Willow Glen Heist

by Alec Peche

  “Well,” Natalie paused and then continued after some thought, “Anything is possible I suppose. Let me think about your question and re-read the file. If you’re right, it would be a game changer in looking for suspects and understanding the robbery.”

  “Yeah well it’s just a thought. After talking to Lily, I read up on bank robberies and the things people have tried over the last fifty years, so that gave me some new ways to look at this case.”

  “Maybe I’ll do the same thing and see if it shakes any new thoughts loose in my head. Let me know if you discover anything on the employees.”

  Damien glanced at the clock after he ended the conversation with Natalie. Ariana should be picking up Hermione from school about now. He opened his program containing surveillance cameras on Ariana’s property and all looked quiet. He peered at the end of the driveway and made a note to himself to install one camera further out close to the road. He stared at the cameras, anxiety roiling inside him over whomever was following Ariana. He sighed a breath of relief when he saw her car come down the driveway. He watched her deactivate his various traps to get the car in the garage. No one followed them and soon they were inside the safety of her house, with his gadgets re-engaged for their safety. The two women would be over soon as they wanted to cross the bay in daylight.

  While he waited for them to arrive in an hour or so, he would work on doing background checks of the bank employees. As he was going through the list, he was amazed by how many employees were still working at the bank nine years later. Either they lived in the neighborhood and it was convenient or management made the job enjoyable. He’d have a hard suspecting anyone that still worked at the bank nine years after the robbery. It was too long a time to keep up the pretense of not having an extra sixty million dollars to spend.

  He thought of another angle - safe deposit boxes. Were all of the boxes opened? If not, why not? Were any empty boxes opened? If not, then someone had to have prior knowledge of box ownership. Damian went back and perused the police report on the boxes. It said that the vault contained some six hundred boxes and it was not immediately obvious as to which boxes were opened. Some boxes were left opened and still contained paper contents. Others were completely empty, still some were available for rent. The bank notified each owner of the robbery and asked them to come in and view their contents reporting to police any items that were missing. Again Damian checked the reports and all but five owners contacted the bank. He decided to focus on those five owners as well as the small percent of owners who boxes were not broken into.

  He was so intent in his research that he was startled when he heard his perimeter alarm sound and realized he needed to open the watercraft garage for Ariana’s boat that was shortly arriving. Seconds later he stood at the garage entrance watching the door open and the whirl of the motor that moved the dock. Once it unfolded, he saw Ariana gently steering the boat into the dock. Hermione stood on the dock side ready to throw the ropes to him.

  The dock and boat bounced off each other and rocked a little and Damian soon had the boat tied down.

  “Sorry about my late arrival here, I was working on the bank heist. Did you ladies have a great day?” Damian asked with a smile on his face

  “No,” Hermione said and she walked past into the house and up the stairs.

  The trouble with owning a small house on top of a small island inside San Francisco Bay was there few places to hide. His head swiveled to Ariana and said, “What happened?”

  Chapter 19

  “Someone started a rumor about her on Instagram,” Ariana said

  “She usually has a pretty thick skin. What was said that bothered her?”

  “Someone posted a picture of her real parents and said they weren’t dead rather they sent her away because they didn’t like her.”

  “Wow, that’s ugly. Can you show me the post? I’m wondering if the person that posted the comment on Facebook in Chinese is the same one to do this?”

  Ariana started and then hit herself on the side of the head and muttered, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  The two of them were soon standing at his workbench looking up the comment on Instagram. Damian traced it back through a variety of servers. After the fifth server re-direction, he looked up at Ariana and said, “This is the same behavior as the Facebook post. Perhaps it will make her less depressed to know it’s coming from the same source and not one her classmates.”

  “It might. Let’s go find her.”

  In a short time all three of them were seated on the rocky edge of the island near the sand beach. Bailey, Bella, and Miguel were all keeping the teenager company as she mumbled to herself and skipped rocks.

  “So I think the person that left you the message in Chinese on Facebook is the same person that posted that picture on Instagram and made those snarky comments about your parents.”

  “What?” asked the teenager in disbelief.

  “That kind of cruel comment sounded a little too sophisticated for your fellow teenagers so I tracked the message on the internet. The message originated outside the United States and I don’t think any of your classmates have the sophistication to do that, do you?” Damian said.

  Hermione was quiet for a long time then said, “No.”

  “Did your classmates say anything about the post?” Damian asked. “By the way it’s gone from cyberspace.”

  “Yes, they thought it was weird.”

  “I would call it rude rather than weird,” Ariana said.

  Hermione had her head down and was swinging her legs restlessly. The three of them sat in silence. Finally, Hermione pushed off the rock landing on the sand and turned to the two adults and said, “I guess you better show me how this vest works.”

  “Hermione, I think these social media posts point out the need for you to be careful at all times. Ignore any social media posting you don’t like. Pretend they don’t exist and be on alert for any strangers approaching you. I think you’re safe at school, but not anywhere else. The vest will help even the odds in your and Ariana’s favor.”

