Willow Glen Heist

by Alec Peche

  Everyone stopped working and gathered around him once they saw him enter the warehouse.

  “Hello, Haley, Chris, and Angus. How’s it going?”

  He got a round of ‘great’ and then he was asked about diving in Australia. Once they got the social niceties out of the way, he had each team member update him on his or her progress. He hadn’t given a resume of each employee to the other two so Chris and Haley would only know that Angus was an ex-con if he told them of his experience. In order to maintain Angus’ privacy, he called him into his office. It was funny that he had Ariana put an office in the plans for the warehouse but he had so far occupied it probably for an hour in the month their business had opened.

  “Hey, I had a somewhat personal question for you and I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to ask it in front of Chris and Haley.”

  “About me being an ex-con? They know, I told them over beer one night.”

  “Oh, okay. Good, I guess. Did you get any hassle over it from them?” Damian asked curiously. If he knew his team, the answer would be ‘no’. He waited to hear if they passed the test.

  “Good God, no. I became sort of a superhero to have survived with my wits intact. It’s all rather embarrassing,” Angus replied chagrined. He was Irish in heritage, with short brown hair, a few scars around his face and neck and in his late forties. Damian hadn’t asked Angus what the old wounds were from, but he hoped to hear the story behind them some day.

  “That’s good to hear as I expected that would be their response. I’m working on a case at the moment for Haley’s future mother-in-law, who's a retired detective with the SJPD. It’s a bank robbery. Do you know any ex-bank robbers that did time and have been released?”

  Angus laughed at his question and replied, “Damian, you are such a scientist. You’re wanting to do research on how to rob a bank and now you’re looking for that particular skill set among the population in the bay area. Aren’t you worried that the guy might be dangerous? Might want to rob you of your millions?”

  “It hadn’t even occurred to me that someone like that would be dangerous.” Now it was Damian’s turn to look chagrined. “Okay, can you find me a bank robber, who didn’t murder anyone while they robbed the bank? Do you know someone like that?”

  Angus was still smiling when he said “yes.”

  “What’s his or her story?”

  “She’d been robbing banks for perhaps a decade, when she found a particular bank that she wanted to rob. There were three entrances into the bank with lots of glass between her and a busy thoroughfare. So she thought she needed a team to pull off the job. That was her mistake.”

  “How did you meet her? I thought they kept men and women separate in the prison system.”

  “I volunteer for an organization that helps ex-cons stay on the straight and narrow and she also volunteers there. She’s very smart and some day you might want to hire her here.”

  Damian raised his eyebrows at that comment and asked, “In what role?”

  “Like me, she’s self-taught. I think she’d be good as our quality control person. She’s spent her criminal life figuring out how to bypass a system. She’s working as a waitress now, but I know she’d like to work in a job that better uses her skill set.”

  “What makes you so sure she won’t revert to a life of crime again?”

  “She’s adopted a child and she wants to always be there for the kid.”

  “How did she adopt? I was under the impression that anyone with a criminal record is barred from adoption.”

  “I don’t know for sure and I’d rather not give you the wrong information. I think you should meet her. Her name is Lily,” Angus suggested.

  It was one thing to hire an ex-con who was wrongfully convicted as was the case with Angus. It was another to hire someone who admitted their crime and served time. He was doing confidential work and he wanted employees he could trust. He also wasn’t sure about her skill set and Angus’ analysis of the situation.

  “You took a chance on me,” Angus remarked. “Now I think you should take a chance on her.”

  “I didn’t really take a chance on you; you were never convicted of a crime.”

  “Yes, but what I learned about how to commit a crime could fill a two hundred page book. Lily’s been straight for five years and I really think she could contribute to this company - she has an entrepreneurial mindset.”

  Damian leaned back in his chair and realized he had nothing to lose by meeting Lily, and so said, “Ask her to meet us when it’s convenient to her schedule. Also I’ll be escorting Hermione to school for a while so I can’t meet her for breakfast or happy hour.”

  “Did someone threaten Hermione?” Angus asked concerned written all over his face.

  “Yes and Ariana and I need to figure out who.”

  “No wonder you haven’t been here for the last few days. Anything I can do to help? If they need a security escort somewhere, I can help if you’re not available.”

  “Thanks for the offer and I’ll keep that in mind if we run into more trouble. Let me know when Lily’s available.”

  Looking at his watch, Angus said, “I’ll call her now. Can you meet for lunch today?”

  Damian looked at Angus and said, “You really like Lily, don’t you? If she’s not available right now, I won’t change my mind about meeting her, so don’t have her skip work just to meet with me.”

  “I think she’ll be good on two levels - help this company and help you with your bank robbery case,” Angus said as he made the call.

