The Big Thaw

Each local police department in a town with a "targeted bank" would be notified, and would have an officer on duty, but not obviously around the bank.

I held my hands up off the table, palms toward the TAC man. "That might be a problem…"

"Oh?"

"Uh, well, you see, of the six 'possibles,' only two are in towns with police departments."

The TAC man seemed somewhat taken aback. "Just how big are these towns, anyway?"

I pointed to them on the map, and told him the population of each town as I did so. "Three hundred, two fifty, four fifty, two hundred, eighteen hundred, and twenty-six hundred." The last two were Maitland, the county seat; and Frieberg. "Maitland and Frieberg have local departments."

"Go

"Let me tell you," said George. "Rush hour consists of three or four cars…"

The TAC commander gave me a quizzical look. "In such small places… how much money do you think they'll get?"

"Twenty-nine ninety-five," I said. "Hey, don't ask. Reliable informant says, 'five banks.' Volont says, 'five banks.' All in the same area. We figure that'd be here."

"Same area… same time?"

"Yep. That's what they said."

"Well, then, that's what we prep for." He gri

"If you can hide in these little towns," said George, "you can hide on a gym floor." He looked kind of sheepish all of a sudden. "Nothing personal, Carl."

"You never can tell about these little places," said the TAC commander. "They'll surprise you."

As our plans developed, it became painfully apparent that "Sunday" was a period twenty-four hours long. We had no idea when on Sunday they were going to hit. If they hit at all, of course. Consequently, it was decided that we'd be up and ru

It was almost time for di

"Not on the phone. How about di

Where do you meet for di

She did. I called Sue, and told her that I had to have company for di

"Can you please get home before your company comes? I left some homework on the dining room table… if you could move it to my desk… and there's some really good rice in the freezer, if you need it."

"Thanks. Do we have any potato chips or anything?"

"Some in the cupboard on the right. Use the good green dishes. Not the good china, but the good but not everyday things." She thought for a second. "And the good glasses. Those other ones are just too old."

"Okay."

"Don't eat too much. See you, Batman."

By the time Nancy and Shamrock hit the house, I had cleared the table, set it, put a couple of condiments out, started a pot of coffee, and had remembered paper napkins. I was rather proud of myself.

"Jeez," said Nancy. "You expecting company?"

We unwrapped the sandwiches, poured caffeine-free diet pop all around, and sat down to eat. I took a couple of bites, and then asked the question.

"So, what you got this time?"

Nancy took a drink of pop, and put her glass down. "You know anything about a bank robbery going to go down in Nation County on Sunday?"

I thought I carried it off rather well. "Sure. You too, eh?"

"You serious?" she asked. "You do know about that?"

"Sure." I took a drink of my pop. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Just how in the hell do you find this shit out?"

She gri

According to the two of them, they were in one of the local bars on Wednesday night. Relaxing. One of the local denizens hit on Shamrock. Gently, to be sure. But a hit, nonetheless. Being bored, she played him for a while, with Nancy right at the table.

I asked who. Didn't know his name, beyond Terry. They described him as about twenty-five through thirty, nearly six feet, and with "nice buns."

"That'll look good on a police report." It had to be Terry Waterman. The only guy I could think of in the county with a strong ass.

"Be creative," said Nancy. "Anyway…"

Terry found out that Shamrock was with the media. Trying to impress her, he said something on the order of "I just might have a scoop for you…"

"And I go, 'Oh, right,' like that," said Shamrock. "And he goes, 'No really, there's something big going down on Sunday.' And I go, 'Oh, sure.'"

She must have said it sweetly, because, as the evening wore on, he got more specific. Apparently, with both details and proposals. After the second time she refused to go home with him, he really turned on the charm.

"So he goes, 'You want to cover a bank job, sweet lady?' and I go, 'Maybe.' So he goes-" and she lowered her voice about two octaves- "'This is go

Five. There was the magic number again. And all close.

"No shit?" I took another slug of pop. "What else?"

Nothing. She'd still refused to sleep with him. So he got angry, called her a "media tease," and left.

Shamrock was laughing so hard she almost fell off the chair. "Mmmedia teeeasse!"

I was glad to see the local boys were still as adroit as ever. I laughed, too, but it wasn't easy. Five. Five.

When the gaiety subsided a bit, I pressed. "You sure it was five?"

"It was," said Nancy. "Five hits, and all close together. That's what he said."

I excused myself, and went to the phone. Fascinating. I called the office, and got George and Sally looking for information on Waterman.

When I returned to the table, I popped the question. "So, what would you like in return? I suspect this little di

As it happened, Nancy had a plan. All I had to do was tell her where the hits were going down, and they'd just "happen" to be in the area. Might even get a shot or two of the thing in progress. Scoop of the century. Hint, hint.

Or, as Shamrock put it, "That could make my whole career. Honest." The eyes had it, so to speak.

"Look, you two. I only have fair information on one location. I'll give you what I have, but you gotta promise to stay back where you won't get into trouble." I shrugged. "If it actually goes down. I'm not going to promise anything more than a fifty percent chance at this point."

Of course they would. Went without saying. Nancy I could really believe, as she'd been in the crap before, and wanted no more. I felt I could rely on her to keep Shamrock from getting carried away.

I took a deep breath, and let it out very slowly. "Right. Okay, look, sometime on Sunday, we think there may, and I emphasize may, be a hit on the bank in Frieberg."

"No shit! This Sunday?" Nancy was genuinely excited. It dawned on me that they hadn't had any idea of the reality of the bank hits until I'd confirmed it. They'd been guessing. Maybe "hoping" would be a better word. But they obviously hadn't expected anything so soon.