Page 39 of Mission: Possible

"I'm not saying itwasn't. Gerald mentioned one guy who got fired recently and he wasn't employed very long. He might have a grudge against the bank that could have motivated him to reveal sensitive information for revenge or ransom. Anyone with criminal intent might jump at the opportunity."

"We’ll interview him and see what he has to say," replied Solomon. We reached his car and I handed him the keys as I sat in the front seat and Lucas sat in the back. He slid over to the middle to lean forward.

"There's another thing," I replied. I'd been mulling over something Gerald said that didn't make sense to me. "Gerald said he phoned the police and the dispatcher said they were on their way. Yet, I called the police after the robbers left and the dispatcher told me there was a maintenance note on the system that claimed they were conducting a test and not to respond to the alarms. Why did we get such clashing information?"

"That's curious," said Solomon. "Gerald didn't mention that?"

"No, and I think he would have if the dispatcher challenged him. If the thieves managed to post that note to ignore the alarm, what if they also had the bank's telephone lines tapped? Maybe Gerald only thought he was speaking to a dispatcher."

"That's possible," said Lucas. "Scammers do it all the time for fraudulent purposes. It wouldn't be hard to pull off."

"Get concrete evidence that is the case," instructed Solomon. "Any further ideas on what this stolen thing might be?"

"It's something that could fit into the size of a shoe box. Art should be excluded because it is probably too big," I decided. "So are gold ingots. Maybe one ingot could fit inside, I suppose, but that doesn't seem valuable enough for the effort they went to."

"Money," said Lucas. "Jewels. Something small, expensive, and rare, like a watch."

I turned. "A watch?"

"Some watches retail for hundreds of thousands of dollars!"

"Huh! Incriminating blackmail photos," I suggested. "Letters to a mistress. Looted antiquities. A treasure map. Your turn, Solomon."

"Counterfeit papers. Passports, birth certificates, social security numbers. A new, clean identity could be worth a fortune to someone rich and desperate to flee. Or real papers that could possibly reveal the identity of someone in hiding. Or a secret someone wants to keep concealed."

"Wow," I said, "what devious minds we share!"

Solomon laughed and turned the ignition key. "Unfortunately, so does the mastermind of this crime."

Chapter Nine

Compared to the tedious hours of camera footage I'd been relegated to examine since becoming a private investigator, the bank’s two hours of tapes were a breeze. Lucas disappeared behind his big desk at the office on the floor above. He had to track down and hack any camera feeds he could find within two blocks of the bank. That left Solomon and me together in the otherwise empty office. We were both studiously taking notes from forty minutes before the bank heist began until the police entered, their service revolvers drawn, after the robbers had already escaped. When we finished, we compared our observations.

"We're in agreement? There were six robbers in the bank," said Solomon, tapping his pen against the notepad.

I nodded. "Plus, a driver waiting somewhere outside," I added. "It makes sense for someone to remain with the vehicle for a fast getaway."

"A seven-man crew wouldn't be easy to put together. They would need to be experienced and trustworthy, and almost certainly well known to whomever planned the heist."

"Speaking of men, I'm convinced one of the crew was a woman."

"I think you're right. She had to be one of the guards at the door who remained with the hostages when half the crew entered the vault. There aren't many women in this game. That might narrow our search considerably, assuming she's been in trouble before." Solomon leaned back and crossed his legs, his face much more thoughtful. "I can't think of any female bank robbers crossing my radar," he added.

"I can ask Jord to look into it," I said, making a note to call him. No doubt, he already saw the footage but I wondered if he noticed the physical differences that made the female robber stand out to us. She wasn’t significantly shorter or stereotypically feminine in her body shape or even how she was dressed. She had strong shoulders, wore the same clothes, and acted quite familiar with her weapon. No, it was just something about the way she moved that caught my attention. Something elusive I couldn't really put my finger on.

"I think some of the crew are ex-military," said Solomon. He tapped his pen against the notepad again. "Several of them moved in a surreptitious way and they all deferred to this guy." He pointed to the screen where he paused it, indicating one man. "He's commanding the situation. They all answer to him."

"Except for this guy." I used my pen to indicate the man almost out of the camera’s view. "He shot Officer Andersen. He didn't search the security guard properly and when there was action, he must have gotten carried away. They didn't intend for that to happen. I'm sure they didn’t plan to hurt anyone but it did expedite their need to quickly identify Charlie Sampson. The shooting scared everyone."

"He could be the least experienced of them all. Perhaps not military, although he seems to know how to handle a gun. He's hotheaded too. Maybe someone who failed boot camp? A relative of one of the other thieves? Perhaps one of the crew suggested bringing him on for extra manpower."

I ignored his comment about failing boot camp because a few years ago, I did exactly the same thing. I made a rash decision to join up, and a sensible one to leave. The Army and I agreed on both counts. "Could be a weak link. Maybe he watched too many action movies and thinks he's a tough guy, since he's definitely not the brains behind it," I said.

"Agreed. My money is on the leader; I think he devised the whole thing. Either he wanted the item they stole, or someone approached him to put together a team. He's the linchpin to the whole operation. Find him and we’ll have everybody up and down the chain," said Solomon.

"The problem with that is I don't see any identifying features." I edged the recording forward until we had a body shot of the man we identified as the leader. Even with him in full view, it wasn't like watching in High Definition. "They are covered head to toe in black, and all dressed identically. I don't recall seeing a flash of skin or a glimpse of hair color. I was face down most of the time so I didn't see anyone’s eye color either. Most of them didn't talk so I couldn't identify any accents and the two that did sounded fairly generic American. No Southern drawl or East coast twang to make them stand out. The rest of the crew might even be foreign, for all we know."

"That's possible but pretty unlikely. We have plenty of home-grown criminals for hire," Solomon replied.