Chapter Six
Gary walked across the small park to the slim strip of land between the overhang of trees. The path led to the bike trail and a bench. He ignored the sun burning into his back through his dress shirt and fought the urge to loosen his tie. It was like standing in front of a hair dryer on full blast. Branches swayed and leaves rustled in the warm breeze but everything grew sticky. And Gary hated being uncomfortable.
This qualified as a ridiculous meeting place, out in the open in the middle of the afternoon. But Kent Beane had insisted, and the nervous bobble in his voice and the fact that he used the phone, which he’d been explicitly instructed never to do, had Gary reluctantly agreeing.
He sat at the opposite end of the bench and folded his hands on his lap. “You run a bank. You should be there.”
“I got your message this morning.”
Ah, yes. The order to turn over Jocelyn Raine’s bank statements and any other information at Kent’s disposal for use in tracking down this mysterious boyfriend. Gary had to admit the note he had left on Kent’s desk had been...heated, what with the threats and a lengthy description of the knife work he wanted to try.
Not that Gary regretted it. They had an annoying loose end and he wanted it tied off. “About that. I would remind you time is running out.”
“We’re on schedule.”
“Yet you continue to fumble around. Makes me wonder if you really love your wife.” The woman tied up and lying in a box in a warehouse a few exits down the highway. Once Gary had her, Kent had been more than willing to unlock his bank’s door, open his records and share resources.
With a sharp intake of breath, Kent swiveled around to face Gary. Fear radiated off him. “You promised you wouldn’t hurt her.”
“I never said that.” Gary could almost smell the desperation pouring off the man.
Gary looked into the trees in the distance and focused on the job ahead. On his revenge.
They had killed his brother by failing to notify him in time and now Gary would burn it all down.
“I’ve done everything you asked.” Kent was pleading now.
The mix of panic and begging made Gary ready to end the meeting. “Except control your employees.”
“Where is Pamela?”
Dead. “You don’t really want to know.”
The teller had had the misfortune to be in the wrong place and overhear too much. She should have been home that night a week ago since the bank had long since closed. But she’d gotten locked in when she hung back to check some financial records, fishing for transactions about her friend’s cheating husband.
A privacy violation and reason to be fired for sure, but that didn’t bother Gary. Maybe it was even a decent thing for her to do, but her nosiness had proved to be her undoing when she’d been found listening at the door to his private after-hours conversation with Kent.
It was a good thing he had thought to check the bank’s security cameras. Gary hooked into Kent’s system because that was part of the deal. He checked older video files because he worried Kent might get heroic and call in law enforcement. Then Gary had seen Pamela sneaking around and overhearing things that were not her business.
He’d kept scrolling and stopped at the next morning. Not knowing what she’d done, he walked into the bank during regular office hours and went to her station. Shock rolled over her face. Panic. Then he knew she recognized his voice from the meeting the night before.
That would have been bad enough to require her to be killed, but she had compounded the problem by handing a note to Jocelyn Raine. The person behind him in line. Now both women would die.
But first Gary needed to know what the note said and how much this Jocelyn woman knew about what was really happening in the building next to the bank.
“It’s possible Pamela never tipped off the Raine woman.” Kent had made that argument many times.
Gary ignored every one. He would not take the risk after setting up the operation and being so close to pulling it off. “I saw the security tape. She handed something to Jocelyn Raine. Your Pamela saw me and panicked, which was smart on her part.”
“It could have been a receipt.”
“Then there’s the problem where Ms. Raine didn’t exist until recently.” Between the annoying detail of her lack of a history before a year ago and her ability to evade trained mercenaries, Gary needed her caught. “Put those facts together and my partner is concerned. I am concerned. That means you, Kent, need to be concerned.”
“If she was going to call the police, they’d be here.”