  A few minutes later, a meeting was arranged. They would have lunch at Pete’s Bar, Damian’s go-to-place for confidential meetings, good food, and perfectly chilled beer.

  Chapter 11

  Ariana was on her way to Sunnyvale for a meeting at a start-up incubator. Driving south on the 101 freeway, she’d been watching her mirror for the signs of anyone following her. She’d purposely set out with plenty of time, planning to get off and on the freeway to check if anyone was pacing her. There were a few cars that she’d been watching in her rear view mirror, which was no easy feat considering the curves of her hometown of Belvedere and then the 101 going over the Golden Gate Bridge, then there were the streets of San Francisco which were always an adventure. She hit a big box electronics store on the southern edge of the city and purchased a camera for the back of her car. The camera was her back-up plan; she’d study the footage when she got home to see if she noticed anyone following her. She admitted to herself that she was paranoid, but what more could she do to keep herself and Hermione safe?

  The traffic was so congested and the drivers so distracted that her first threat came from just the daily traffic. It was better once she got south of the airport, but she knew it would bunch up again around the exit for Stanford University. In the city of Millbrae she exited the freeway and there were several cars that went with her. A silver Chevrolet car followed her through the intersection and back onto the freeway. Yep, it looked like she was being followed. She would exit again just to verify that the car was following her. This time she hit the exit in Redwood City and the car followed her off, but then didn’t get behind her back onto the freeway. Whew, thought Ariana, she wasn’t being followed after all.

  She reached the street where her technology start-up was housed inside an incubator building. It was the way of Silicon Valley. If you had an idea for a technology product, than you moved to San Jose and looked for space inside an incubator where you could find like-minded individuals and meet with venture capitalists. Perhaps upwards of ninety percent of companies failed for a variety of reasons. When Ariana invested, she was cautious and demanded a Board role so she could closely monitor the company. She killed two of her companies herself, because while one of them had a promising product, they were beat to market by another start-up with a similar idea; and the other company she killed, suffered from a lack of versatility in the management team. When you were starting up a company, you needed to do everything from cleani
ng the floor to coding to get your idea off to a good start.

  She parked and looked around for the silver sedan. She blinked when she saw two of them drive down the street she’d just been on. She grabbed her phone and snapped a few pictures so that she could later identify the cars; she couldn’t tell a Chevy from a Toyota and silver was a popular color. She then proceeded inside ready to return her mind to business.

  Three hours later she walked out to car. The sun was bright and so she looked for anyone standing around or either of the silver cars, and then she confronted the problem of there being some twenty silver cars in the parking lots before she stopped counting. She debated going back inside and asking someone to walk her to her car, but she knew she would looks nuts at that request as this was for anyone but her, a very safe neighborhood.

  Then she noticed that her car looked lopsided and she wondered what was wrong. Once she got closer, she saw the problem - a very flat tire. She walked around the car to see if there any other damage or creepy person hiding around the edges of the car and there were none.

  She went to work digging the spare out of her car frequently looking around as she did. She kept the water gun filled with pepper juice within arm’s reach and worked on loosening the bolts to get the flat tire off and the spare on. After she got the car rolling again, she would head over to her local dealership and have them place the appropriate tire on the car.

  She sensed someone near her and she swung around quickly, tire jack bar in one hand and the water gun in the other ready to defend herself.

  She saw one of the engineers she had just been meeting with backing away hands in the air. She quickly lowered both items and said, “Sorry Connor, I’m a little on edge with the flat tire.”

  “Yes, well I saw you starting to change your tire from the window of our offices and thought I would come down to help. Ah, would you like some help?” he said nervously wondering where this potential violent woman had come from; she was just so pleasant in meetings.

  Ariana let out a deep breath and said, “I’d love some help. One of the bolts is very tight and I’ve been unable to turn it.” She backed away from her car to give the man space and noted a silver car leaving the parking lot.

  Again she took a picture of the departing car. Connor noticed her shooting the picture and he started searching for whatever had interested her enough to take a picture. Then he just shrugged to himself; he worked with lots of people that were inconsistent in their behavior like Ms. Knowles was at the moment. He’d help her get going and then maybe the next time they had a meeting, she would return to acting normal again.

  Five minutes later, Ariana was thanking him before getting in her car and pulling out of the parking lot. Had this entire day been a figment of her imagination? Was paranoia getting the best of her, or had someone really been following her? Looking at the time, she saw that she had a few hours before she needed to pick Hermione up and so she dropped into the nearest dealer to have a regular tire placed on her car. An hour later, she was feeling pumped. The mechanic told her that her tire was slashed and so she bet that one of the departing silver cars had done it. He also inspected the other tires and there were no slash attempts in them just waiting to sever when she was going seventy miles an hour.

