I am glad you came along today, Susie.”
Claire was probably just trying to make me feel good so I wouldn’t be upset with her anymore but I didn’t care. I had begun to feel like a bit of a professional myself and I must admit, I really liked that feeling.
18
Damn Potassium. Who knew?
The tension between us at bay, Claire and I chatted amiably all the way home. We were satisfied with the decision we made about where to leave the car since we had one more element to the plan worked out. I found myself starting to get excited. Not only were we about to change our own lives but in a way we were going to make history. There weren’t too many all-female bank robbery collaborations out there. If… when… we were successful, we would be something to talk about.
By the time we reached my house, I started to feel a bit lightheaded. When I got out of the car, my legs felt weak and unresponsive. It took a large amount of effort just to get up to the front porch and I was completely exhausted and breathing heavily by the time I turned around to wave goodbye to my friend.
I slowly made my way into the house to find my mother in law ironing in the kitchen, watching her favorite talk show.
“Where you been?” she asked without even looking at me.
“Out for a ride with Claire.”
“Oh? A ride? Right.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? A sharp pain shot through the right side of my head and my left eye began to twitch. “Oh crap, not again,” I whispered as I squeezed my eyes shut. Ever since Andy told me about the seizures, it seemed they would roll in full force every forty-eight hours or so.
“You all right?” Andy’s mom actually looked concerned.
“I’m… Oh, man! I …” The last thing I remember thinking as the room went dark was that I needed t
o pay the damned power bill so we could have some lights again.
“Susie? Susie! Wake up. For the love of God, please wake up!” Andy’s voice, deep and laced with anxiety forced its way through the fog in my brain.
I commanded my eyelids to open but they refused to do as they were told. I moved my lips slightly, attempted to speak and reassure my strong, tough husband that I was okay. “Hmmm….” Was all I managed to get out but apparently it was enough.
“Susie! Thank God! You are awake!”
I wasn’t too sure I was awake but at least I wasn't dead. My head hurt in two places. Across the left side where it always seemed to hurt these days and at the base of my skull where a dull ache slowly increased in its intensity.
I raised a hand and reached for the dull ache. My fingers felt warm and sticky. Blood. “What the hell…?” I whispered.
“You passed out. I think you may have had a seizure. You hit your head on the counter on your way to the floor. It’s not as bad as it seems.” Andy’s words came out in a flood of emotion. I could actually hear the break in his voice as he struggled to reassure me.
I forced my eyes open and demanded my body to sit up. My eyes listened but the rest of me refused to work. I wasn’t paralyzed—I could wiggle my fingers and toes and even move my arms and legs—I just couldn’t get up off the floor. No matter how much I wanted to my body wouldn’t listen to my brain.
“Andy? Something’s wrong. I can get up.” Tears filled my eyes as I began to panic.
“What do you mean you can’t get up?” He sounded terrified and in that small moment I suddenly realized what the past weeks had been like for him.
Struggling to regain my composure, I said, “I am telling you, my muscles will not move. I keep telling them to but they refuse. Something is very wrong with me. I think you better call an ambulance.”
“Forget an ambulance. They take too long. Let’s go now.” He reached down and scooped me up off the linoleum of the kitchen floor. “Ma! Open the door. No, not the garage door, the front door!” Andy strode purposefully through the house and toward the main entrance following his mother who was busy twisting her apron and muttering in concern.
In seconds, I found myself in the front seat of Andy’s cruiser, haphazardly propped against the door as he jumped in behind the wheel.
I noticed he still wore his uniform so he must have walked in from his detail right when I fainted. I nearly cried when I heard the wail of the sirens as we raced toward the hospital. I tried hard not to panic. I wanted to remain calm so that the hospital wouldn’t feel the need to sedate me. I didn’t want to go under any painkillers. They made me loose lipped and it worried me which secrets I might divulge if I did.
We slid into the curb at the emergency entrance. Andy jumped from his car and raced around to where I sat. Scooping me up he practically ran into the emergency room.
“Officer Timmons!” A petite red headed nurse jumped to get out of his way. “Is everything OK?” She followed him to an empty stretcher where he gently placed me, making sure to get my head on the pillow and to fold my arms over my abdomen so they wouldn’t flop around out of my control.
“Kate,” he stammered, out of breath. “It’s my wife. She can’t move. She had a seizure. You know, left over from the car accident. She hit her head on the counter when she fell and now she can‘t move. Get a doctor! Someone has to help her!”
“Calm down, Officer Timmons. A doctor will be right over. I just have a few questions. Let’s get your wife into a room.”
The room Nurse Kate referred to was a curtained space partitioned off by a thick, grey curtain on a runner. I remained quiet, listening to the conversations Andy had with various medical professionals as someone came in to start an i.v. and someone else entered to take several vials of blood.
Andy sat in the small vinyl chair next to my bed holding his head in his hands. He must have thought I was asleep because he kept praying, begging God to let me be all right. He wouldn’t have said that out loud if he suspected me of listening. I decided to let him have his privacy and focused my attentions on the conversations going on around us, just on the other side of the curtain. Next to us a child whimpered, calling for mommy softly through a steady flow of tears. I couldn’t tell if it was the mother or the child that was injured, but they were breaking my heart.
