Willow Glen Heist

by Alec Peche

  Ashley and Michelle targeted the Willow Glen bank for all the right reasons; they had a lot of cash from local merchants, the safe deposit box lock system made it easier to pick, and the security installed inside the vault was limited by the age of the building and the bank’s occupation of that space dating back one hundred years. Modern bank security systems simply didn’t work in the old buildings. Old bank vaults were made of steel which could fall victim to a cutting torch. Later copper was added to stop the cutting torch, then cast iron. A bank vault in Japan survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That very construction made them difficult to demolish if a bank closed. Modern day banks were made from reinforced concrete; something that couldn’t simply be cut through easily.

  So did the twins use a torch to cut into the bottom of the safe? Again he pulled out the file to see what the experts suspected. After shuffling through paper he saw the notes that pieced together the story of the robbery and yes they thought someone used a cutting torch.

  This bank that the women targeted was one of the oldest in northern California. It once belonged to the Odd Fellows. The women could have bought safe deposit boxes in a variety of older banks and while visiting the vault, lean against a wall with a cotton ball or piece of gauze covered in potassium ferricyanide. If it left a green spot on the wall of the vault, then they knew the walls were made of iron, the biggest ingredient in steel. Of course, that was only if the women knew chemistry. He supposed they could have looked up historic records to determine the age of a bank and therefore the likely age and construction of its vault. Perhaps they looked at the Clay-Montgomery building in downtown San Francisco, but their scheme wouldn’t play in that location, or it was too expensive to set up a fake florist shop there for the year and it was a more heavily traveled area so their digging noise might be detected. Willow Glen was quiet once the restaurants closed for the evening. The historic San Francisco building contained an original safe deposit vault dating to 1908 and was a present day bank.

  Damian looked at the time and realized he’d been distracted for nearly an hour with bank construction and the question of why this bank. In the end the answers to those questions didn’t get him closer to locating Ashley and Michelle Carrington. He decided to take another look at the tax software that Michelle used as it likely contained the name of her employer which would clue them in on the city. Minutes later he had his answer. It was the B & K diner in Chum’s Corner, Michigan, another small city in the region of Traverse City. He forwarded the information on to Natalie including a suggestion of how to relay it to her law enforcement friends.

  Chapter 32

  When Ashley got home, the feeling of premonition was so loud in her head that she began packing. She and Michelle shared an apartment. Michelle was due home in about an hour from work. Ashley packed her clothes, her computer, and had a paper copy of the various accounts around the world, and multiple pieces of identity. She didn’t exactly know where she was going, but she created a Twitter handle in case her sister wanted to reach her. It wouldn’t be a quick means, but it would serve. Her car packed, she awaited Michelle’s arrival at any moment. She planned to drive tonight to the Detroit airport and get on the plane to Jordan. All she needed was her passport, a Jordanian VISA would be issued to her upon arrival there. On previous visits to this region to exchange money, she investigated it as a means of escape if she needed it.

  Ashley heard Michelle open the front door to the apartment. Michelle took one look at her sister and knew she was leaving. Besides she had seen her things in Ashley’s car.

  “You’re leaving?” Michelle asked.

  “Yes. The final money is yours to keep and exchange, as are the remaining safe deposit box items.”

  Michelle had also felt the strain of their relationship over the last nine years grow. It was not deliberate on either sister’s part; rather they both hoped to start a new life and that meant leaving their twin and their old life behind them.

  “Okay, it’s not like either of us needs it. I suppose I could just burn it.”

  “Yes you could,” Ashley said. “You should get going too, I just have an urgent feeling that we might be identified as the bank robbers.”

  “After nine years?”

  “Yes. I feel like someone is getting close to us so it’s time for me to hit the road. I set up a Twitter handle that you can use to find me; although it won’t be quick. I’ll keep my cell phone on for another hour, than I’m going to toss it in the first lake I see. Thanks for your support in life, but I have to get going,” with the last rapidly spoken sentence Ashley stood up and hugged her sister. It was a tight hug but dried eye exchange. For all the lifelong closeness of being a twin, Ashley now felt she had to get away or it would be the end of her. Minutes after Michelle arrived home, Ashley was out the door in her rush to get away certain she would never see her twin again. She felt orphaned with her heart breaking, but some strong feeling was pushing her to get away.

  She swung out on to the highway and started the more than four hour drive to the Detroit airport. She was tired from the drive that morning and the emotional loss of cutting connection to her twin. While she was waiting for Michelle, she’d looked up the flights and custom requirements. She was departing for Amman, Jordan, planning on getting lost to United States eyes once she landed. In Jordan, she would stay the night getting new identification and clothing. Then she would head to Bangkok and on through Cambodia and that region before moving on to Australia. She’d figure she would end up in Australia, her final destination in about a week. She hoped that changing her clothes, hair color, and passports would allow her to disappear into the seven million people living on planet Earth. She worried that Michelle would be captured, but there was nothing she could do about that; she’d warned her sister.

