An Unusual Skyline
“Bingo!” cried Bess. “This could be the clue that turns this case around.” Realizing she’d said more than she should have in front of the police officer, Bess clamped a hand over her mouth and gave Nancy a guilty look.
Ramirez eyed the girls curiously. “What kind of school project is this, anyway?”
Nancy quickly covered for Bess. “It’s sort of like practice detective work,” she explained. “Our teacher gave us a case to solve, and our assignment was to find out about Bob Davis. She got his name out of an old Bentley newspaper.” Nancy studied the sergeant’s face, hoping he wouldn’t ask any more questions.
Sergeant Ramirez shrugged, seeming satisfied. “Sounds like fun.”
“Baker’s got quite a record,” Nancy commented, pushing for a few more clues. “Is there any way we can get more information on him?”
“He’s got to have a file,” Sergeant Ramirez told her. “Let me check.” The officer touched the rod to the screen and brought up the main menu again. In less than a minute Nancy found herself staring at a document titled “The Hit and Run Gang.”
“The Hit and Run Gang?” Bess asked. “What does that have to do with David Baker?”
“You’ll have to read it,” said Sergeant Ramirez. “Here, let me print it out for you.” He touched the screen again. Instantly, Nancy heard a whirring noise from deep inside the console. Stooping down, Ramirez opened the console door and tore a length of paper out of the printer. Then he separated three pages along the perforations and handed them to Nancy.
“You can read this over there,” he told the girls, indicating a row of orange molded plastic chairs along the wall of the lobby.
“Thanks, Sergeant,” Nancy said sincerely. “You’ve been a big help.”
The officer flashed a friendly smile. “Hope you get an A,” he said with a wink.
Nancy was excited as she and her friends hurried over to the plastic chairs. This was something important. She could feel it. Clearing her throat, she read aloud from the computer printout.
“David Baker, a former employee of the U.S. Mint, was convicted of stealing government plates and counterfeiting ten-dollar bills. He escaped from prison and later became a member of the notorious 'Hit and Run Gang,’ a highly successful team of bank robbers.
“The Hit and Run Gang, headed by the husband-and-wife team of Jake and Jasmine Sims, robbed over one hundred banks. In their final robbery, in which they got away with over half a million dollars from the Rushton Savings Bank in Rushton, Ohio, most of the gang members were captured. Only Jasmine, Jake, and Baker escaped. All three disappeared. The money was never recovered.
“Baker moved to Bentley, Illinois, where he lived under the alias Bob Davis. He was finally arrested by federal investigators at his home there. He is currently serving a life sentence in the Illinois Federal Penitentiary. Jake and Jasmine Sims remain at large.”
“Wow.” George let out a low whistle and shook her head. “That’s quite a story. Maybe it’s that half a million dollars that Baker has hidden inside his safe-deposit box.”
“Maybe,” Nancy said. “That would explain why someone is working so hard to find Baker’s box.”
“And why they haven’t risked stealing anything else from the vault,” George added. “If they get the half a million, Baker can’t even report it missing, since he’s not supposed to have it in the first place. Besides, he’s not even around to open the box and see that it’s gone.”
“Wait a second, you guys,” Bess said slowly. She was staring at the floor, her brow wrinkled in concentration. “I think I’ve heard of Jake and Jasmine Sims before. And also of the Hit and Run Gang. But I can’t quite pin down what.”
“How did you hear about them?” Nancy asked. “Sometimes that can help you remember a story.”
The crease in Bess’s brow intensified. Then suddenly her face brightened and she snapped her fingers. “Of course! It was in that funny old movie. They made a film about those two a long time ago—like, twenty years ago. I think it was called Jake and Jasmine.”
“What does a movie have to do with this case?” George asked, sounding annoyed. “It’s not going to have a scene where Baker walks into the vault of the Bentley Bank and deposits... whatever he deposits.”
“No,” said Nancy, “but it might give us some information we don’t know yet.”
“We could rent the movie,” Bess suggested. “Maybe it’s on video.”
“Great idea, Bess,” Nancy said. She slid out of the chair and stepped back to Sergeant Ramirez’s desk. He was hunched forward, reading a report. “Thanks for your help, Sergeant,” she said.
Sergeant Ramirez looked up and smiled. “Don’t mention it,” he said.