  She dropped Damian an email about her experience and he replied that he wanted a copy of her pictures and footage as he had software that would identify people and objects quickly. Once she arrived home she did just that, having some time before they would jointly pick-up Hermione from school. Ariana noted that Damian's protections at her house seemed to be working as she had no intruders at home. She’d also ask Damian to bring a gadget with him that could search her car for GPS devices. She’d need to do a search every time the car left the garage.

  Chapter 12

  Angus and Damian walked into Pete’s Bar. It was a rare occasion that Pete wasn’t there but there had to be a first time for everything; he couldn’t work twenty-four seven. Lily was waiting at the bar for them and Angus waved at her then nudged Damian forward in her direction.

  She was the first bank robber that Damian had ever met and she was pretty enough to be a Bond girl. Damian guessed she was in her mid to late thirties. Five to eight years was the typical sentence for bank robbery as long as no one was killed. Given her history he thought he had the age about right. She had short black hair, brown eyes, and Damian guessed that one black parent and one white parent created her beauty. She was small boned and slight; maybe a size four. Overall, this was not his vision of a bank robber.

  “Hi Lily, I’m Damian. Thanks for meeting us for lunch.”

  “No problem. I’m good for a few hours than I have to pick up my boy from school.”

  “School? Angus told me you adopted a child, but I had in mind an infant. How old is your son?”

  “He’s twelve going on thirty. He wants to be that next hot rap singer but he can’t carry a tune. Mayhap his voice will improve with age.”

  Damian chuckled at her description imagining the boy’s cracking puberty voice and said, “I’m guardian to a fourteen year old who acts like a thirty something and I wish she would find her inner child.”

  “Aren’t children wonderful?!” Lily said with a full on smile.

  “Yes they are,” Damian agreed not wanting to remember the two little girls that he’d lost to a murderer over seven years ago.

  They moved over to a private booth and make quick work of ordering their lunch.

  He cleared his throat and said, “I understand you did time for bank robbery. As Angus might have told you, I’m working on a cold case that’s a bank heist and I’m trying to understand the bank robber brain.”

  She laughed at his description and Angus rolled his eyes. He’d met some pretty awful bank robbers during his own prison stint and really except for Lily, he hadn’t liked any of them.

  “Yeah we come in a one-size fits all mold,” Lily said sarcastically. “You should have met some of the dumb schmucks that I met in prison claiming to be bank robbers. They were an embarrassment to us pros.”

  “I can second Lily’s opinion on that,” Angus said. “The really dumb ones got caught quickly; sometimes before they even obtained any cash.”

  Damian had to laugh at their classification of crooks. It seemed that even among thieves there was a rating system for excellence. He went on to explain the cold case and Lily was aware of it. She’d been in prison at the time, but there was talk among the inmates.

  “Those cons that I would labeled as the dumbest would talk about doing a bank heist exactly as that one when they got out. Of course our conversations were monitored and those words didn't play well with the parole board so they got extended stays.”

  “How would you have done that heist?”

  “It’s sophisticated and the con has tremendous patience. He had patience digging and patience on spending the loot. I say ‘he’ but it could have been a ‘she’. If I had planned the heist, this is what I would have done.”

  She described it so completely and confidently that Damian wondered if she had pulled off a similar heist.

  They paused their conversation as their food arrived. It wouldn't be good for the waitress to overhear their conversation and think they were about to rob a bank Damian thought.

  “Why do you rob banks? Is it the thought of easy money?” Damian asked.

  “For the dumb ones, yes, it's the thought of easy money. My motivation was the challenge of outsmarting security systems. I’d case a bank for a while and come up with a plan. I started small hauling in two to three thousand; which was a warm up exercise for me. You need to get in and out in less than three minutes to avoid the cops, so you can only focus on one teller. After successfully pulling off three heists, I decided my approach was stupid and I needed to get cash from more tellers or focus on a teller with the highest cash drawer which is usually the merchant window. Banks move the merchant teller around so you can’t assume they’ll be in the same position every day.�
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  Damian found the conversation interesting as he never paid attention to bank activities; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been inside a bank. He did everything electronically and occasionally visited an ATM.

  “How much did you pull from the merchant window?” Damian asked.

  “When I cased a bank, I would monitor the various merchants making deposits and in time I figured out who was giving the bank the most cash and I made sure I got in line behind them.”

  “How could you tell?” Damian asked.

  “There were two clues. One was the size of the bag they brought and the other was the time the teller spent counting cash.”

  Damian was impressed with her thoughtful strategy. These weren’t impulsive heists like many robbers, rather they were well planned heists.

  “It sounds like you did a lot of observation. Didn’t the bank notice your curiosity?”