much cash as we can.”
“Don’t worry,” Delay said. He was wearing a leather vest today and he pulled it back to show two knives on each side. “I can take them out quietly.”
“So they’re just waiting in front of the saloon?” Cotton asked.
“That’s right,” Thad said.
“How many?” Shaye asked.
“Two.”
“Where are the other four?” Thomas asked.
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Shaye said.
“James is watchin’ them?” Thomas asked.
“Yeah, he sent me back.”
“Pa, if they’re waitin’ for the others, I better go and stay with James.”
“All right, son. Watch your back.”
“I’ll watch James’s back,” Thomas said, “and he’ll watch mine, Pa.”
Thomas left the office, leaving only Cotton, Thad, and Shaye.
“Thad,” Cotton said, “you’re gonna have to stay with the prisoners. If we leave the office empty, they might come and break them out.”
“Okay, Sheriff.”
“Take a shotgun from the rack and stay behind that desk until we get back,” Cotton instructed.
“Yes, sir,” Thad said, “but where are you goin’?”
“I don’t know,” Cotton said, looking at Shaye. “Where are we going?”
“Let’s go back to the cafe,” Shaye said. “That’s where we left Belinda and Jeb. Maybe he’s still there.”
From behind the desk, loading the shotgun, Thad said, “He might be there, but she ain’t.”
“What do you mean?” Shaye asked.
Thad looked at him and said, “I just saw Belinda in front of the bank.”
“What was she doing there?”
“She was with Alvin Simon,” Thad said. “They looked like they’re waitin’ for the bank to open.”
“What?”
“Alvin must have some business there,” Cotton said.
“Riley, we better get over there. I think this may be it.”
“May be what?”
“Collier and his men need a way into the bank. This is it!”
“You saying Alvin Simon is in on this?” Cotton asked. “That’s just crazy, Dan. I can’t see—”
“Riley, it’s Belinda,” Shaye said. “She’s using Simon and Collier is using her! Thad, toss me that shotgun and get yourself another.”
“Should I come—”
“No,” Shaye said, catching the shotgun in both hands. “Stay here!”
Shaye ran for the front door. Cotton stopped long enough to grab a rifle from the rack and then followed.
72
“Good morning, good morning, Mr. Simon,” the bank manager, Edmund Brown, greeted. “What can I do for you this morning?”
“I’d like to talk in your office, Mr. Brown,” Simon said, “if you don’t mind.”
“Of course,” Brown said. “This way.” Since Alvin Simon was one of the larger depositors in the bank, the manager was willing to go out of his way for him. However, when he saw that Belinda was to accompany them, he stopped short. “Ah, is this charming young woman part of our business?”
“Miss Davis is my fiance,” Simon said. “She is very much part of my business.”
“Very well,” Brown said. “This way.”
In order to get to his office, they had to pass the huge vault, which had three guards with rifles standing around it. There was a fourth guard by the front door and a fifth on the roof. They all wore blue uniforms. Belinda was happy to see that the number was what she had reported to Jeb.
They entered his office and as Brown crossed to the desk Belinda closed the door behind them.
“Oh, you can leave the door open, Miss—”
“I don’t think so,” Belinda said.
“I don’t und—”
Belinda reached into her purse and came out with a nickel-plated .32 revolver. She pointed it at the bank manager and said, “Shut up.”
“Belinda—” Simon said, aghast.
“I’m sorry, Alvin,” she said. “I decided a whole bank is better than one man. Now move over there with him.”
“But—what are you doing?”
“Just do it!” she said. “Don’t make me shoot you.”
“You better come over here, Alvin,” Brown said. “She looks serious.”
Slowly, Simon walked across the room and joined Brown behind the desk. The manager started to sit, but Belinda stopped him.
“Stay standing and put your hands on your head. Don’t go for a gun in your drawer and don’t press any buttons.”
“Miss,” Edmund Brown said with confidence, “you can’t really think you’re going to get away with this. There are guards—”
“Mr. Brown, if you don’t shut up right this minute, I will shoot you.”
Brown fell silent.
“Alvin, go to the window.”
“What?”
“Go to the window—that one, at the back—and open it.”
“The window?”
“Goddamn it, Alvin,” she snapped, “don’t keep repeating everything I say. Just do it!”
Alvin Simon walked to the window and opened it. In seconds a leg appeared and he backed away to allow Jeb Collier to enter.
“Oh my God,” Brown said.
The saloon was down the street, but on the other side of the bank. Shaye didn’t feel he had time to go there and fetch Thomas and James. And even if the men waiting in front of the saloon were a decoy, they were still dangerous. As it stood now, there would be four bank robbers—five, if you counted Belinda—against the two of them and five bank guards, although he was pretty sure Jeb Collier had plans for the guards.
Delay and Tanner followed Collier through the window and they all brandished guns.
“Put him in a corner,” Jeb said, pointing to Alvin.
Tanner pushed the shocked hardware store owner into a corner and said, “Stay there and keep quiet.”
“You, Bank Manager.”
“Yes?”
“You’re gonna open the door and call two of the guards from the vault in here.”
Brown, seeing this as his chance to alert the guards, started for the door quickly.
“Slow!” Jeb said. “If you try to warn them, you’ll be the first one to die. I’ll put a bullet in the back of your head. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes, I understand.” For the first time Edmund Brown wished he had accepted the offer of help from the sheriff.
Shaye and Cotton reached the front of the bank.
“Now what?” Cotton asked. “Do we rush them?”
