Double Take (6 page)

When Jack arrived at the shed, he was relieved to see it was exactly as he'd left it. But his relief was only short-lived as he sat in the silence and waited for each member of the old gang to arrive. He needed them—all of them. Four of them owed him big time, but Pete was a wildcard.

Although Jack didn't have any leverage over Pete, there was one thing he was banking on; Pete had poor moral judgement and it horrified Jack that he was counting on that now. He and Jack had met in the juvenile detention centre. Pete had been found guilty of sixteen breaking and entering charges. He was just fourteen when he made the mistake of breaking into a police officer's home. The officer had security cameras hidden around the house and not only did they have a perfect picture of him, they also got undisputable fingerprints. Pete was convicted and committed to three years' juvenile detention.

Jack never considered Pete a close friend and once he'd walked out of those detention centre doors, he'd hoped he'd never see Pete again. But several times in the past two decades they'd had chance meetings. And he couldn't believe it when he drove into his local car mechanic's and found Pete working there. Then when he made the foolish mistake of introducing him to Jimmy, he saw Pete even more. Until Jimmy and Pete landed in jail again, that is. But now here Jack was, actually hoping Pete would walk in through this door.

Jack strolled to the table and chose the red chair facing the door. In the silence his drumming fingers sounded like a racing heartbeat. It wasn't long before he heard car tyres crunching down the gravel driveway. Moments later Donny entered and Jack smiled.

“Hey Donny, thanks for coming.”

They shook hands. “Of course I came.” Donny pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed his top lip. Of all the old gang members, Donny was the one he could most rely on. Donny had carried most of the guilt when Jack had been caught in the convenience store—it had been his idea to steal the cash. He worked there and was always telling them how the store manager was a bastard, constantly picking on him and docking his pay for any trivial reason. Donny was being ripped off, and when he told them one night that the manager hadn't had time to go to the bank, they decided that breaking into his office would not only be justified, it would be easy. Donny knew the safe combination. But what he didn't know was that the manager locked his office door each night.

Despite all that, Jack was crushed that he had to ask for Donny's help in this—as far as he knew, he had been scared straight by his one brush with the law. He was a TAFE teacher now, and probably earned a decent wage. It occurred to Jack that Donny might only be here because he feared Jack would divulge their sordid past. Then again, maybe it was because he considered his promises sacred. In the end he was just glad that he had come. Maybe after this, if this all went to plan, they could catch up and have a few drinks. Maybe they could even be friends.

If this went to plan.

Stubbs, Pete and Rachel were the next to arrive. Jack wasn't surprised Jimmy was last. His brother was the most unreliable person he knew.
Maybe he's the wildcard?
It was eight minutes after five when Jimmy stumbled through the door.

“Good one, dickhead,” Pete said at Jimmy's clumsiness.

Jimmy stood up and dusted off his hands. “Fuck you.”

Jack rolled his eyes at his brother. He should be mad at him for being late but in reality he was relieved. Before these two got heated again, it was time to lay it all out. Then he'd see who was still sitting here at the end.

“Okay, let's get cracking.” He stood up and unrolled a large sheet of paper. Earlier today, when he'd sat at this table and drawn the final touches to his bank layout, he'd been proud of the result. But right now it looked like something a nervous junkie might have knocked up. Once again the foolishness of his plan flashed into his mind. But he smacked the thought down and leant over the table. “The National Australia Bank is on the ground floor of a twenty-storey high-rise on the corner of Eagle and Queen Streets. I know this is a major intersection, but I'll go through the getaway in a bit. There are two entrance doors, here and here.” He pointed out the key elements on the diagram as he ran through it. “The counter's designed for three tellers, but most of the time only one stands there. The other two sit at these desks when they're not serving.” He pointed at a room situated to the far right of both the entrance doors and a fair distance from the teller's station. “Now this is why I think this will be easy. This is the manager's office. He's so far away that we'll be over the counter before he even sees us.”

