“Not a bad gig, as long as someone doesn’t finger him.”
“How’d he hear about the money in the safe?” the driver asked.
“He gets bulletins for security changes. One of the bulletins was about her getting a safe installed in her home.” He looked at the driver. “Nevermind. That’s my problem. You just worry about driving.” He looked at the guy in the back seat. “You’re in charge of the brats. Keep ‘em quiet until I say so, then get ‘em crying good and loud.” He turned around again, setting his gaze on the front of the house. “I do the talkin’ on the phone. After we get the safe combo, two of us go to the house. On the way, I’ll call the guy to shut down the home security system for a few minutes so we can get in.” He looked at the guy in the back seat again. “You wait behind with the aunt and kids.”
“My pleasure.”
The driver squirmed in his seat. “Yeah, but once we get the combination, why wouldn’t the mother just call the cops? They could be waiting at the house for us.”
“Cause they’re hostages, and she wants her two little brats back again, safe and sound.”
“How do you know there’s money in the safe if it was just installed?” the driver argued.
“That was in the bulletin my buddy got. An armored car delivery was made to her address one day last week.”
“And if she had only a few hundred clams in there, she’d bring it home herself,” the driver mumbled. “But an armored car would bring a whole lot more than that, right?”
“Exactly.”
They watched the mother leave the house alone and drive off in her luxury sedan.
“You’re right. She left the kids with the sister.”
The leader of the operation opened a shopping bag and handed something to his conspirators. Each got a rubber Halloween mask to wear, images of past Presidents.
“What’s this?” the big guy in the back seat asked.
“We’re wearing masks. You’re Clinton.”
“Ah, come on!” the man complained.
“Yeah, well, I got George Bush,” the driver said, holding the mask up for inspection. He looked at the man in the passenger seat. “What’re you wearing?”
“Reagan. I voted for him twice, so I figured, why not?”
After going through the plan one more time, they put on their masks and checked their pockets for everything they would need, leaving everything else behind.
CHAPTER TWO
June took a small grocery bag to the kitchen as soon as she got home, giving her nieces a cutesy wave. Her sister Amy had the kids at the dinner table with juice boxes.
“Done with rounds at the hospital?” Amy asked from her supervisory position standing over her twin four-year-olds.
“Sorry. Ran a little late,” June said, looking at her sister for the first time. “Is that your latest business suit concept?”
“I’m not sure I like it. Might not make it into the winter catalogue.” Amy tugged at a lapel and straightened a cuff on her business suit. She looked under the table at an active pair of legs. “Ruka, stop kicking Koemi.”
As she prepared to leave, Amy warned her daughters to behave at auntie’s house.
“Where are you staying this weekend?” June asked as Amy grabbed her purse.
Amy waved June away from the kids to talk in private.
“Look, I’ll be at home if anything should come up,” she whispered. “But I’ll have a guest, if you know what I mean.”
“Someone new?”
Amy glanced at her daughters playing with empty juice boxes. “Never mind about that.”
June grinned. “Yeah, we’ll catch up later.”
Amy went to the desk in the corner of the living room. “I got a new phone, and a new number. Too many creeps these days. Major pain in the neck to change contact numbers, too. Which means I have to change them one at a time.” Amy scrawled her new number on a note pad at the desk and tossed down the pencil. “The kids know it already, but make them practice a few times. And as always…”
“Don’t give it out. Yes, I know. Just pick up the kids by six on Sunday. I have a date and don’t want to be late for it.”
“What’s this?” Amy asked in mock surprise. “June Kato has a date? With a man? In the evening? That right there is incentive enough to pick them up early! Wish I could stay and hear about it, but I gotta go.”
With smooches to her daughters and the message from June that everything would be fine, Amy was gone. June turned back to the dinner table and smiled at her nieces.
“Wow! Now that mommy’s gone, we can have some fun!” she told them, smiling brightly.