Nancy smiled back. “Do you happen to know where there’s a video store nearby?” she asked.
Sergeant Ramirez nodded. “Vera’s World of Video. It’s right down the street, across from the hospital.”
“Thanks,” said Nancy. With a quick wave the three girls left the station.
As they strolled through the summer afternoon sun, Nancy decided the day was turning out just perfectly. It felt as though they were making some real progress with the case. Just past Bentley Municipal Park a dark-haired girl with a huge smile came into sight.
Jill Adler! Nancy realized with a start. Even from fifty feet away Nancy could see Jill’s new bracelet sparkling in the sunlight.
“Listen,” Nancy said to her friends, thinking quickly, “I need to talk with Jill. Alone. Maybe you could catch some rays in that little park over there. Jill’s got some explaining to do.”
“No problem,” George said. She grabbed Bess, who seemed to be hypnotized by the sight of Jill’s bracelet. As the two cousins crossed the street, Nancy slowed her pace. She still found it hard to believe Jill had ignored her at Kathy’s Cafe. It just didn’t fit with the girl’s previous friendliness. Nancy decided to say nothing, to see if Jill would ignore her again.
But now the old Jill was back. “Nancy!” she called, waving the arm with the bracelet. “I’m so glad I ran into you! Notice anything different about me?” She held out the emerald-and-diamond piece of jewelry for Nancy to see.
“It’s beautiful,” Nancy acknowledged. Indeed, it was one of the most stunning—and expensive—pieces Nancy had ever laid eyes on.
“Maurice gave it to me at lunch,” Jill said, smiling.
“I know,” Nancy told her. Taking a deep breath, she decided to confront Jill directly. “I was sitting two tables away from you, and you walked right by me.”
Jill’s expression twisted instantly into an apologetic frown. “Oh, Nancy,” she cried anxiously. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even see you! I was so excited about my gift—and getting back together with Maurice. I—I guess I didn’t notice anything else.”
Jill certainly seemed sincere, but Nancy couldn’t tell for sure. Still, she did basically like Jill. And anyway, the other woman was more likely to open up if she acted friendly. “I guess that’s why they say love is blind.”
Jill gave Nancy’s arm a squeeze. “Thank you for being so understanding,” she said. “I knew I liked you as soon as I met you. It’s so strange. I’ve only known you a day, but somehow I feel I know so much about you.”
Nancy studied Jill’s face closely to see if there was another meaning behind Jill’s statement. Did she mean she knew the real reason she, Nancy, was in Bentley? Was there a hidden warning in her words? Her expression was friendly, but her tone held just a tinge of something cooler.
Nancy nodded to Jill. “I’ll remember that. Anyway, I’m late for work, so I’d better go.”
Jill smiled. “I know that feeling—rushing back before your superior notices you’ve been gone an hour and a half for lunch.” She laughed. “I’m sure I’ll see you very soon,” she added. “'Bye.”
Again Nancy wondered if something lay hidden in Jill’ s words. But the other woman was already setting off down the street. When Jill was out of sight, Nancy motioned to Bess and George to rejoin her.
“Well?” Bess asked as the three of them continued down the hill toward the video store. “Did she explain why she acted rude?”
“She says she was so excited she didn’t notice me,” Nancy said. “I wanted to believe her, but I just wasn’t convinced one hundred percent. Anyway, we’d better get to Vera’s World of Video. We’ve been out of the bank too long as it is.”
Bentley Hospital was just down the block. Nancy could see its two redbrick towers high above the other roofs. Across from its elegant curving driveway, a flashing neon sign announced: Vera’s World of Video—a Thousand Films to Choose From. “This is it,” Nancy said, crossing to the store. A bell jingled as they opened the door to enter.
The video store was dark and musty. Rows of shelves, floor to ceiling, held jumbled stacks of black plastic video cassette cases. Behind the counter, mounted close to the ceiling, a video monitor was playing a recently released movie. The scene showed hundreds of teenagers running out of a movie theater, pursued by a giant pair of high-top sneakers. The sneakers stomped menacingly behind them, threatening to crush them all.
A plump, middle-aged woman with heavy eye make-up and a voluminous, loose-fitting dress stood behind the counter. “I’m Vera,” she announced. “If it’s on video, I’ve got it. What can I do for you?”