Donny stabbed a chubby finger at a square Jack had drawn on the layout, a few metres behind the tellers' desks. “Is that where the safe is?” Donny spoke softly, a voice hardly fitting for a man of his size. He was stocky, barrel-chested, and looked as if he'd be the man to watch in a boxing bout.

Jack moved down the table. “Actually, they call it a strongroom. This is a ramp.” He'd drawn on and rubbed out the ramp so many times the paper had a few holes in it. He couldn't get the angle right. Anyway, it was what it was. “I haven't been inside the strongroom, but I know it's big enough to have a table and I've seen them push trolleys up the ramp, too.”

He paused for questions, got none, so he continued. “Right up the back here is the lunchroom and toilets. See how far away these areas are from the main section of the bank? And there are no cameras back there either. But here's where the security cameras are.” He found it hard to believe there were only two cameras in the whole bank and that neither of them were positioned to cover the strongroom. Sure, their entrance and exit would be filmed, but not what they did once they were beyond the tellers' stations. The manager's office was equally lacking in security. While the manager had an amazing view of the Brisbane River, he had no view of the customers' area of the branch.

Jack moved to the opposite side of the table, and as he leant over Rachel's shoulder, he inhaled her perfume. The floral scent was subtle, yet it still smelt expensive. Rachel came from money, obscene amounts of money that had filtered down from the pastoral company her granddaddy started at the end of the war. A bottle of her perfume probably cost more than Candice's entire jewellery collection.

He yanked his brain from that thought as he pointed at the laneway he'd drawn down the side of the bank. “Here's the driveway to a narrow lane that separates the buildings from the river. It's also the only access to the underground car park for the building. Pete, this is where you'll wait.”

Jack looked over at Pete, expecting a comment, but all Pete did was sniff. With his arms crossed over his chest and his balled fists tucked under his biceps, he looked even more of a thug than usual. At night, Pete was a bouncer at the Underground Nightclub and Jack knew he didn't mind getting into the odd tussle. Jack hoped he'd never witness that side of him, though. It'd be ugly.

As he glanced at the rest of the group before him, his mind drifted to a time when they had all been innocent teenagers. A time when their biggest thrill had been shopping trolley races in the deserted Woolworths car park. He knew exactly when it'd all gone wrong, and every night since then he'd wished they'd never done that robbery. But now here he was about to tangle them in another.

Jack cast the futile thinking aside and pointed at the room holding the cash. “The door to the strongroom has two combination locks. It's opened first thing in the morning for the staff to stock up their teller drawers, then it's locked again until the end of the day. It's only opened in-between if they need extra cash or to put away surplus. Inside the strongroom, the cash is held in metal cupboards along the walls. These are also locked with two different sets of keys. All we have to do is get the combinations and keys.”

He paused to look at Rachel. “I assume you still know how to work a safe combination?”

She nodded.

“That's good. The bank manager wears the keys around his neck, we just have to figure out how to get the combination out of him.”

“Don't worry. I'll get it out of him.”

The way she said it, with leering eyes and conviction in her voice, convinced Jack that she was actually enjoying this. The thought mystified him but he shoved it aside and pointed at the customer area of the bank. “Jimmy and Stubbs, your job will be to control the staff and make sure they don't move while Rachel and I go into the strongroom.”

By the excited look on Jimmy's face you'd have thought Jack had given him a ticket to an INXS concert.

“What about me, Jack? What do I do?” Donny ran his hand over his slicked-back hair.

“I need you to drive the second car.”

Donny leant back on his chair, perching it precariously on its two back legs. “Okay. Is that all.”

“At the moment, yes.” Jack paused then turned his eyes to Rachel. “Rachel, what've you got?”

Rachel stood up and her long, silky hair fell casually forward around her face. She tugged her tailored white blouse down and Jack couldn't decide if she was thrusting her breasts out on purpose or not. Either way, she had their full attention now. Not that she wouldn't have anyway. Everything about Rachel commanded attention. “I found the perfect fake guns.”

