Free Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan Page B

of training," he said. "It's written policy at BayBanks for the openers to enter one at a time, the first one confirming that the bank is secure, then safe-signaling to the second."
     
     
She nodded contritely. "Right. I know."
     
     
"And yet this was not your usual practice."
     
     
"Nope."
     
     
"Why not?"
     
     
Shrug. "Laziness? Complacency? We had an all-clear for the tellers."
     
     
"Right, the window shades. But the tellers don't arrive until a half hour after you two. And setting off the silent alarm-- you're trained to wait until it is safe to do so."
     
     
"Again-- what is the point of sounding an alarm after a robbery? Can you tell me that? What is the point ?"
     
     
"Mr. Bearns put you both at risk."
     
     
"But you couldn't know that while it was going on," she said, angry suddenly, tearing into him with her eyes. "They were inside the bank, waiting for us when we walked in-- outnumbering us, scaring the shit out of us. I didn't think I was ever walking out of that bank again."
     
     
"I'm not placing blame, I'm only trying to get at-- "
     
     
"So why haven't I gone to visit Davis? Because I couldn't stand to let myself fall to pieces on him. Me, little suburban me, not a scratch on her, safe and fine and hiding out-- at her parents ?" She pushed hair off her forehead where there was no hair and looked away. "Why, he asked about me?"
     
     
"He did."
     
     
Her shoulders drooped. "The hospital won't tell me anything over the phone."
     
     
"He's going to lose most of the sight out of one eye."
     
     
Her handless sleeve went to her face. She turned to the window, toward the boys playing catch. He pushed it here, needing to be sure.
     
     
"Broken jaw. Busted teeth. And, unfortunately for me, no memory of that day. Not even of getting out of bed that morning."
     
     
She kept her face hidden. "I'm the only one?"
     
     
"The only witness, yes. That's why I'm sort of counting on you here."
     
     
She watched outside for a while, without actually watching anything.
     
     
"The rest of your staff," Frawley went on. "Anyone there you might consider disgruntled, or whom you could imagine providing someone else with inside information about bank practices, vault procedures-- "
     
     
Already shaking her head.
     
     
"Even unwittingly? Someone who likes to talk. Someone with low self-esteem, who has a need to be liked, or to please others."
     
     
Still shaking no.
     
     
"What about someone who could have been blackmailed or otherwise coerced into providing information?"
     
     
Her face came away from her sleeve-- sad but tearless, squinting at him. "Are you asking me about Davis?"
     
     
"I'm asking about everyone."
     
     
"Davis thinks that being gay-- he's crazy, but he thinks it will hold him back. I told him, look around, half the men in banking live in the South End. This Valentine's Day, he asked what I was doing, and I said, you know, renting Dying Young and watching it alone, what else? And he had no one, so we went out together instead, for Cosmos at The Good Life, had a great time. We've only been real friends that long."
     
     
"Was there anyone new in Mr. Bearns's life? Maybe a relationship gone bad?"
     
     
"I wouldn't know. I never met his friends. He didn't talk about that with me. He was just fun. It was nice having a guy around who noticed when I got my hair cut."
     
     
"So you don't know if he was promiscuous?"
     
     
"Look... they beat him, remember? He's innocent ."
     
     
He absorbed her disappointment in him, wondering if there wasn't something behind her flash of anger. The way Bearns was innocent . "So he was ambitious, he was looking to move up?"
     
     
"He was going to business school nights." Defensive now, firmly in Bearns's corner.
     
     
"Not you, though."
     
     
"Me? Nooo."
     
     
"Why not?"
     
     
"Business school?" she said, like he was crazy.
     
     
"Why not? Promotions. Advancement. Four other assistant managers you trained have leapfrogged