Bess leaned forward over the counter. “I think there was a movie made about twenty years ago called Jake and Jasmine or Jasmine and Jake. It was about a romantic pair of bank robbers. Do you have it?”
“Of course I’ve got it!” Vera said indignantly. “I just have to find it. Oh, by the way, you got it right the first time. Jake and Jasmine it is.”
Vera rummaged around in the shelves behind her, muttering softly to herself. Her movements jostled the tapes and several cassettes fell around her feet. But Vera didn’t seem to notice or to care. She merely kept searching through the cluttered stacks. After several moments she triumphantly held a cassette up and handed it to Bess. Nancy and George crowded around to get a closer look.
Under the title Jake and Jasmine was a picture of an attractive couple staring into each other’s eyes. The woman was so young, no more than about twenty, with dark curly hair. She wore an expensive-looking sweater set and pearls. The young man, also around twenty, had straight black hair that fell over one eye. He wore a ripped shirt and overalls.
Bess turned the cassette over and read the ad blurb aloud: “'She came from the wealthiest family in Piskatchitee, Iowa. He came from the wrong side of the tracks. She had everything money could buy—except excitement. He gave her more than she bargained for. True love takes a ride on the wild side.’”
“This is a romance,” George complained. “I know they’re criminals and all, but it’s like Romeo and Juliet. How’s that going to help us?”
“We won’t know till we check it out,” Nancy said. “I just wish we didn’t have to wait until we get home to see it.” As if mocking her, the giant sneakers on the video monitor let out a horrible laugh. She glanced up at the screen. Hmm, maybe they didn’t have to wait. “Uh, excuse me, but could we preview this movie?” she asked Vera.
Vera looked at the girls suspiciously. “Do you really want to rent it?” she asked. “Or are you just trying to get a freebie?”
“Of course we want to rent it,” Nancy assured her. “But first we want to get a taste of it to make sure it’s worth seeing.”
Vera sighed again. She turned off the sneaker movie just as the giant sneakers were tying up a man with their shoelaces. The VCR spit out the old cassette, and Vera popped in Jake and Jasmine.
“You can see the first five minutes,” she said, waving a finger at them. “After that, you either rent it or fly.” Vera pressed the play button. The girls turned attentively to watch the screen as the credits rolled over a scene of a small-town high school. A harmonica crooned mournfully in the background.
The credits stopped rolling, and the young female star of the movie strolled out the front door of the high school, her long dark hair swinging innocently around her face. She was expensively dressed in a cashmere sweater and a string of pearls.
Nancy stood engrossed, searching for a clue. Jasmine’s friends—the classy set at school—kept complaining about how Jasmine’s father was too strict. “He never lets you go out,” one of the girls whined. “All you ever do is stay home and study. It’s boring, Jasmine, boring.”
Jasmine let out a huge sigh. “It’s true,” she wailed. “Sometimes I feel like a prisoner in my own house! I wish there were some way to break free, but”—she wiped away a tear—“I don’t dare disobey him.”
For a moment Jasmine’s friends tried to comfort her. Then came the roar of a car engine. Jasmine and her friends jumped back as the black-haired male lead pulled his car off the main road. He cut across the school lawn, heading straight for them. He was shouting like a wild man—and driving a 1957 white Ford Skyliner!
All Locked Up
Still staring at the TV screen, Nancy clutched her friends’ arms. The car Jake was driving in the movie was exactly the same kind of car that had raced past her house the night before. It was all the same—the car, the wild yells, even Jasmine’s curly hair. Could the two people in the car the previous night have been Jake and Jasmine?
But the bank robbers would be her dad’s age now, Nancy calculated. Would they really go joy riding in a car straight out of the 1950s at their age? And why come out of hiding to do it—why be so conspicuous after so many years? Most of all, could Jake and Jasmine possibly hide their past so well that they’d be able to get jobs at the bank? But even if they were the ones breaking into the vault, Nancy still didn’t know what they were after. It was a real puzzle.
Still, she tried to think things through logically. If Jake and Jasmine were making a comeback, it ruled out two suspects: Maurice and Jill. They were both too young. Then who was old enough? Nancy ran through the possibilities in her mind. Larry Jaye? Evelyn Sobel? Or maybe it was some other older bank employee she hadn’t even considered yet.
Nancy sighed. This clue had made things even more confusing than they’d been before!