  She was coming up on a lake that she planned to ditch her phone in. Pulling over, she got out of the car, put the phone in front of the tire and rolled over it. She’d pulled the battery out before crushing the phone as she didn’t want to put mercury, no matter how small the amount, in a lake. After giving it a major league pitch, it was soon out in the lake. Ashely was back in her car seconds later continuing to the airport. She debated what to do with car. She’d like to give it to someone that needed it for them to drive at least until the registration ran out. The trouble with that idea is she didn’t know where to find such a person and she didn’t have a lot of time. In the end she rented a space at a storage facility, paying ahead for a year for the unit and left the car inside. She then got a taxi to the airport pleased with her brilliant idea. Within two hours she was boarding a plane for Amman, Jordan and she heaved a sigh of relief once the plane was at its cruising altitude. Being able to relax gave her time to think about the past decade – the hard work of planning and executing the robbery and the drudgery of their jobs while they were secretly amassing a fortune. She felt like she’d been working sixteen hours a day for a long time because she had been doing exactly that. Shifts at the diner were supplemented by trips abroad to exchange money or mail items sold through auction. Worrying every day that they would be caught by the police. Michelle had relaxed as the years went by and they heard nothing, but not her.

  Ashley admitted now that perhaps she hit the panic button, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was about to close in on her for the bank robbery. She couldn’t blame Michelle for thinking they were safe as it would soon be a decade since the initial robbery. Both of them had acquired additional identification papers so they would be ready to run when necessary and they actually used some of those passports on money exchange trips just to make sure they would work. It’s was nice to have them ready to go so she could run when she needed to. Now over the noise that was the interior of an airplane, she could relax for the first time in the past week and get some sleep.

  Chapter 33

  Michelle had been surprised by Ashley’s departure. She knew her sister had been getting more agitated each week this past year. She’
d thought it was because they were nearing the end of their long journey and the secret had been unusually stressful to keep. Anytime someone was less than civil to her in her day job, she had to control her temper. She’d felt like calling bad customers a variety of bad names and screaming that she was a millionaire, and she was sure her sister felt the same stress of life these past several years; combine that with the border crossings that were unnerving for the variety of fake identification documents they used.

  In the last week, her sister had warned her several times that someone was getting close. When Michelle had questioned her, all she would say was it was a feeling. They discussed what to do with the final safe deposit box items and money. They kept it stored in a storage facility inside the old van they driven across country in. Ashley wanted them to pay the rent for a decade and walk away. Michelle had done research and could find no reference to their case in at least the last five years. While she had enough money for the rest of her life, her problem was she hadn’t figured out where she was going next. She had a love-hate relationship with the Midwest. The people were really nice, but the weather could be miserable at times. Ashley knew she would leave the United States forever, but Michelle wasn’t so sure. In fact she wanted to stay exactly where she was, she just wanted to live up to her new means. She knew she couldn’t do that but it was paralyzing her to figure out where she should go next. She been many places exchanging money over the past decade, but none of them had drawn in her heart.

  She sighed, knowing that Ashley would have thrown the phone away by now. She checked again to see if she could find any mention of their case. Tonight she promised herself she would pay the rent on the unit for the safe deposit box contents, and burn the remainder of the cash. She hated to do that; she’d rather give it to a charity, but they couldn’t risk it going into circulation. At the time of the robbery, Ashley had been clear over which money might be marked and which money had come in the day before the robbery and was unlikely recorded anywhere. They had about twenty thousand to buy a used delivery truck, then cars and the storage unit once they arrived in Michigan and outfit their apartment and pay rent with. Once they each crossed the border the first time to exchange money they used that to fund their travels to exchange the rest of the stuff. They’d also used it to buy identification.

  Michelle would tell the landlord tomorrow that they had vacated and he could now rent the apartment as furnished since they would leave their possessions behind. She’d work her shift then quit and get in her car and cross the border into Canada, drop the car off at a salvage yard, and take the first available flight out of Canada to somewhere in the world. Where could she find the Midwest in the rest of the world? Maybe she’d research that question tomorrow while waiting to board the flight.

  She decided to test Ashley’s theory that someone was about to catch them. She looked out her window but didn’t see anyone she wasn’t supposed to see. She went to the library to use their computer, erasing her history when she was done. Again watching in her rear view mirror she saw no tail. She went to their storage locker and gathered the final stash of dollar bills. She then drove to a deserted area and pulled the money and a small fire pit that she purchased at the local hardware store and tramped out into the woods. She brought some tarps as well to screen the fire from anyone who should happen upon this deserted area. It took less than twenty minutes to burn all the money into ash. Michelle sighed watching it go up in flame and then smiled; only a millionaire could fail to be distressed by burning money. She left the pit and tarps behind and returned to her car. She hadn’t noticed a single car when she occasionally peaked above the tarps to where the road was.

