Double Take (20 page)

He sprinted down the driveway, opened the driver's side door and pulled Pete off the wheel. The horn stopped, but his ears continued ringing despite the instant silence. He heard sirens in the distance as Pete started coming to. Jack tried to push him over the handbrake to the passenger seat but he was too heavy. He put his hands under Pete's armpits and dragged him from the car.

It took everything he had to wrestle Pete's dead weight into the back seat. By the time Jack jumped into the driver's seat he was a mess of nerves and sweat. He slammed the car into gear and careened up the drive and onto the road, without stopping to look for oncoming traffic. A horn blared and there was a squeal of brakes as a large white truck drove right up his arse. He didn't care. He jammed his foot on the accelerator. As he sped away and police sirens echoed off the buildings, Jack began to question which one of his crew had betrayed him.

G
emma drove out of the city with a careful watch on her speed. Her heart was pounding out a frantic beat and it took all her might not to put the accelerator pedal to the floor. It wasn't until she hit the freeway that she removed her wig and tossed it onto the passenger seat. It landed on one of the duffle bags and she laughed aloud.

“Holy shit.” Her fingernails dug into her palms as she strangled the steering wheel. Ever since she'd planted the idea of catching the robbers at the boatshed, she'd been praying the police wouldn't work out which bank was going to be robbed. Leaving them with a short amount of time to process the information was deliberate. As was doctoring the tapes. Although it was time-consuming, re-recording the conversations from one tape to another so they only had selected audio looked like it had paid off.

“Holy shit.” She could barely keep still on her seat.

Even with all her planning, all her inside knowledge and her determination, she'd had continual niggling doubts that she wouldn't be able to pull it off. The whole plan hinged on her ability to hold the chloroform over that guy's mouth for three seconds. That's what she'd read at the library. It only required three seconds for a victim to become limp after inhaling chloroform. Her only worry had been her strength to keep it there. But by the time she'd walked up to that driver's side window, she'd had so much adrenaline pumping through her veins she probably could've won a boxing match.

“Holy shit.” She repeated it over and over as she made her way to Murray's place.

She parked out the front, then raced around to the passenger side and removed the duffle bags and her wig. Nobody would be home just yet, but she couldn't help the urgency of her pace. Gemma ran up the stairs, dropped the bags long enough to key the lock and push the door open. Then she raced upstairs to the bedroom without bothering to close the front door behind her.

It was nearly two hours before Murray was due home and the wait would be excruciating. Barely two streets away, six bank robbers were probably being arrested right now. Oh, how she wished she were back in that tree to watch. Gemma felt like a master puppeteer. Not only had she manipulated the police into doing what she wanted, the robbers were guaranteed to be arrested too—and that meant nobody would come looking for the money. With a bit of luck, Jack and his gang would be blaming each other right up to the day they were put into jail. And every day after that, too.

The plan was brilliant. Simply brilliant.

It took all her self-restraint not to rip open the bags right now and see the money. But she wanted to share that moment with Murray. She wanted to see his reaction to what she'd done for him. For all of them. From this moment on, their lives would be magically different. They could go out to dinner at fancy restaurants, wear lovely clothes, and for the first time in her life she could afford expensive perfume.

Her eyes lit up. Maybe Murray would propose to her. She glanced at her unadorned fingers.
I need to paint my nails.

Gemma dashed to the bathroom and the reflection in the mirror caught her by surprise. Her freckles no longer seemed cute. They appeared to have darkened, making her look older than her twenty-nine years. But now she'd be able to afford good makeup. Cheap cosmetics were going to be a thing of the past. She removed the contact lenses from her eyes and set the blue discs on the sink. Her hair was all over the place from the wig and as she ran a brush through it, she decided one of the first things she was going to do with her money was get her hair cut just like Kirstie Alley in
Cheers
. Before now, the $80 the hairdresser wanted to charge her for the fancy foils, haircut and blow dry had seemed absurd. But now…

She began to laugh. A good, deep, hearty laugh.

