door opened and Lou Tanner stuck his head out.
“Get ready,” Shaye said. “I think they’re coming out. Don’t do any shooting unless I do, understand?”
“I understand.”
Shaye kept his eyes on the doorway and the first person he saw come through was Belinda Davis.
74
“Roy,” Bill Samms said.
“I see ’em,” Roy Leslie said.
“Whatta we do?”
“Just move slow, Roy,” Leslie said, “slow and easy.”
“This is a crap plan.”
“Yeah,” Leslie said, “I know, but it’s the only one we got.”
“We shoulda went and grabbed the kid.”
“Jeb wouldn’t let us do that,” Leslie said. “We got to play it as it lays, Bill.”
“They’re not doin’ nothin’,” James said.
“Give it a chance,” Thomas said. “They’ll panic.”
“And then what?”
“And then,” Thomas said, looking at his brother, “we’ll plant ’em.”
“Put him down, Vic,” Jeb said and suddenly the other guard was on the floor. Delay’s knife had fresh blood on it, so he leaned over and wiped it on his own pant leg.
“Okay,” Jeb said, “we’re goin’ out. Belinda, get over here. Tanner, you take the manager.”
“Right.”
Jeb put his arm around Belinda from behind and said, “Don’t worry about nothin’. Just open the door.”
There was a man’s arm across Belinda’s shoulders. As they came out the door, Shaye could see it was Jeb Collier’s. Belinda didn’t look scared, but she looked puzzled. Then, behind them, came the bank manager, Brown, with Lou Tanner right behind him. Jeb’s last move before leaving the office had been to club Alvin Simon into unconsciousness. He’d decided not to waste a bullet.
“You!” Jeb hissed to the lone vault guard. “Drop your gun.” Shaye figured Jeb was trying not to be overheard by the front guard.
The guard turned, pointed his gun, but then realized there were two hostages.
“You heard me. Drop it!”
Shaye couldn’t see the guard, but heard his rifle hit the floor.
“Now call the other guard,” Jeb said, “and then we’ll have the tellers start filling bags with money.”
Shaye heard a man call out, “Hey, Jack!”
Shaye looked at the guard next to him, who nodded.
“Answer him.”
“Whataya want, Lew?”
“I—we—need ya back here.”
The guard lowered his voice, “What do we do?”
“We’ll have to call them out,” Shaye said. “If you go back there and they disarm you, we’ll be at too much of a disadvantage.”
“Jack!” The guard’s voice sounded strident.
Shaye drew his gun and called out, “Jeb, can you hear me?”
He was greeted by silence.
“Shaye?” he called back. “Is that you?”
“It’s me,” Shaye replied. “It’s all over, Jeb. Put your guns down and come on out.”
“What do we do?” Lou Tanner hissed.
Jeb waved a hand impatiently. This should have gone smoother. They should have been able to get away before the law and Shaye knew what they were doing. Or maybe he just hadn’t planned it as well as he should’ve. Had he gone soft in prison? If so, he was about to find out if it was fatal.
“We’ve got hostages, Shaye,” Jeb said. “We’ll kill them.”
“Who are you kidding, Jeb?” Shaye said. “We know Belinda’s in on this with you.”
“We got the bank manager,” Jeb said. “I’ll put a bullet in him.”
“That won’t do you any good,” Shaye replied. “You can’t get out.”
“Oh, we’ll get out, all right,” Jeb said. “Just stay where you are. You might be right about Belinda, but she’s still a woman. I’ll put a bullet in her. You wouldn’t want that.”
“Jeb!” Belinda said, catching her breath. She’d made her decision and thrown in with him. Her plan all along had been to get them all into place—the Shayes, Simon, Jeb—and then make her best play. Finally, the lure of the bank money had overwhelmed her. She’d been willing to leave town with Jeb and the money, leaving Little Matt to either the sheriff and his wife or to the Shayes, whoever wanted him. She just wanted to get out of town with the money. She hadn’t expected Jeb to use her, though. She was supposed to be the one using him!
“Shut up,” he told her. “Bank Manager, you better get that vault open…now!”
“I—I can’t,” the man said, “it’s on a time-lock.”
“Right,” Jeb said, “and the lock would be set for the time the bank opens, so you can do business. I ain’t stupid, manager. Open it!”
“Get the manager over to the vault, Lou,” Delay said.
“Vic?” Shaye called. “You want to die in this bank today? How about you, Tanner?”
“I don’t plan on dying, Shaye,” Delay said. “I plan on killin’ you, though.”
“You’ll have to, to get out,” Shaye said, “’cause we’re not letting you out.”
Tanner turned to Jeb.
“We can still go out the window.”
“Not without the money,” Jeb said.
“Vic?” Tanner asked, looking at his boss. “It’s too late, Vic. We gotta get out!”
“We’ve got the back covered, Jeb,” Shaye said. “You can’t make it out that way.”
“There’s only one way out of here, Tanner,” Jeb said, ignoring Shaye, “and that’s through the front door, with the money.” He released Belinda and pushed her into a corner, then pointed his gun at Brown. “Open it…now!”
75
Jeb looked at Delay.
“You gotta kill him,” Jeb whispered to Delay.
“How?”
“Face him,” Jeb said. “Man to man.”
“He won’t agree to that.”
“Sure he will,” Jeb said, “and while you’re doin’ that, we’ll get as much money from the vault as we can. Once he’s dead, we’ll be able to get past the rest.”
Brown was working on the vault, but he was sweating so much his fingers were slick.
“Talk to him,” Jeb said.
Delay nodded, holstering his gun.
“Shaye!”
The guard looked at Shaye, who waved at him to be quiet.
“What is it, Delay?”
“You and me, Shaye,” Delay said. “I want out and I’m comin’ through you—unless you’re scared.”
Shaye thought about it. If he could put Delay down, it might make Jeb think differently about the whole