  She arrived back at her apartment two hours later making final preparations. She discarded anything that wouldn’t be used by a future tenant, careful to wipe down all surfaces, erasing her and Ashley’s departure. She’d tell their landlord that they had been called south to Arkansas to care for an aunt suffering from cancer and that’s why they were leaving in a rush and the furnishings were for him. She was pretty sure he would be happy as he was getting a furnished apartment for free with rent paid for another sixty days. Like Ashley, she had a suitcase of clothes and toiletries, a computer with her vital information and identification in the car. She had her uniform laid out for tomorrow and she went to sleep dreaming on where she would end up tomorrow night.

  Chapter 34

  Ariana was sitting in her living room by herself with a glass of wine relaxing with a good book. It was the latest Inspector Gamache from Louise Penny and as usual it was riveting. Hermione was at dinner than the movies with friends and was getting a ride home from one of their mothers. Ariana had checked with her before she left to make sure she had some self-defense items in her possession. They discussed wearing the vest but it caused too many questions among her friends. So she carried a small aerosolized bottle of Damian’s pepper juice stained with blue dye. So not only would the perpetrator be stopped, he’d also be covered in blue dye. Hermione carried one in her jacket pocket and had a back-up unit in her purse.

  Ariana adjusted the blanket covering her legs while Miguel sighed, going back to his doggy dreams. He seemed to always be chasing something; perhaps he dreamed of squirrels. Ariana read for another hour and got up much to Miguel’s disappointment to refill her wine glass. Her cell phone rang and she noted it was Hermione.

  “Hey kiddo, isn’t your movie starting soon?” Ariana asked looking at the clock.

  “Well yes, but I’m not going in. You need to come pick me up,” the teenager said in a slightly breathless voice that immediately alarmed Ariana.

  Throwing on her coat and grabbing the car keys, her purse, and with the dog following, she was soon out in her garage ready to charge out to rescue the girl.

  “What happened? I should be there in three minutes.”

  “A man tried to grab me as we left the pizza parlor to walk down the street to the movie theater. He grabbed my left arm, so I swung out my right hand and sprayed him with Damian’s juice.”

  “Good job kiddo. Are you safe at the moment? Are you friends still with you? Are you in front of the pizza parlor?”

  “Yes to all of your questions. I only managed to hit the guy in one eye and he staggered off to his car and left, so I didn’t call the police.”

  “I bet your friends are giving you grief for that.”

  “Yes they can’t understand why I didn’t call 9-1-1, although they were impressed and want their own copies of Damian’s magic juice.”

  Ariana could see Hermione ahead on the street and said, “Kiddo I see you on the sidewalk, I’ll hang up now, ok?”

  She waited to hear the okay before she ended the call. She pulled up to where Hermione was standing with her friends and got out of her car. Walking over to her she gave Hermione a hug while eyeing her two girlfriends.

  “Ladies, thanks for helping Hermione out and staying with her until I got here.”

  “She would do the same for us Ms. Knowles,” Megan said.

  “You ladies missed your movie. Would you like to come home with Hermione and watch another one? I’ll call your mothers to get their permission if you want to do that or I can just drop you at your homes.”

  The two friends looked at each other indecisively, having not thought beyond the strange man that tried to kidnap their friend. Then they looked at Hermione and said, “Sure we can do that,” and in succession, each girl got their parent on the phone to give permission to the change in plans.

  Once that was taken care of, the three teenagers piled into her car with Miguel between the two in the backseat. He broke the ice and the three kids were soon relaxing. Minutes later they arrived home and the three teenagers discussed what they wanted to watch while Ariana texted Damian and got drinks and snacks for the girls.

  Are you home?

  Yes.

  Can you come over, there’s been another attempt to kidnap H. She’s safe & watching a movie with her friends at my house. Oh & bring o
ver several more of the magic juice bottles.

  Be over in twenty minutes.

  Inspector Gamache would have to wait until later. Once the girlfriends cleared out, they were going to have a heart to heart with Hermione. She wanted to gulp a second glass of wine, but knowing she’d need to take the girls home, she abstained. Out of eyesight of the girls, she did several neck rolls and took some deep breaths. She knew she’d need to provide a full explanation to each parent when she dropped off their kid. Keeping an eye out the window, she looked for the lights of Damian’s boat. When she saw it, she called out to Hermione, “I’m going to help Damian tie down his boat, call me if you need me.” The kid nodded and Miguel stayed in place providing guard duty. Ariana threw on a lightweight parka and walked down to the dock.

  Damian was in his final approach and Ariana reached for the rope at the front of his little speedboat to tie in to her dock. He hopped out and quickly did the same with the back rope. Then sensing she needed it, he reached out and gave Ariana a hug. He waited for her to push back and she did shortly.

  “What happened?”

  “Hermione was supposed to go to the pizza parlor on First Street and then they were going to walk around the corner to view a movie at the theater. As she left the pizza parlor, a man grabbed her left elbow and she swung at him with her right which contained your pepper spray. She got him in one eye so he was able to retreat to his car presumably, then she called me. She handled it well, but her friends are shook by the experience and the fact that we didn’t call the police. I’ve been working on my explanation for the parents when I drop off each kid later.”