“I know what you’re trying to say, Travis, and you’re right. I guess what I’m asking is what else can we do to bring in the kind of money that we can doing our thing?”
Travis looked at Jackie without an answer for a second or two before he said, “Nothing. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any choices.”
“All that is easy for you to say, Travis. You stuck with your plan and banked that money, bought property, shit like that. All my reserves are just about gone. I need this to make it,” Jackie said, knowing that the reason she had drained her reserves was her gambling habit.
“No, Jackie, you don’t. You can make it another way. And you’re right; I do have bank, so whatever you decide to do, I got your back. And you know this.”
There was silence in the room after that, and it wasn’t long before Travis drifted off to sleep. For Jackie, it wasn’t that easy. She knew that as long as she kept gambling, she would have to keep robbing.
When Ronnie arrived at Travis’s house the following morning, he found them seated at the table eating breakfast and drinking coffee. “Hope y’all saved some food for me.”
“Of course we did, Ronnie,” Jackie said.
When it came time to leave for the job, they gathered their equipment and left the house. As they were about to get in the car, Travis saw Me’shelle’s car coming down the street. “I’ll be right back,” he said then walked away.
“We don’t have time for this now, Travis. We got to go,” Ronnie yelled.
“I’ll be right with you.”
Me’shelle parked in front of the house and got out. She came around the car and stepped to Travis.
“Hello, Me’shelle.”
“Hi.”
“I’m a little surprised to see you.”
“I think we need to talk, Travis. Don’t you?”
“I know we need to,” Travis said. He reached for Me’shelle’s hand.
Ronnie honked the horn. “We gotta go, Travis,” he yelled out the window.
“Where are you going?”
“We got some business to handle,” Travis replied.
Me’shelle put her finger over his lips. “You don’t have to say any more. Give me the keys to the house.”
Travis reached into his pocket and handed her the keys.
“Go on and handle your business. I’ll be here when you get back,” Me’shelle said, kissing Travis on the cheek before turning away and walking toward the house.
Travis watched her until she closed the door, then he got in the car with Jackie and Ronnie. “Let’s go do this.”
Chapter Thirty-three
At approximately 10:25 a.m., a 2000 black Chrysler 300 pulled into the parking lot at the Citizens Bank. Travis, Jackie and Ronnie assumed a position where two sides of the building could be seen, and proceeded to run though their operations checklist. Once that was complete, the plan went into operation. “Mr. White, surveillance position.”
“Acknowledged, Mr. Blue,” Jackie said and exited the vehicle. She walked around the building until she saw the security guard. She watched him until he entered the bank. “One uniformed security officer entering the structure via the north door.”
“Acknowledged, Mr. White. Stand by.”
“Acknowledged.”
Ronnie took out a set of high-powered image stabilizing binoculars and looked in the bank. From their position in the car, he could see clearly inside. “This image is so sharp, Travis. None of that blurred, shaking shit you usually get.”
“It has two direct drive motors, one each for horizontal and vertical control, so it eliminates the jittery images caused by normal hand tremors.”
“Maintain operational silence,” Jackie said and laughed.
“Acknowledged,” both Travis and Ronnie said.
“Stand by,” Ronnie said. “Subject is moving toward the door.”
“Acknowledged,” Travis said. “Assume ambush posture, Mr. Green.”
Ronnie got out of the car and moved into position to intercept the security officer as he exited the bank. While Travis covered, Ronnie quickly disarmed the guard.
“Go!” Travis commanded, and the three entered the bank.
“Nobody move!” Travis yelled. Once he had everybody’s attention, Ronnie moved to get the employees out of the offices. He took the key from the branch manager. Jackie moved everybody out from behind the counter. When everybody was in the middle of the room, face down on the floor, Travis called, “One minute.”
Jackie went to each teller’s position and cleaned out the drawers. Ronnie unlocked the cart and got the money. Jackie handed her bag to Ronnie and exited the building through the south entrance to prepare for their escape.
Jackie made it to the car and moved into position outside the south entrance. She looked out at the street and saw a police car coming toward the bank. “Mr. Blue, local police vehicle approaching from the south. Estimate entrance into parking lot in thirty seconds.”
“Acknowledged. Maintain position and stand by. Mr. Green, exit north door and assume assault position one.”
“Acknowledged.” Ronnie came from behind the counter and handed the bags to Travis. He went out the door and took the pump from under his coat. Travis secured the bag full of money to his body and waited for Jackie to give the word.
Ronnie moved around the side of the building and took up a position at the corner, where he could see Jackie parked in the Dodge.
“In position, Mr. Blue,” Ronnie said.
“Acknowledged,” Travis responded.
“Police in firing position, Mr. Blue. Begin your approach,” Jackie said.
“Acknowledged,” Travis said then moved carefully to the door.
With the police car in position, Ronnie opened fire with the pump before the cop could get out of the car. Jackie covered Travis’s exit from the bank. Once Travis had placed the money in the car, he began firing at the police car. Ronnie dropped the pump and ran toward the car. Travis took aim and shot out the rear tires on the police car.
Once Ronnie was in the vehicle, Travis got in and Jackie took off. She drove about a block before she turned into another parking lot, drove to the back of the lot and parked. All three jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the woods.
They ran for a half-mile before they came to a clearing in the back of another parking lot. They quickly ditched the trench coats and jumpsuits. Jackie, who now had on a dress, came out of the woods first. She walked causally to the second vehicle, a 2005 Dodge Magnum. Once inside, she pulled around to pick up Travis and Ronnie.
The ride back to the city was quiet and uneventful. They maintained the speed limit for the most part. There was one scare, however. A police car fell in behind them and cruised for a half mile before going blue light.
“Oh shit! Here we go,” Jackie said.
Guns were drawn as all prepared for another gun battle with the police. Then the cop went around them to chase after somebody else.
“That was too close for my taste,” Jackie admitted.
Since Travis’s house was occupied by Me’shelle, Jackie drove to Ronnie’s house so they could count up and divide the money.
“Ninety-six thousand four hundred and eighty-two dollars,” Travis announced.
“That’s all?” Ronnie asked. “After all that shit, all we gonna come away with is less than thirty grand a piece?”
“I knew that last job would spoil us,” Jackie said.
“The grocery store job was much bigger than I expected. But every job ain’t been like that,” Travis explained.
“Well, they should be. We takin’ a lot of risk for a little bit of money. Maybe we should only do grocery stores on Mondays,” Ronnie said.
“Yeah right,” Jackie said. “And be in jail by Tuesday. Cops may be stupid, but I think they could figure out that pattern.”
“You know, on our first job we each came away with sixteen grand. We made almost double that today and you bitchin’ about it,” Travis said.