Page 38 of Protecting the White Bear

“So you also have them on video?”

“Yes. Ben waited on them, and I saw them when they paid their bill. We both gave the FBI agent who came to investigate the men’s descriptions, and a sketch artist drew what we remembered about them.”

“All right. I’m going to let you go and let Monica know.” Then Andy ended the call with his mother and checked in with Monica. “Hey, I asked my mother if there had been any crimes in White Bear since the blizzard, and she said several, but one makes me wonder if it’s the brothers involved in the car crash. A couple of men held up a bank, wearing the same clothes and driving the same kind of vehicle.”

“Oh, great. I’m glad they’re driving in the car by themselves so they don’t have any hostages if it comes to trying to arrest them. Everyone here says that the men caused the accident.”

“Same here.”

“Okay, well, we can’t do anything about them now except keep them in sight. I’ll call my headquarters again to let them know since the FBI will get involved in a bank robbery,” she said.

“Sounds good. I imagine that’s why the brothers didn’t want anyone else in the car and wanted to follow behind you so they could slip away at some point. I’ll let my boss know.”

“We don’t have any more handcuffs to confine them with, and really no room to take in a couple more perps,” Monica said.

“Yeah. If Wendell is on his way to try and get rid of us and free Harvey, we can’t stop anyway. At least he won’t know we’ve hooked up with several people involved in a car pileup. I…I hear sirens.”

“Great.”

“I see lights.” He continued to drive until a couple of patrol cars and an ambulance headed their way. “Two police cars and an ambulance.”

“Wonderful. I’m pulling over.”

“The same with me.” Andy exited the car, ready to introduce himself, when one of the troopers waved.

“Hey, Andy, we’ve been looking for you and the FBI agent. We thought the two of you were having a tête-à-tête,” Roger Milhouse said.

Andy laughed. “Yeah, Roger, as if. The woman in the passenger’s seat of the car I was driving is a drunk driver and resisted arrest. She needs to be taken to jail.”

The two men suspected of armed bank robbery tried to pass the patrol cars as if they didn’t need to stop, and Andy shouted, “Stop them. They might be the bank robbers of the White Bear National Bank.”

Roger jumped into his squad car and blocked the road before the brothers could speed past them. The driver jerked his car off to the left to avoid hitting the patrol car and plowed off the road and into the embankment.

Roger jumped out of his patrol car. “The bank robbers who hit the bank brandished guns.” He pulled his gun out.

Andy, Roger, and the other officer hurried down the embankment to where the car had rolled onto its top, discovering the vehicle was buried in an avalanche of snow.

While the situationwith the suspected bank robbers was in action, Monica talked to the EMTs as they pulled Harvey out of the hatchback and cared for him before he was put into the ambulance.

As soon as she was sure he would get the care he needed, she grabbed the folded shovel and hurried down the embankment to help the other cops with the possible bank robbers. No matterwhat, they had to get the men out of the car before they ran out of oxygen.

Andy took the shovel from her and began digging out the front passenger window where the glass had already broken. Monica and the other officers had their weapons poised at the window. It was the only way for the men to get out, but no one was moving around. They were upside down and maybe injured this time.

“Can you get out?” Andy asked the brothers.

They didn’t answer.

Monica didn’t want Andy to go in and try to get them, not if they were armed and shot him, though they weren’t getting out of this mess that they’d gotten themselves into this time.

“What about digging out around the back window? We can check on them and see if they’re badly injured,” Monica said.

Andy started to dig out the rear passenger window behind the broken one.

“Do we have a tire iron we can use? Duct tape?” Monica asked. “A mirror? Or we can use a phone to insert in there to see what’s happening.”

Mr. Richardson called out, “I have some duct tape in a bag of groceries I had just bought. And I have a tire iron.” He and his wife stood on the road above them, watching them.

“Yeah, that would be great.” Monica thought they were wonderful for wanting to help however they could.

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