M
ontgomery Steel had spent the entire morning contacting all the banks' head offices in the city to inform them of the situation, and with each call he made he felt more and more like a pawn in Tiffany's game. It was 1:45 p.m. when he finally pulled his car into the curb beneath the shade of a jacaranda tree, three streets away from the boatshed.

He slotted the walkie-talkie into his hand and squeezed the lever. “Constable Eden, can you hear me?”

There was a momentary pause. “Yes, sir, loud and clear.” Steel imagined Eden perched high up in that tree.

“Any news?”

“Yes, sir. All six robbers met here forty minutes before the race.”

“What the fuck? Well, why the hell didn't Thomas nab them?”

There was a crackle on the airwaves. “They were too quick, sir. The second they were all together they took off again. We had no way to follow them.”

“Shit!” Steel wished he could talk directly to Thomas. “Tell Thomas I'm here.”

“Yes, sir. Hang on a minute.”

This was a dire development. They had all six would-be robbers together before they broke the law and yet they did nothing. How the hell was he going to explain this to his superiors?

“I'm back, sir. Thomas wants to know if you have any more information.”

“No. Tell him I don't.”

After thirty seconds of crackling Eden was back. “Thomas says it's good to have you on board, sir.”

Steel was certain that wasn't what Thomas would have said. “Eden, tell me you at least got the number plates of those two cars?”

There was a long pause. “No, sir.”

“Jesus Christ.” Steel was ready to throw the walkie-talkie out the window. Now he had no doubt something was actually going down.

Steel squeezed the Saber. “How's Thomas?”

“He's pissed, sir,” Eden said.

Steel could picture Thomas now. He'd have steam coming out of his ears. To have the suspects within reach and not get them would've killed him.

“Okay Eden, the race is about to start. Let me know as soon as those cars arrive.”

“Yes, sir.”

The whole time he listened to the Melbourne Cup race on the radio, Steel stewed over the people who were being held up right at this very moment. Knowing it was happening and not being able to do a single thing about it was excruciating. Tiffany Black had better be right that they were using fake guns. If someone was hurt he'd have a damn hard time living with that for the rest of his life.

He glanced at his watch when the race finished: 2:04 p.m. Now there was nothing he could do but wait.

“Armed robbers have held up the Eagle Street branch of the National Australia Bank.”
Steel launched at the radio and ramped up the volume.
“Three men and a woman. No-one was injured, however, the suspects have escaped with a large sum of money.”
The news reporter sounded ridiculously overexcited considering the seriousness of the crime.

“Car approaching.” It was Eden on the Saber. Steel checked the time and pulled the notebook from his top pocket. The bank they robbed was about twenty-eight minutes away. That would fit with the National Australia Bank in Eagle Street.

“Blue Holden Astra. Four passengers. Looks like Donny is driving. Rachel's in the passenger seat. Jimmy's in the back and I can't quite tell but I'll go with Stubbs in the back too.”

“…ran into the street carrying the black carry bags.”

Jack and Pete must be in the second car. If they were operating according to the instructions on the tapes then the money wouldn't be in this car. “Good work, Eden. Let me know when the second car arrives.”

“Yes, sir.” Eden had done a good job. The poor bugger would've had a shithouse day perched in that tree.

So far it looked like Tiffany was on the mark after all. Steel removed his lucky lure from the pocket and massaged the rubber between his thumb and finger, feeling the positive vibes.

“…a commotion on the ramp leading up from the downstairs car park, however, we are yet to establish if it's related to the robbery. Hopefully we'll have more in the next bulletin.”

Steel turned the radio down. “Commotion! What bloody commotion?”

As the minutes ticked by, there was no sign of the second car. A nasty churning began in the pit of his stomach. He wondered if the commotion the reporter was talking about was related to the robbery after all.

“The second car is coming.” Finally Eden was back on the Saber. “Same make of car, I think. Two men this time. Yep, it's Jack driving. Pete's in the back seat.”

