The next four days followed a pattern that Calvin forced himself to endure: a pattern of boredom and meaningless routine. Each morning he had breakfast with Alice, Miss Pearson and Major Hardy. At nine o’clock, he drove with Alice to the bank. The girl seemed embarrassed to be with him in the car, but there was no alternative. He lived where she did: it would be impossible for him to go to the bank by car and leave her to get to the bank by bus.
The business at the bank was dull and of no interest to him. All the time he was in the bank dealing with this financial problem and that financial problem, he was constantly aware of his need for money and the need to get away from this routine job.
At four o’clock, the bank closed. Then he and Alice completed the bank business behind locked doors. At five- thirty they left the bank and drove back to the rooming-house. Calvin would remain in his room, smoking and staring blankly at the ceiling until dinner time, then he would go down to the dining-room, eat with the other three, making polite conversation, and then pass an hour watching television before retiring to his room again.
During these four days, he got to know something about Alice Craig. She was a good worker, and once she got used to him, an easy companion. He found he could leave most of the routine work to her and he was happy to do so. He was thankful she was so completely sexless and negative. To share such long hours with her if she had been otherwise would have been dangerous. Calvin had always made a point never to have an association with any girl employed by the bank.
During these four days he had seen little of Kit Loring. He had listened to her going to bed each night, and he had got into the habit of lying in his bed, staring fixedly at the communicating door as if he were willing it to open. Each time he met her to speak to, he found her more attractive, but he made no serious attempt to get to know her better.
On the Wednesday evening while he was completing the work of the day, his desk-lamp alight, papers spread out on his desk, Alice tapped on the door and came in. He looked up, switching on his charm.
‘It’s about tomorrow, Mr. Calvin,’ Alice said, hesitating at the door.
‘Something special? Come in and sit down.’
She perched herself on the arm of the armchair.
‘The money for the wage pay-out will be coming.’
‘What wage pay-out?’
‘It’s for the four local factories. The money arrives in an armoured truck at six,’ Alice explained. ‘Sheriff Thomson and Mr. Travers are here to see it into the vault. Then the following day the accountants from the four factories come at nine and collect the money.’
Calvin rubbed the side of his jaw while he looked at her.
‘Seems an odd way to do it. What amount is involved?’
‘Three hundred thousand dollars,’ Alice said quietly.
Calvin felt a sudden rush of cold blood up his spine. He leaned forward, staring at the girl, his blue eyes alive.
‘How much?’
She looked startled at his reaction.
‘Three hundred thousand dollars,’ she repeated.
Calvin forced himself to relax. He leaned back in his chair.
‘That’s quite a sum,’ he said. ‘What’s the idea – leaving it here over night?’
‘It comes from Brackley. It wouldn’t arrive in time if they delivered it on Friday. The pay-out always starts soon after nine. We don’t really have anything to do with it. We just house the money for the night. The factory accountants handle it.’
Calvin stared at the glowing end of his cigarette, his mind busy.
‘Has this arrangement been going on for long?’
‘Oh, yes, for the past five years.’
‘Well, so what do we have to do about it? Are we responsible for the money until it leaves here? It doesn’t seem to be a hundred per cent safe bet. Any determined robber could get hold of it. Our security isn’t all that brilliant, is it?’
‘It’s quite safe,’ Alice said seriously. ‘You have the key to one of the locks of the vault and I have the other. There is also a device that protects the vault. No one could rob the vault without being detected.’
Calvin ran his fingers through his sand-coloured hair.
