'They're in here.'
Two of them; Grofield didn't know either one. One was sitting on the chair beside the filing cabinet, the other was standing beside the small littered desk.
Barnes made the introduction- 'Alan Grofield. Steve Tebelman. Fred Hughes.'
They all nodded at one another. Steve Tebelman was the one sitting in the chair. He was dressed in a somewhat shabby dark suit, as though he'd come out for a job interview and really needed the job. Fred Hughes was the one standing by the desk, and he was in dark green workshirt and matching pants, with
Barnes nodded at Hughes. 'Fred's our set-up man.'
Grofield raised an eyebrow. 'It's a local job?'
'Belleville,' Hughes said. 'About twelve miles east of here.'
Grofield looked at Barnes. 'That isn't usual,' he reminded him. Usually the organizational meetings before a job took place in some other part of the country from where the heist would be. It was better to spend as little time in the neighborhood of a robbery beforehand as possible.
'I know,' Barnes said. 'But I told you, this one's fast. Fred's a pro, he knows what he's doing.'
'It's already cased,' Hughes said.
Grofield didn't say anything. He looked at Hughes, thinking about it. He could be a professional, but how good could he be and have a job parking cars? And how good could he be and want to pull a caper in his own neighborhood?
Hughes said, 'I know what you're thinking. I been here six months is all. I belong in Florida, and I'll go there a couple months from now.'
Grofield said, 'Not right after we pull this.'
Hughes had a very dry thin way of smiling. 'No,' he said. 'I've had a run of second-best hands. I know I don't look my best right now, but I'm not a busher.'
The other one, Steve Tebelman, said, 'Let's get down to it.' He was about the same age as Hughes, early thirties, and something about his dry brown hair and the crumpled cigarette he was smoking made Grofield think he was a hillbilly, out of Tennessee or Kentucky or someplace like that. And out of prison not too long ago, that too.
'That's a good idea,' Barnes said. 'I already know about it. Fred, tell Steve and Alan.'
'Right.' Hughes leaned back against the desk and folded his arms. 'They got an Air Force base out there, called Scott. They get paid twice a month, the last day of the month and the fifteenth. By check. So the whole town is full of money twice a month.'
Barnes said, 'This is a big air base they got out there, it covers miles. It's like a training base, with all kinds of schools.'
Grofield nodded, listening.
Hughes said, 'There's a Food King Supermarket out on the highway near where the married guys live with their families.'
'Food King?'
'Like A&P,' Barnes said. 'It's a chain out around here.'
'A lot of the Air Force wives,' Hughes said, 'they cash their husbands' paychecks there twice a month, when they buy the groceries. So what Food King does, the second and last weeks of the month they don't make any deposits in the bank. All the cash they get in they keep, because they need so much cash on payday.'
Grofield asked, 'They've got a safe on the premises?'
'Right. Five years ago three guys from the air base tried to get into the place late at night and blow the safe. They never got near it. Once the store closes down for the night, you use any method you want to get in there, and two things happen. First, a light flashes down at the Belleville police station, and you've got local and state cops all over your back. Second, a siren lets loose, and the Air Police on guard duty at the gate across the highway come over to see what's what.'
Barnes said, 'And besides that, a county sheriff's car drives into the parking lot and back out again every half hour from eleven at night till seven in the morning.'
Grofield grinned. 'So far, it doesn't sound very easy.'
'Depends how you do it,' Hughes said, 'and how much you know about the set-up.'
Grofield said, 'Where's your knowledge come from?'
'I went with a woman down in Florida that came from here. She was a cashier at Food King till they found some rolls of quarters in her bra. She was sore at them for giving her the boot, and she told me their whole layout, even gave me a map.'
Grofield said, 'What's the likelihood of the cops getting to her after we pull this? They'll check out past employees, they always do.'
'They probably won't find her. Last I heard, she was going to New York. The type of woman she was, she could be anywhere by now. And even if they do, they won't get from her to me. We went together only about a month, and she's had herself a pretty active life, and I wasn't using any name then I plan to use again.'
'The background she gave you,' Grofield said, 'are you sure it's still current?'
