“Hey,” he said sharply, voice steady and strong. “There’s no need to be rough. She’ll do as you say.”
A gun appeared instantly in Ian’s face.
“Sit down unless you want to be the first example,” another robber snapped, finger twitching dangerously near the trigger.
Ian didn’t flinch. “Mrs. Dawkins will cooperate,” he said calmly, “right, Marie?”
I thought he was wise in using her first name gently, as if they were old friends meeting over tea, not during a bank heist. The soft familiarity seemed to settle her.
Mrs. Dawkins blinked, surprised but soothed. “Yes, of course. I’ll do whatever you want,” she said quickly, her voice trembling. “Just don’t hurt anyone, please.”
The man gave her a hard stare, then shoved her toward the vault hall. “Start moving.”
Ian lowered himself back to the floor beside me as they disappeared down the hallway to the vault, and I murmured, “Smart but dumb at the same time. What were you thinking?”
“That he didn’t want a body count,” Ian whispered. “And that Mrs. Dawkins wanted to see her twin granddaughters graduate from high school.”
The robber, left behind, paced the room, eyeing the small crowd like they were kids who might bolt from detention. “Keep your hands up. No going for phones,” he barked. “You drop your hands, you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
“They didn’t take our phones, which means they plan to be in and out fast,” I whispered, my lips barely moving. “And they haven’t gone near the teller drawers.”
“Noticed,” Ian said, his gaze steady on the anxious robber.
A minute passed. Then another. Shouting could be heard, impatient, muffled. It wasn’t going smoothly back there.
“The vault and safety deposit boxes are back there,” I whispered, keeping an eye on the robber who stopped pacing as soon as he heard the shouting.
“This wasn’t random,” Ian murmured.
Just then, a frightened Mrs. Dawkins and the one robber appeared, not a single bag in his hand.
“Where—”
“Not enough time!” the robber shouted, cutting off his cohort.
The other robber glanced at his wrist and nodded.
The two didn’t hesitate. They bolted out the door, disappearing into a nondescript gray sedan parked illegally at the curb.
Seconds later, the police sirens wailed through the air, just as the car sped off and turned the corner.
The bank fell silent, as everyone exhaled in relief and started getting to their feet.
Police poured through the door, my brother Josh in the lead, while sirens were heard roaring around the corner. Mrs. Dawkins hurried over to him, Mr. Walker following close behind her.
My dad, Sheriff Madison, soon followed in, and to my surprise, my mom stepped in next to him. My dad looked at me and shook his head. My mom had won the mayor’s race in a landslide victory, and she was now his boss. However, I didn’t expect her to show up to a bank robbery.
She headed straight for Ian and me.
“We’re good, Mom,” I assured her, knowing that was her concern. “But what are you doing here?”
“I was with your dad… Sheriff Madison,” she corrected herself. “I do need to remember proper titles when in the publiceye, when the call came in, and I recalled you planned on stopping here today. So, I had to see for myself that you were okay.” Her glance shifted to Marie. “Oh my, Marie, I need to see how she is doing.”
“I will pay you to get her out of here,” my dad whispered to me after she hurried off.
“Better get used to it, Dad. She is the mayor—your boss.”
“We were going to get lunch at Treetop. We could invite her,” Ian offered.