  “Okay,” was Hermione’s discouraged reply.

  The three hiked back up the hill for Hermione to try the vest and cook dinner. She looked at the vest with pity as it was so ugly. No one her age walked around wearing a photographer’s vest.

  “I like your newest gadget Damian, you need to improve its look - I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it at school. I’ll carry it in my backpack. No one will guess its power as a weapon,” Hermione said with conviction.

  “I’m sorry that a fourteen year old girl has to worry about being hurt or kidnapped,” he replied solemnly.

  “Fifteen year old, you forgot I aged over the summer,” said Hermione with some humor in her voice.

  “Yeah, well I’m in my fourth decade and these guys are scaring the bejeezus out of me,” Ariana replied.

  “Well ladies, I wish these guys would go after me, but they haven’t seemed to have discovered me yet.”

  “You got enough action in the last case from the Aryan Brotherhood, so it’s okay if the thugs take a pass on you this time,” Hermione offered reassuringly.

  “Actually, it is an interesting question as I am around a lot. Perhaps they don’t know where the boat goes when it leaves and since the security system probably hasn’t allowed them to get close to the boat since that first time. Of course they could take a picture of me and maybe figure out who I am and where I live, but I don’t think so. I have a program that looks for any public information about me daily and then wipes it out if any is found. They could also go after Ariana online, but they’re not. I think they’re focused on you kiddo hoping you’ll make a stupid move that will make you vulnerable to capture.”

  “My parents trained me too well for that. Even today with that weird post, I wasn’t tempted to run away from school.”

  “That’s an interesting thought. I wonder if they’re monitoring Hermione’s movements at the school?” Ariana asked.

 
“Do you know if your school has cameras focused on the entrance?” Damian asked Hermione.

  “They say they don’t, but most of the students think there are,” Hermione replied.

  “Okay I’ll look into that to and any other cameras I can find in your neighborhood. Hermione, I don’t know what your parents did for a living but they have to be connected to some spy organization. Whomever is chasing them is affiliated with some other spy organization. I tried to track your parents through the city cameras in Shepard’s Canyon and every single picture of them is a side of the face shot. They managed day after day to turn their heads whenever they passed by public cameras. That’s not luck; it’s training that made them so good.”

  “Do you think they’re still alive?” Hermione asked.

  Ariana reached out and hugged the girl while Damian said, “I don’t know. I can think of scenarios where the behavior we’re seeing from strangers makes sense only if your parents are alive. At other times, I think the bad guys think that your parents must have told you something that they want to know. We have no real way of knowing at the moment, but I’d say it’s reasonable for you to have hope that they’re still alive.”

  Damian felt like a mean adult for telling the kid that her parents might be dead or alive. He probably should just stick with her parents were alive; give the kid some hope.

  “That’s what I think as well,” Hermione said. “They may be alive, but whatever the problem is that made them disappear may not get resolved for several more years. Meanwhile I have to plan for the future.”

  Damian thought how lucky he and Ariana were to be graced by this kid that was so well behaved with no teenage drama queen scenes. Maybe it was time to change the subject to move their thoughts on to something happier.

  “Were you able to arrange a sporting event to introduce Lily and her son to our group?” Damian asked.

  “Yes, we’re attending an Giants game next week,” Ariana replied. Looking at Hermione she added, “Lily is an interesting character and in fact she reminds Damian and I of you. We’ve invited her to bring her kid, and so it will be an outing with everyone’s significant other. She said her son’s a baseball fanatic. It’s a Tuesday game Hermione so we’ll arrive at the ballpark after water polo practice.”

  “Sounds interesting. What project is Lily going to work on?”

  “She has a math background, so I’m lining her up to work on the artificial intelligence I want to use on a DNA analyzer for use by the cops in the field.”

  “Does she have a background in artificial intelligence?” Hermione asked.

  “Not at all, but her math background should serve her well so I’m not worried. Besides she’s smart and if she doesn’t know something, she’ll just study a topic until she figures it out.”

  Half an hour later, Ariana and Hermione were waving goodbye wearing their matching ugly vests. Both seem to feel empowered to take on any adversaries.

  Damian found himself pausing as he frequently did asking why he didn’t contact the police and get some real protection for Hermione. Despite his faith in his computer skills he was afraid some hole would be found in their story and the teenager would end up in foster care. Foster care had been so bad for Damian he could imagine leaving a wonderful kid like Hermione alone in that system. So again he kept his mouth shut and hoped he’d provided the ladies enough protection to keep them safe.

  He went back inside to work on the bank heist again and its safe deposit boxes. He had five boxes in which the owners never came forward. He checked the records again to see what was the last time that the police or bank searched for the owners of those five boxes. He also looked at the size of the boxes. All were the smallest box available to rent. They would be able to hold a little jewelry as long as it wasn’t stored in a big fancy case, important papers or perhaps two or three bouillons of gold. So the boxes could contain from zero to perhaps a million dollars if the box was entirely filled with raw precious stones.

