Page 56 of The Cinderella Secret
“I dislike that you know this,” said Nowitsky sourly.
“The location of police substations is publicly available information,” said Jackson.
“Uh-huh. Anyway, one of the employees managed to dial 911 and sayrobberybefore tossing her phone into a garbage can and out of sight. So the response time was fast, but even if it hadn’t been, it was never going to be slower than six minutes. The suspects came up in the elevator, avoided cameras for the most part, put their masks on in transit and went straight to the vault. They knew the floorplan and they knew who the manager was. They had an exit route in place and a driver waiting for them. They also knew exactly what to take: bearer bonds.”
“So what are you saying?” asked Jackson frowning.
“I’m saying it’s weird. It was a good plan. Except for the thing with the response time.”
Jackson sipped his coffee and eyed Priscilla, the waitress, who was probably in her thirties, but still definitely qualified under hot. She gave him extra whipped cream on his pie every time he was in the diner. “I don’t see the angle for it,” he said at last. “So they’ve got a Geppetto. He puts the team together. He gives them mostly good information. Why not all good information? Does he want them to get caught?”
“This is what I’m saying,” said Nowitsky. “It’s weird. Also, weird was the fact that they wanted to keep the Chinese guys.”
“What do you mean?”
“A couple of the witnesses said the suspects didn’t want to let the Chinese hostages go. They weren’t supposed to let anyone go, but then your cousin pulled his Prince Charming routine and talked them into it. Only when they were letting the hostages go, they still didn’t want to let the Chinese ones go.”
Jackson frowned. He didn’t like that. That meant that the mysterious string-puller who set up the gig had expected the Chinese to be there. And if they had expected the Zhao, then they had to have expected Aiden.
“What would have happened if Aiden hadn’t…”
“Hadn’t given them the combination to the vault and convinced them to let all the hostages go?”
“Yeah.”
Nowitsky appeared to think about that. “They wouldn’t have been able to crack the vault. They would have had to leave without the money. And that’sifthey left. It’s possible that there would have been a stand-off inside the bank.”
“Aiden said everyone could hear the sirens.”
Nowitsky nodded. “OK, so they leave without any money. They maybe take hostages with them?”
“Chinese hostages?”
“Possibly. If you’ve been told to target those ones, then yeah. Maybe a shoot-out. Stand-off in the lobby? Who knows?”
“But they’re not getting out of the building?”
“No,” said Nowitsky. “I don’t see that happening.”
Jackson drummed his fingers on the counter. Priscilla arrived with two slices of pie. His had much more whipped cream than Nowitsky’s.
“Thanks,” said Jackson smiling up at her. Nowitsky rolled his eyes.
“Judging from the weaponry, do we think that they wouldn’t have gone quietly?”
“You can never tell,” said Nowitsky with a shrug. “Everyone thinks they’reHeat. Most people turn out to beDirty Rotten Scoundrels.”
Jackson laughed, surprised by the unexpected joke.
“Anyway, my point is that it’s weird.”
“I feel like we’re missing the Plan B,” said Jackson. “I think Aiden disrupted all the plans and they improvised. And I’m guessing that whoever the Geppetto behind this little shindig was, he’s now pissed. Because you don’t accidentally tell someone twelve minutes.” He paused. Something was missing here, and he couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what. “I think he was counting on his guys tohaveto move to Plan B.”
“Yeah, well, if I’m John, Paul, George and Ringo, I’m also pissed,” said Nowitsky, “because no matter how dumb these guys are, sooner or later they’re also going to realize that twelve minutes wasn’t an accident.”
Nowitsky’s phone lit up and vibrated on the speckled Formica of the counter. Nowitsky picked it up with a thoughtful expression.
“Nowitsky,” he said while cutting a forkful off his pie. “Go.”