“It’s got to be them,” Bess said as if reading Nancy’s thoughts. “I may not know a lot about cars, but I’d recognize that one anywhere.”
“Well, the car is the same,” Nancy agreed, “but we’d better not jump to conclusions. I mean, that car might just be a movie prop! Jake and Jasmine might never have even owned a Skyliner in real life.”
“Come on, Nancy. It’s more than a coincidence,” George told her, “and you know it. Your dad said the Skyliner was rare even in 1957, that they made only a couple thousand of them. Now two of them show up in two days! Admit it—something is going on here.”
Vera had been impatiently tapping her fingers on the counter as the three girls talked. “I’m sure this is a very fascinating conversation,” she cut in, “but I don’t have time to stand around all day listening to you argue about cars. Do you want to rent the movie or not?” With one swift movement she switched off the VCR, then stood staring at them with her hands on her wide hips.
Nancy pulled her wallet out of her purse, then handed Vera some money and her credit card. Vera wrote down the number on a slip, then took the money. “It’s got to be back before five tomorrow, or there’s a late fee.”
“It won’t be late,” promised Bess. “We’ll return it first thing tomorrow morning.” She picked up the cassette, and the girls turned to go.
As they stepped onto the pavement, Nancy turned to Bess and George with a conspiratorial smile on her face. “I’m not so sure this movie isn’t going to be late,” she told them.
“Stop being cryptic,” Bess said, “and tell us what’s up.
“Call your folks and tell them you won’t be home tonight,” said Nancy. “We’re spending the night inside the vault.”
“What?” Bess shrieked.
“Nancy, you’ve got to be kidding!” George chimed in.
“Dead serious,” Nancy insisted. “Whoever these criminals are, they still haven’t found what they’re looking for, otherwise they wouldn’t still be hanging around the bank. Now that they know we’re on their tail, they must be getting desperate. That means they’ll have to act fast. So there’s a good chance they’ll try another break-in tonight.”
“Don’t think I’m doubting you,” Bess said to Nancy as they continued back toward the bank, “but even you can’t figure out a way to hide in that vault. You’ve seen what the security is like. Didn’t you say Larry checked the whole place thoroughly before he closed the door last night?”
“He’ll definitely see us,” agreed George. “There’s nowhere to hide.”
“Yes there is,” Nancy countered. “I just haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Nancy, how can you act completely sure about staying in the vault when you haven’t even figured out how to get in there?” Bess demanded.
“But I will,” Nancy assured her friends. “By five o’clock today I’ll have come up with a solution. All we need is a little creative thinking.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that some things are just impossible?” Bess said, pushing her point.
Nancy shook her head vehemently. “I can’t accept that, Bess. This could be our only chance to catch the crooks in action. They already must have gotten through most of the deposit boxes. There can’t be many left. And once they get what they’re looking for, they’re not going to stick around.”
The girls climbed the broad marble steps leading up to the bank’s entrance. “Make your own decision,” Nancy said to her friends. “But if you’re in, meet me in the lobby at five minutes to five.”
As Nancy entered the bank, her mind kept churning. Age seemed to be the factor here. Old age.Was she missing someone, an obvious suspect she’d overlooked? She’d already talked to Larry Jaye and Evelyn Sobel. Was there someone else?
She gazed distractedly across the lobby. There, walking straight toward her and pushing a mop, was her answer. It was the janitor from the other night—Don, she remembered Mr. Charles calling him. His straight hair was mostly white, but Nancy could still see some strands of dark hair. The actor who’d played Jake in the movie had had black hair, but Nancy knew this didn’t prove anything. Often actors looked nothing like the real people they portrayed.
Nancy decided a casual approach might work best. “How did the clean-up by the vault go yesterday?” she asked, flashing a friendly smile.
The janitor looked up, surprised. He seemed to have been lost in thought. “Excuse me,” he said politely. “Do I know you?”
“I’m sorry,” Nancy said. “I thought you might recognize me. I’m Nancy, the new intern here. I was the one who was downstairs when the tear gas exploded.”
The janitor shrugged. “That was some mess. You know, it didn’t say anything in my contract about tear gas. Just mopping and vacuuming and emptying ashtrays.” He moved forward a few feet to mop a new area. Nancy followed.
“Have you been working here long?” she asked.
“Twenty years,” the janitor said without looking up. He moved forward again. Was he trying to avoid her, Nancy wondered, or was he just doing his job?
