The Big Thaw - Donald Harstad [107]
“So,” said Hester, wistfully, “things looking up?”
We brought her up-to-date on the interviews, and the “five banks” business.
“Five?”
“Yeah, five. Why five? We don’t have the foggiest.”
“Does Gabe have access to a good safe man?” asked Hester.
“Not that we’re aware of,” said George. “But with his training in explosives, he probably could do it very well himself.”
“Daylight,” said Hester. “I’ll bet on daylight. He can’t be in five places at once, and explosives require a high level of competence.”
“That’s true.” We’d spent the better part of the afternoon on it, and Hester had just zipped in with an excellent point we’d overlooked. Another reason I liked her so much.
“How much cash you got floating on the old Beau out there?”
“Oh, maybe thirty to fifty thousand at any given time. They use some tokens, coins, and cash, but it’s hauled to the banks very regularly …” She grinned. “You thinking piracy?”
“Well, I was…”
“They keep the cash on hand to a minimum, just for that reason.” She suddenly got very serious. “They might have a lot more than that in the local bank,” she said. “Especially on a weekend …”
“‘Bank’?” It was George’s turn to look concerned. “We considered this one, but felt that the cash flow would be small. You know. The workers here wouldn’t get that much cash on a payday …”
“They take it off the boat,” said Hester. “It’s gotta go somewhere. I think I heard they distribute it between several banks, but I’m not really up on this operation yet. Want me to check?”
“I’ll check,” said George.
“So,” said Hester, “Super Agent Volont have the principals wired on this one?”
“Everybody but Gabe,” I said, grinning. “He says he’s lost him, and I think that’s true.”
“Even if it wasn’t,” said George, “I think he’d be a lot better off trying to take him out in the world, than he would be trying to arrest him wherever he’s holed up.” He shrugged. “I think we can be pretty sure that Gabe will find us.”
I couldn’t have agreed more. Gabriel would be able to not only hold off a small army, but I wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t take the offensive and break out. With lots of unnecessary bodies in his wake. The man was really good at that sort of thing, and I believed he had access to more dangerous tools than even the FBI did.
“So where’s Volont?” asked Hester. “I would have thought he’d be with you two.”
“Last we saw of him,” I said, “I think he was off to meet one of his famous sources.” I took a sip of coffee. “I wonder who they are, anyway?”
“Wouldn’t it be funny” said Hester, “if he was calling a psychic?”
That made my day.
As we left, she said, “Hey, look on the bright side. At least you know who did the brothers in the shed. The big case is all over but the shouting.”
“Yeah, and Art’ll take care of that.”
When I got back to the office, I met with Mike Connors. Since he’d been with the department for over fifteen years, he was pretty much in charge of the night shift. He was also renowned for being able to keep his mouth shut.
I checked with him on the general stuff happening with the night shift. Who or what was moving. Anything suspicious. Mike just shook his head.
“You might want to keep an eye on all the banks in the county…”
He raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He’d been one of those tunnel rats in Vietnam. It took a whole hell of a lot to get a rise out of him. Whether it was a case of the chicken or the egg being first, I couldn’t tell you.
“We might have a problem there,” I said. “There might be somebody scouting some of ’em. You see anything unusual …?”
“Sure.”
“But don’t tell the other people on the shift,” I said. “Just you and me for now.