Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (3 page)

Chapter 3

I met Dale at the bank on Monday morning. The plan was to gain access to Debra’s account and safe deposit box, and transfer the funds into my personal account. I was thinking about keeping the deposit box, if possible. It would be a good idea to have a rainy day fund.

When we walked in, I was surprised to see Angel Ramirez manning the front desk. “What are you doing here?” I said as I bent over and gave her a hug. “Shouldn’t you be at home or at the hospital already?”

She laughed. “I wish! But this little baby girl is taking it her sweet time.”

“Girls are always fashionably late.”

“One week past my due date is long enough, thank you,” she replied. “What can I do for you?”

“We need to get into a safe deposit box,” I said, showing her the paperwork.

Angel read the legal document and looked up at me. “Wow, really?” I nodded. “I wonder what’s in the box. Maybe it’s her hit list.”

“Let’s hope not. Is there someone who can take us to the vault room?”

She put her hands on the arms of the chair and pushed herself up. “I will.”

“Mrs. Ramirez, you shouldn’t strain yourself,” Dale said, moving behind her and pulling the chair out of her way.

“Walking will be good for me,” Angel reassured him. “It might help induce labor.”

Dale’s face turned ghostly white, and for a second, I thought he was going to pass out right there in the lobby. He stayed on the other side of me, staying as far away from Angel as he could. I think if Angel had said “boo” at him, he would have screamed louder than a girl in a horror flick and run away.

Debra’s box turned out to be one of the biggest boxes in the vault. Located close to the bottom, Angel started to bend over to put her key in the lock, but Dale and I stopped her. He took the key from her, and the two of us opened the box and pulled it out. We picked it up and put it on the table.

I stared at it for a minute. The box wasn’t that long, but it was very deep. Maybe Angel was right about Debra’s hit list being in the box. Or maybe there were some weapons in there. If there were, I certainly wasn’t going to keep them. I’d turn them over to Owen, and he could do what he wanted with them.

“Whatever’s in there isn’t going to bite you, Lizzie,” Dale said. “Just open it already.”

I took a deep breath and pulled the lid up. There were some spiral notebooks, the kind I used when I was in school, a couple of photo albums, several envelopes of various sizes, a jewelry box and a silver, fireproof lockbox. “She put a lockbox in here?” I said, looking up at Dale. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

He shrugged. “Don’t look at me; I’m just the messenger.” He pulled a key ring out with about five small keys on it, and found the one he wanted. “Here, this one will unlock it.”

“What are the other keys for?”

“Various locks that you’ll open soon.”

“Don’t you think this is just a bit extreme? This is the behavior of a paranoid person.”

“No, this is someone who was trained to be careful, trained to disappear at the drop of the hat. You better learn not to be surprised by anything you find from here on out.”

He was probably right about that. I tried to lift the lockbox, but discovered it was too heavy. “Dale, could you give me a hand?”

It took both of us to take it out. “I wonder how the heck she got this in here,” he said as we put it on the table. “I think I pulled a muscle somewhere.”

“You need to start working out,” I told him.

“Pot, kettle, black, young lady,” he retorted.

I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at him, and inserted the key into the lock.

“Uh oh,” Angel said.

We looked over at her. “What’s wrong?” I said.

“My water just broke.”

Dale swayed a bit and grabbed the edge of the table as I looked down at the carpeted floor. Sure enough, there was a puddle between her feet. “How long have you been feeling contractions?” I said, moving over to her side. She grabbed my hand and squeezed.

“Off and on,” she admitted. “I thought it was just Braxton Hicks.” She gripped my hand so tight I thought she had cut the circulation off to my fingers. “When I went through this with the boys, it was hours before they were born.”

I gently moved her to the left, away from the wet spot, and helped her lay down on the floor. “Dale, move those chairs out of the way.” He just stared at us, frozen in place. “Dale! Snap out of it! I need some help here. Move those chairs.”

He did what I asked him to before moving to a far corner of the room. Angel gasped, and started doing some sort of breathing exercise. I had absolutely no idea what to do. From the expression on Dale’s face – eyes wide, mouth hanging open and totally speechless for once – I knew he wasn’t going to be any help at all. “This can’t happen here,” she said. “My husband isn’t even in town.”

“I’m sure there’s plenty of time,” I said.

“Can you call him for me?”

“Let’s get you some help first.” I looked over at Dale. “Pull out your phone and call 911.”

“Huh?”

Trying to stay calm for Angel, I repeated myself. “Call 911. She needs an ambulance. Can you do that?”

“Call 911…ambulance…got it.” He turned and ran out of the vault.

“Dale, get back here!” I called after him. It was too late. He ran off faster than Usain Bolt leaving the starting line.

Angel screamed, and I focused my attention back on her. “I don’t want to have my baby in the bank vault.”

I didn’t want her to have the baby in the bank vault, either. That baby needed to wait for the paramedics to get here, because there was absolutely no way I was going to deliver a baby. Nope, not happening on my watch. “I have an overwhelming urge to quote
Gone with the Wind
right now, Angel. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“I do. Just do what I tell you to until the paramedics get here. I trust you.”