A nurse walked by mumbling to herself about some woman refusing to take her meds and the need for another doctor on the floor.
Suddenly the curtain jerked back and a tall, good looking young man entered. “Officer Timmons?”
Andy jumped to his feet with a start. “Yes, doctor?” I could hear the fear in his voice. My husband the cop, not afraid of drug dealers or gang bangers, had become terrified of losing his wife. I wanted to cry just hearing the smallness of his voice. The little boy inside the big, strong man seemed virtually paralyzed by fear. Andy didn’t fear things he could shoot or arrest. When he could use a gun or handcuffs or even pepper spray, he was in control. This situation was totally out of his control—had been since the day that truck hit me—and Andy did not like to be out of control.
“Officer Timmons, your wife’s situation is serious but repairable.”
“What exactly does that mean?”
“Well, her blood work indicates a serious depletion in potassium.”
“Can head trauma cause that?” Andy seemed confused.
“No, sir. This is something different. It may have been caused by the accident and her subsequent stay in the hospital but it is not directly related to the head injury.”
“Can you fix it?”
“Sure thing.” I found the positive note in the young doctor’s voice encouraging. “A shot, a couple of pints of fluid, and she will be as good as new.”
“Doctor, what does low potassium have to do with this?” Andy waved an arm across my motionless body.
“Oh, I’m sorry, sir. Let me explain. Potassium is an ion that the muscles need to control contraction. If the levels of potassium deplete too much, the muscle cells cannot contract. Not being able to contract leads to a state of temporarily paralysis. As soon as we get her dangerously low levels up to normal, Susie will be fine.”
“When you say ‘dangerously’ low, what exactly do you mean?” Good, Andy! I wanted to ask that myself.
“If they were to drop any further, her organ systems would begin to shut down. Eventually, the heart which is a muscle, would no longer be able to beat.”
“And she would… would she … die?”
“Yes,” the doctor replied. Andy must have looked as shocked as I felt because the young doctor quickly added, “But there is nothing to worry about. We caught it in time and your wife will be up and around in a jiffy.”
The doctor turned to leave but Andy stopped him. “One more question, please. Susie hit her head on the counter when she fainted. She was in a car accident a couple of months ago with severe trauma to her brain. Will hitting her head…?”
I heard the doctor flip through the pages on his clip board briefly before he spoke again. “It does not appear that the bump today was severe in any way. She should be fine. Really.”
“But, she’s not fine. She had a seizure before she fell! For all I know she has been having them all along! How can more trauma be no big deal?”
“Officer Timmons, I am very sorry. What your wife—and you and your family—have gone through the past few months must have been very painful but what is wrong with her today is very likely unrelated to the previous injuries. Potassium depletion may be caused by certain medications, but…”
“Medications?” Andy interrupted. “What sort of medications?”
“Steroids. Is your wife on any steroids?”
“No, not now but she was in the hospital.”
“That could have been the root cause then. Seriously though, sir, she is going to be fine if you just let me order the injection and the I.V. for her.”
“Oh, of course. Please do it. I am just worried…”
His voice trailed off as the doctor strode swiftly out of the room.
Within moments a nurse appeared in the room with a bag of fluid and a glass vial. Hanging the I.V. bag from a pole by my bed, the nurse held the vial up and inserted the needle of the syringe into the rubber cap. Using my I.V. line, she injected the clear solution into the line. A slow burn ran up my arm from my hand to my shoulder as the fluid traced its way through my vein. In seconds, I felt the muscles in my face change. I tried speaking.
“Andy?” My voice came out in barely more than a whisper. “Andy? Can you hear me?”
In seconds, he was by my side, holding my hand. “I’m here, Susie. How do you feel?”
“I am not sure yet. For a while I couldn’t get my mouth to move and now I can so that seems to be an improvement.” As I spoke, I began to feel a weird sensation throughout my entire body as something inside me changed. I began to wonder what sort of miracle cure the nurse had injected into me. Surely the potassium couldn’t be working so quickly?
“The doctor said you needed potassium. What happened, Susie? How did this happen? Are you eating? Drinking? You have gotten so thin… the doctor says you could have died from this if we hadn’t brought you in.”
“I know, Andy. I could hear the whole conversation. I don’t know what happened. I’m sorry I frightened you. I will be more careful. It’s just the seizures…”
Andy stood up, his back as straight as a rod, eyes flashing. “What seizures?” he demanded.
“Andy, I have been having seizures for the past several days. They come out of nowhere and knock me through a loop. But none have been as hard as today.”
“I knew it!” He slammed his fist down hard on the bedside table. “That’s it! No more running around all day long until you are well! Mom is here for a reason, I am going to make sure that she keeps an eye you.”
I glared at my frantic husband, suddenly very angry with him. “You are going to hold me hostage?” I yelled as loudly as my feeble voice would allow. “You are going to make me a prisoner in my own home and use your mother as the jailer? I think not!” I tried to bang my own fist against the narrow emergency bed mattress but all I managed to do was slam it into the metal rail securing me in. It hurt like hell but at least I could move again, however timidly.
The Heist Page 10