“Tell me when they've gone inside.”

Steel started his engine and waited.

“They're in, sir.”

He drove up to the start of the driveway and pulled aside and stepped out. At the giant fig tree, Eden's dangling legs appeared seconds before he jumped down. Hunched over, Eden ran towards Steel and met him at the long grass.

“Good job, Constable.” Steel tried to ignore Eden's dancing lip. There was every chance that was a nervous reaction to what was coming up. This was Eden's first bust. “Let's go.”

Again hunched over, the two men legged it down the driveway, using the grass for cover as much as they could. As the roofline came into view, Steel heard shouting. Something had gone down and it wasn't good. He took a couple more paces forward.

“What do you fucking mean you got robbed?” It was one of the blokes, loud and angry.

Steel tried to process what he was talking about.

“You bastard. What have you done?” It was the woman yelling now.

At the edge of their cover Steel crouched down. Eden slinked in behind him. From his vantage point Steel saw Thomas, Parker and Shearer at the side of the shed, ready to pounce.

“Fucking doublecrossing thief.” This was one of the men.

This was it. Time to break some balls.

Steel stood, removed his gun from his belt and ran across the last couple of open metres to the shed. By the time he arrived at the three front steps, Thomas was in front.

“You set us up, you bastard. What'd you do with the money?”

Thomas kicked the door in and they stormed into the room.

“Police! Hands up.”

The robbers were all screaming at each other. Two of them looked ready to tear each other apart. The one with the tattoos towered over the other, fists clenched. The gangly one with the greasy hair, the one Steel identified as Jimmy from his photo, looked up at him with a clenched jaw and flared nostrils that matched the fury on his face.

Despite her expertly styled hair and pristine makeup, the woman looked like she was about to blow a fuse. She didn't put her hands up, but took one look at Steel before her face contorted in rage. She turned to one of the men.

“I'm going to kill you,” she screamed as she launched at him but Eden managed to get hold of her raised fist. She whipped around and sank her teeth into his arm. Eden screamed. He let go and Rachel slapped him across the face. Parker finally grabbed the woman and shoved her arm behind her back and pushed her into the wall. A couple of items tumbled off the dusty wooden joists on top of them.

Two other men put their hands up and Steel spied the missing fingers, instantly identifying Stubbs. That meant the other rotund fellow was Donny.

The last guy backed up and Steel had a feeling he was about to make a run for it. He aimed his weapon at his chest. “Don't even think about it, Jack!”

Jack crumbled. It was probably the use of his name that had him.

W
hen Murray arrived home from work, Gemma was waiting at the door in a sexy negligee she'd bought at that huge shopping centre a couple of days ago. The sheer black fabric was almost completely see-through, but even if he couldn't see the outline of her nipples he surely couldn't miss how hard they were. They were like pebbles and every nerve in her body was tingling.

His face lit up with a smile, and straight away she was confident he knew. He climbed the front stairs two at a time, and as soon as he reached the top she jumped up and straddled him. He dropped the bag he'd been holding and squeezed her tight. She forced her tongue into his mouth and he groaned and groped as he carried her inside and kicked the door shut.

When she finally came up for a breath, he spoke. “What's this all about?”

She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “You know.”

He cocked his head and his eyes narrowed. “No… What did I miss?”

Gemma jumped down, reached for his hand and dragged him up the stairs. She crawled onto the bed and unzipped one of the duffle bags. “We did it!” She grabbed a bundle of money and waved it at him.

“Did what?” His jaw dropped. “Oh God, Gemma, what did you do?”

She picked up the bag and tipped the money over the bedspread. “I robbed the robbers.” Gemma grabbed a bundle of cash and threw it up in the air, just like she'd seen in the movies. The notes lingered in the air momentarily before fluttering down and scattering around her. “Get the champagne, honey. It's time to celebrate!”

But Murray didn't move. He just stood in the doorway, wide-eyed and mouth ajar.