“I guess you must know this bank inside and out,” she said, following him.
“I’ve cleaned every room in this place at least five thousand times,” the older man answered. He jangled a metal ring, heavy with keys, that hung from a loop on his overalls.
“Do you clean all the offices?” she inquired.
“Of course I do,” he said irritably. “They never hired anybody to help me. I asked them about a million times, said it was too much for just one person, but—”
“Ahem.” A woman cleared her throat right next to Nancy’s ear.
Turning, Nancy found herself staring into the bifocals that rested on the sharp nose of Evelyn Sobel. Out of the corner of her eye Nancy saw the janitor rapidly mopping his way away from her and toward the opposite end of the lobby.
“Ms. Drew,” Ms. Sobel said, “I have been looking for you for the past hour. Where have you been?”
“Mr. Charles sent me on an errand,” Nancy explained. “Can I help you with anything?”
“You can do what you were hired to do, which is work,” Ms. Sobel said, her voice curt. “Come with me, please. I have a job for you.”
Nancy smiled as she followed Evelyn Sobel up the stairs. This would be the perfect opportunity to find out more about the assistant branch manager without seeming like a snoop. Ms. Sobel led Nancy down the long hallway and opened the door to an empty conference room. In it was a large mahogany table surrounded by plush upholstered chairs. On the table was a box of blank envelopes and a tall stack of paper.
Ms. Sobel walked over to the table and laid one hand on the papers. “Do you know what a CD is?” she asked.
“Sure. It’s a certificate of deposit,” Nancy answered. “It’s like a savings bond. For a certain sum of money—say, a thousand dollars—the bank agrees to pay a certain percentage of interest after a specific period of time has passed, for example, six months or a year.”
Ms. Sobel didn’t exactly smile, but the disapproving look on her face relaxed just a little. “Precisely,” she confirmed. “And when the CD matures—that means when the money has sat in our bank for its stated amount of time—we have to remind our customers to buy a new CD or use the money in some other way.” Ms. Sobel lifted the top paper off the stack. “These reminder forms have already been filled out,” she told Nancy. “Your job is to stick the address labels on the envelopes and put the forms inside. I’ll be back at five to five.”
Without another word, Ms. Sobel left the room.
Nancy sighed, realizing she was stuck. She’d hoped to spend the rest of the afternoon questioning suspects. Instead, she was trapped here doing just about the most boring job the world had ever known! And if she didn’t get it done, she’d blow her cover completely. Well, there was nothing she could do about it now. Resignedly, she sat down and folded the top form.
As Nancy removed a gummed label from a sheet and applied it to an envelope, she thought back to her conversation with the janitor. He hadn’t been friendly at all. In fact, he’d seemed to be deliberately avoiding her. Then there was his key ring. If he cleaned all the offices, that had to include the president’s. Mr. Charles probably hadn’t remembered the janitor had a key when he’d said his was the only one. What’s more, if the janitor had access to all the rooms, he might have been able to collect quite a lot of important information when no one was looking.
Nancy couldn’t help wondering if it had been a coincidence that Ms. Sobel had interrupted her conversation with the janitor. If Ms. Sobel and Don the janitor were Jasmine and Jake, then Ms. Sobel would do everything in her power to keep Nancy from questioning her husband.
Nancy sighed. There was so much important investigating to be done, and she was stuck stuffing envelopes. Still, she could put the time to good use. Her hands might be busy, but her mind was free to work on the case. Now all she had to do was solve the impossible problem and figure out how three teenagers could sneak into a top security bank vault for a night!
There had to be a clue somewhere, something that seemed so ordinary that she’d missed it completely. She had to imagine every detail in the basement, check it as thoroughly in her thoughts as Larry did in fact each evening. In her mind’s eye she pictured Larry opening the second gate and stepping into the steel-lined vault. Carefully, he’d peer into each corner of the room...
But after her mental investigation, Nancy felt just as satisfied that the vault was secure as Larry had the night before. She could imagine him nodding in approval, then swinging his small duffel bag over his shoulder and ducking into the viewing cubicle to change.
Suddenly Nancy let out a gasp. That was the answer! Larry used the cubicle as his own personal secret spot. There were no cameras and no guards in it. Why couldn’t she, Bess, and George do the same?