“I still don't like this no ammo bullshit. What if we get cornered and we need to shoot?” Jimmy drove his fingers through his matted hair.

“That's exactly my point, Jimmy. You've already been to jail once and I don't want you killing someone by accident. We'd both spend the rest of our lives regretting it. That's why I want Pete to plan two escape routes. So no-one gets cornered.” He paused and glared at his brother. Jimmy had only been released from jail a few weeks ago. He felt badly enough about involving him in this robbery. There was no way he was going to hand him a gun. He sighed. “Are you ready to calm down?”

Jimmy shrugged.

“Okay, does anybody else have a problem with my no ammunition rule?”

There were several moments of tense silence. Finally Jimmy eased back and folded his arms over his chest.

Jack sucked in a calming breath and let it out slow and steady, trying to ease the rock of tension in his gut. “Rachel, what were you saying?”

Rachel turned her back and strode to the door; for a brief second Jack thought she was going to walk through it and keep going. But she stopped near the door and picked up a black leather bag by its two rigid handles. When she placed it back on the table the contents inside made a clunking noise.

She glided the zipper open and reached inside. Her hand came up with a handgun and she held it out to him by the barrel. As Jack reached for it, he felt all eyes upon him. Jack had never held a gun before and though he knew it was a fake, his stomach still bucked with revulsion as he turned the cold metal over in his hands.

Rachel reached into the bag and removed a second. “Have a look. These are the best replicas around. Ten millimetre Glock semi-automatics.”

Jimmy clicked his tongue. “Sounds sexy to me. How do you know all this stuff?”

“As I said the other day. Walter and I go shooting occasionally.”

“I bet you're a crack shot.” Jimmy blinked up at her and Jack wondered if Jimmy was flirting. The thought horrified him, but thankfully Rachel seemed oblivious.

“These look and feel exactly like the real thing.” She looked completely at ease with the weapon. “Nobody will have any idea they're fake. Just wave it at someone and I guarantee you'll have their attention.”

Jack could testify to that. Although he was no expert, these certainly looked real to him.

“The only thing it won't do, as Jack has already pointed out, is kill anyone.” Rachel's velvety voice did little to soften the image of her with the gun in her hand. “They even sound like metal.” She tapped it on the table.

“These are great, Rachel.” Jack gazed into the dark pools of her eyes and saw a distinct gleam. He was certain she was enjoying this.

“They're expensive, though. It would have been cheaper to buy the real thing.”

Jack cringed at how much she might have spent on them. Although he'd been grateful that she agreed to source them, he now wondered if it was a smart decision. She would have no comprehension of what it meant to be frugal.

Jack placed it on the table and his brother snapped the gun up. Jimmy slid the chamber back, pulled the trigger and it slammed back into place. Jimmy screwed up his lips as he nodded his head, then he grinned, showing off his yellowed front teeth. He passed the gun to his left. Stubbs reached for it, and with what looked like expert knowledge he rammed the chamber into place and pulled the trigger. “Argh!” He pretended to scream. “I shot my fingers off.” He held up his left hand, splaying his fingers to show off his two stubs.

Jimmy and Donny were quick to laugh, and soon everyone joined in. It was a good release. “Good one, Stubbs.” Jimmy clapped him on the back.

After the laughter subsided and everyone finished handling the guns, Jack continued, “These are great, Rachel.”

“What's this about two escape routes?” Pete sniffed.

“Oh, right. I'd like you to find two different routes both to and from the bank in case we have trouble with one, like road works or something. You can let us know which one to take on the day.”

“Sounds like a plan. What cars are we using?”

Jack shifted in his seat. “That's the main reason you're here, Pete. I need you to find two cars that you can…
borrow
on the morning of the robbery. I want cars that won't be missed during the day, that we can return before anyone notices them missing. Think you can do that?” With every word Jack spoke he felt acid rising up his throat. It was suddenly becoming very real.

After an excruciating pause, Pete sniffed. “That'll be piss easy.”