“Hello, Me’shelle.”
“Hi.”
“I’m a little surprised to see you.”
“I think we need to talk, Travis. Don’t you?”
“I know we need to,” Travis said. He reached for Me’shelle’s hand.
Ronnie honked the horn. “We gotta go, Travis,” he yelled out the window.
“Where are you going?”
“We got some business to handle,” Travis replied.
Me’shelle put her finger over his lips. “You don’t have to say any more. Give me the keys to the house.”
Travis reached into his pocket and handed her the keys.
“Go on and handle your business. I’ll be here when you get back,” Me’shelle said, kissing Travis on the cheek before turning away and walking toward the house.
Travis watched her until she closed the door, then he got in the car with Jackie and Ronnie. “Let’s go do this.”
Chapter Thirty-three
At approximately 10:25 a.m., a 2000 black Chrysler 300 pulled into the parking lot at the Citizens Bank. Travis, Jackie and Ronnie assumed a position where two sides of the building could be seen, and proceeded to run though their operations checklist. Once that was complete, the plan went into operation. “Mr. White, surveillance position.”
“Acknowledged, Mr. Blue,” Jackie said and exited the vehicle. She walked around the building until she saw the security guard. She watched him until he entered the bank. “One uniformed security officer entering the structure via the north door.”
“Acknowledged, Mr. White. Stand by.”
“Acknowledged.”
Ronnie took out a set of high-powered image stabilizing binoculars and looked in the bank. From their position in the car, he could see clearly inside. “This image is so sharp, Travis. None of that blurred, shaking shit you usually get.”
“It has two direct drive motors, one each for horizontal and vertical control, so it eliminates the jittery images caused by normal hand tremors.”
“Maintain operational silence,” Jackie said and laughed.
“Acknowledged,” both Travis and Ronnie said.
“Stand by,” Ronnie said. “Subject is moving toward the door.”
“Acknowledged,” Travis said. “Assume ambush posture, Mr. Green.”
Ronnie got out of the car and moved into position to intercept the security officer as he exited the bank. While Travis covered, Ronnie quickly disarmed the guard.
“Go!” Travis commanded, and the three entered the bank.
“Nobody move!” Travis yelled. Once he had everybody’s attention, Ronnie moved to get the employees out of the offices. He took the key from the branch manager. Jackie moved everybody out from behind the counter. When everybody was in the middle of the room, face down on the floor, Travis called, “One minute.”
Jackie went to each teller’s position and cleaned out the drawers. Ronnie unlocked the cart and got the money. Jackie handed her bag to Ronnie and exited the building through the south entrance to prepare for their escape.
Jackie made it to the car and moved into position outside the south entrance. She looked out at the street and saw a police car coming toward the bank. “Mr. Blue, local police vehicle approaching from the south. Estimate entrance into parking lot in thirty seconds.”
“Acknowledged. Maintain position and stand by. Mr. Green, exit north door and assume assault position one.”
“Acknowledged.” Ronnie came from behind the counter and handed the bags to Travis. He went out the door and took the pump from under his coat. Travis secured the bag full of money to his body and waited for Jackie to give the word.
Ronnie moved around the side of the building and took up a position at the corner, where he could see Jackie parked in the Dodge.
“In position, Mr. Blue,” Ronnie said.
“Acknowledged,” Travis responded.
“Police in firing position, Mr. Blue. Begin your approach,” Jackie said.
“Acknowledged,” Travis said then moved carefully to the door.
With the police car in position, Ronnie opened fire with the pump before the cop could get out of the car. Jackie covered Travis’s exit from the bank. Once Travis had placed the money in the car, he began firing at the police car. Ronnie dropped the pump and ran toward the car. Travis took aim and shot out the rear tires on the police car.
Once Ronnie was in the vehicle, Travis got in and Jackie took off. She drove about a block before she turned into another parking lot, drove to the back of the lot and parked. All three jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the woods.
They ran for a half-mile before they came to a clearing in the back of another parking lot. They quickly ditched the trench coats and jumpsuits. Jackie, who now had on a dress, came out of the woods first. She walked causally to the second vehicle, a 2005 Dodge Magnum. Once inside, she pulled around to pick up Travis and Ronnie.
The ride back to the city was quiet and uneventful. They maintained the speed limit for the most part. There was one scare, however. A police car fell in behind them and cruised for a half mile before going blue light.
“Oh shit! Here we go,” Jackie said.
Guns were drawn as all prepared for another gun battle with the police. Then the cop went around them to chase after somebody else.
“That was too close for my taste,” Jackie admitted.
Since Travis’s house was occupied by Me’shelle, Jackie drove to Ronnie’s house so they could count up and divide the money.
“Ninety-six thousand four hundred and eighty-two dollars,” Travis announced.
“That’s all?” Ronnie asked. “After all that shit, all we gonna come away with is less than thirty grand a piece?”
“I knew that last job would spoil us,” Jackie said.
“The grocery store job was much bigger than I expected. But every job ain’t been like that,” Travis explained.
“Well, they should be. We takin’ a lot of risk for a little bit of money. Maybe we should only do grocery stores on Mondays,” Ronnie said.
“Yeah right,” Jackie said. “And be in jail by Tuesday. Cops may be stupid, but I think they could figure out that pattern.”
“You know, on our first job we each came away with sixteen grand. We made almost double that today and you bitchin’ about it,” Travis said.
“All I’m sayin’ is we should be lookin’ at higher value targets to hit.”
“This was a good hit today. It’s the kind of money we always been making when we go out. Now the shit ain’t enough for you? Well, if you can find a higher value target to hit, you let us know,” Jackie said.
“Well, I heard rumors about this house in Westchester that has noting but safes full of diamonds all through the house.”
“I heard those same rumors. I also heard that place is so mobbed up that it would be suicide for anyone who tried to rob it. Put that shit out of your mind, ’cause it ain’t happenin’.”
“I’m just sayin’ if we ain’t gonna come away with a certain amount of money, then maybe we shouldn’t go