  The police reports showed that the last attempt to contact the owners was about four months after the heist. The bank was supposed to eventually turn the box over to the state who would attempt to find the owner and if they couldn’t find the owner, then auction off the contents and hold the proceeds until the owner showed up. So what happened to the five boxes and was that number unusual for your average vault? Looking at data the number wasn’t unusual nor the fact that the State of California laid claimed to the five boxes three years later. So how did he find what had been in the boxes and who allegedly owned them?

  To Damian’s surprise, he found that all five boxes were left intact. The FBI had left a lien that said they were to be contacted when any of the owners contacted the bank. The boxes had sat in suspended animation ever sense. Could Natalie get a search warrant for them? According to an FBI report, the contents were logged on an exhibit. He looked through the police file, but couldn’t find the exhibit. He dropped an email to Natalie explaining his finding and asking if she could get a search warrant for those boxes.

  A short time later she responded that she could and would get it and that they could probably go look at the boxes with in a few days. She also hadn’t found the referenced exhibit that contained the contents of those five boxes. It must have been an error made by the original investigators at the time. Cool, thought Damian, and then added to his email to Natalie some specific items to be covered by the search warrant like a history of the box.

  That done, he went back to the employee list. In doing a comparison of the police reports to the list, he determined that the list included just those employees that worked at the bank during the robbery, and not everyone that was employed by the bank. Was there a way he could determine that? The Willow Glen bank was a branch of a large national bank. He looked at that large national system and determined that they used a payroll system he knew how to hack into. Using the names of two current employees he figured out the branch code part of the payroll system. Then he had to find the archive and determine the total number of employees at that location that were paid in the week before and two weeks after the bank robbery. He had another fifteen names now to add to the list. Then he needed one more look into the system to see if they had a system wherein an employee that usually worked at a different branch might be charged to the branch in Willow Glen. After studying records, he decided either staff didn’t work multiple branch locations or if they did, their payroll hours and dollars were transferred later as an accounting transaction. Well he did the best he could accounting for all employees and since he had another fifteen names than were listed in the police report, he felt pretty proud of his investigative efforts.

  He stood up and stretched and called it quits for the night. Better to go to bed on an investigative high then plug away a few more hours on the additional employees. He was pleased that he’d been able to find new angles to investigate. He wasn’t sure they would lead him anywhere but it was always exciting to come across new information.

  Chapter 20

  Damian woke up to a fog shrouded island. The fog was so dense that he couldn’t see the water lapping his island. He’d probably never see the sunshine that day as Mother Nature would have to work hard burning away the thick fog. When he took over the island he’d rehabilitated the United States Coast Guard fog bell and it was set to sound every two minutes during a certain density of fog. The last thing he wanted was a boat running into his island because the boater couldn’t see it before it was too late. Usually in these bad conditions, only the major ferries were out on the bay, but Damian always made allowances for stupidity of boat drivers and so he had a bell sounding from near the water’s edge.

  Ariana and Hermione had nothing more planned this week than a shopping excursion into the city. He volunteered to escort them; which was quite a sacrifice on his part, but they continued to feel powerful in their protective vests and turned him down. He planned a lazy week-end, getting in a work-out, fishing, and restocking his island. Mike, from the marina, wo
uld be transporting him later over to his truck and he had a long shopping list. Mike’s bigger boat was needed to transport his supplies back to the island. On Sunday, the first football game of the season was starting and he was looking forward to that; by all standards, a low key couple of days.

  After his workout and breakfast, he returned to the curiosity of the additional names. Were any of the additional names the same as the names of ownership for the safe deposit boxes? No. Then he did a cross search of the addresses of all employees and safe deposit box owners.

  Bingo there was his first match! The box owner and employee had different names but they both had the same address on Lincoln Ave in Willow Glen. Using Google Earth he looked up the address and found it to be a donut shop. Then he went back and looked at city records and it had been a donut shop for some forty years through five different owners. The last ownership change occurred five years ago when it changed from one owner to another well after the robbery. He looked up the owners and found that during the time of the robbery a Tim Ho owned it and the new owner’s name was Joey Kim. He wondered if Mr. Kim had ever received the safe deposit notices. He looked at the time and decided it was time to go visit the Willow Glen neighborhood. The bank would be open for another three hours and it was as good a time as any to get the lay of the land. He vaguely remembered dining with his deceased wife at one of the many restaurants located near the downtown area perhaps a decade ago; certainly prior to the bank robbery

  He called Natalie to let her know of his direction and she was interested in his new information and volunteered to meet him in the neighborhood. He rescheduled his return time with Mike and soon met him on his beach for transport to his truck in the marina parking lot. About an hour and a half later he was searching for parking in one of Willow Glen busy side streets. He spotted Natalie standing outside of the bank reading something on her phone.