Nancy felt like throwing her neat pile of stuffed envelopes high in the air and watching them shower down like confetti. One major piece of the puzzle had just fallen into place. Now she could use it to stake out the vault—and maybe that would lead to a full solution of this impossible mystery. Nancy reached for yet another envelope. It was amazing how the boring work suddenly didn’t seem so bad now that she had the night in the vault to look forward to.
By five to five, when Evelyn Sobel returned, Nancy had acquired three paper cuts, and she thought she’d go delirious if she ever saw another CD renewal form, but all the envelopes were stuffed, sealed, and neatly stacked.
“Very good,” Ms. Sobel said, tapping the mahogany desk loudly. “Maybe if you spent more time working and less time talking, you’d actually be an asset to this bank.” Ms. Sobel laughed. “I just made a joke. An asset to this bank. I must write that down.”
Nancy looked up at the assistant branch manager in surprise. She’d never expected to hear Ms. Sobel laugh. “May I go now?” she asked.
Ms. Sobel waved her away, and Nancy hurried from the conference room. She wasn’t sure, but as she stepped out the door, she thought she heard the older woman murmur a quiet, “Thank you.” That was even more astonishing than the laugh!
But Nancy had more important things to think about now—like the stakeout.
Her heart tapped out a pounding beat inside her chest as she hurried to where Bess and George were waiting for her at the top of the basement stairwell. “Glad you two decided to come in on this one with me,” she said softly.
“Did you figure out how to hide us down there?” George asked.
“Sure did,” Nancy replied proudly. Quickly, she filled them in on the plan. “I’ll go down there first,” she finished. “Wait at the turn in the stairs so you can see me, but don’t let Larry catch sight of you. Come down when I give the signal.” She wasn’t quite sure how she’d sneak them all past Larry, so she’d just have to improvise.
Nancy started down the steps. The plan was scary, even dangerous, but they just had to do it. It was their best chance for solving the case! Steeling her courage, Nancy walked boldly past the electric eye to the outer gate.
Larry was standing behind his desk, taking his blue uniform jacket off the back of his chair.
“Hi, Larry. I guess it’s almost closing time,” Nancy commented with a smile.
“Nothing wrong with that,” Larry said, returning the smile. “No bad effects from the tear gas, I hope?”
The guard unlocked the outer gate so Nancy could enter the area by his desk. She was relieved when he didn’t reclose the gate behind her. Obviously, his thoughts were more on leaving for the day than on maintaining the bank’s security.
“I’m fine,” Nancy said in answer to Larry’s question. “Actually, I came down to see how you were feeling. I wanted to ask you this morning, but we got distracted.”
Larry leaned down to pick up his maroon duffel bag. “Isn’t that sweet of you to ask! In fact, I’m feeling healthy and strong.” He slapped his fist lightly against his chest. “At least as healthy as an old man like me is going to feel.”
“Good,” Nancy said, but she was reminded once again of the theme of old age which seemed so important in the case.
“Well, Nancy,” Larry said, “I wish I had a few more minutes to visit with you, but it’s time for me to close up here. Maurice should be coming down any minute, if he isn’t late again. I want to check the vault and get out of here on time for once.” With a little salute, Larry unlocked the inner gate and entered the vault.
Nancy watched as he went through his usual routine. He studied the empty room carefully, then nodded, satisfied. Quickly, he popped his head into each of the viewing cubicles and deemed them secure too. Then, gripping his duffel bag, he stepped into the last one and closed the door.
Nancy’s heart gave a little leap. This was their chance! She motioned vigorously with her hand, and her friends silently appeared at her side.
Mouthing the words “come on,” Nancy tiptoed across the vault’s marble floor and slipped into the end cubicle. Ignoring the panic in Bess’s eyes, she ushered the girls in with her. Without a sound she closed the door behind them.
It was eerily dark in the cubicle, but a few stray rays of light squeezed their way in through the cracks around the door frame. Nancy could just make out the shadowy outlines of her friends. If Larry heard them, the stakeout was finished and the chance of solving the mystery probably gone. The seconds stretched out like hours as the three friends waited nervously.
Crickkk. The noise was faint, but Nancy recognized it as the sound of the far cubicle’s door swinging open. Then the echo of footsteps clicked across the marble floor. Larry was leaving! They were safe—at least until the thieves showed up. If they showed up.