“All right,” I nodded, taking off my jean jacket and oversized scarf, and pushing up the sleeves of my blue shirt. “What do you need me to do?”

“Help me get more comfortable.”

It took a couple of minutes to get her situated. I was impressed by how calm she was, even when she was digging her nails into my arm and drawing a little blood. Watching someone else give birth was a great form of birth control for a single girl, let me tell you. “I wonder if Chicken Little is going to come back,” I said, trying to distract her from the pain for a minute.

Angel laughed. “As fast as he ran out of here, I wouldn’t count on it. I just hope he remembers to call 911.”

“You and me both.”

She gasped, and then started her breathing thing again while she squeezed my hand. When she was done, I massaged my hand to get the feeling back. “Was it like this when you had the boys?”

“Oh yes,” she said. “I was in labor with little Richard for twenty hours, but only eight with Manuel.” I prayed that her daughter wouldn’t make an even faster appearance than her older brother.

A sharp bang from outside the vault got my attention. “What was that?” I said, looking at the open vault door.

“I’m not sure,” Angel said, a worried look on her face. “Maybe Dale ran into someone out there trying to get to a phone.

Somehow, I doubted that. There was a bunch of yelling for a couple of minutes, and then silence, which was broken when a very strong contraction hit Angel and she screamed.

Dale appeared in the doorway. “Thank God you’re back,” I told him. “Did you make the call to 911?”

“Not exactly,” he said nervously.

“What do you mean, not exactly? Get back out there and make that call. This baby isn’t going to wait around forever, you know.”

“Well, there’s a teeny tiny problem,” he said, glancing over his left shoulder.

“What problem?”

Someone new stepped into the doorway beside Dale. He was about six feet tall, wearing black boots, blue jeans, a black jacket zipped all the way up, purple latex gloves on his hands, a Glock in his right hand, and the ugliest clown mask I had ever seen in my life. “The problem is,” the man said, his voice muffled because of the mask, “this bank is being robbed.”

Chapter 4

I stared at the moron in the clown mask, not believing what I was seeing. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I finally said.

He held the gun up. “Does it look like I’m kidding, lady?”

“Put that thing away. She’s in labor; are you trying to scare her to death?” I snapped.

Dork the Clown lowered the gun so Angel couldn’t see it anymore. “Are you sure?”

“Well, she’s not down here on the floor with her legs bent because she’s practicing her yoga.”

“Lizzie, don’t tick him off,” Dale hissed. “The man does have a lethal weapon.”

“I don’t care if he’s got a nuclear bomb in his pants,” I retorted. “My only concern is Angel right now.”

“You know, you’ve got a smart mouth on you, lady,” Dork said.

“So I’ve been told.”

Angel tensed and started doing her panting again. “Holy cow, she really is in labor.”

“Duh.”

Another person in a clown mask joined us. “What’s the holdup?” Great, two male clown dorks.

Dork number one waved his gun in our direction. “Red says the lady on the floor is in labor. I think they’re just trying to keep us out of here.”

I could see Dork number two’s eyes focus on Angel, watching her closely for a minute. “She is in labor, you idiot,” he said, smacking his fellow clown upside the head. “Did you call dispatch yet?”

“He was supposed to,” I replied, pointing at Dale, “but I believe your little heist kept him from making the call.”

“How far apart are the contractions?”

“About five minutes, maybe less,” Angel told him.

Dork number two grabbed Dale by the back of his shirt and pulled him backwards. “Make the call. Tell them there’s a woman in active labor, contractions five minutes apart. Go on,” he snapped when Dale didn’t move, “that baby is coming. Are you going to deliver it?”

Dale shook his head, pulled out his phone and moved away to make the call. Dork number two handed his gun to his partner, removed his jacket and took off his mask. “Go on, get out of here,” he said. “Out the employee entrance. Get rid of this stuff. I’ll call you when I can.”

Dork number one didn’t have to be told twice. Dale came back as he left. “Ambulance is on the way,” he said.

The second man, who looked to be in his late twenties, came over to us. “I’m a paramedic,” he said, kneeling down by Angel’s feet. “Let’s see what we have here.”

“You’re kidding,” I said, totally shocked.

He shook his head. “I’m serious.”

“Then what are you doing robbing a bank, for crying out loud?”

“I work in a very small town. We don’t get much funding. Our ambulance is on its last legs, and we can’t afford to fix it anymore or buy a new one. We’ve tried doing fundraisers, but we only got enough to cover the last repair bill.” Angel sucked in some air. “Ok, ma’am, just breathe through it. That’s it…you’re doing good. Is there a first aid kit around here?”

Angel nodded. “Employee lounge.”

“I really need it,” he said, looking at me.

I looked up at Dale, who went to get it. “What’s your name?” I asked him.

“Geoff.”

“I’m Lizzie, and this is Angel. Chicken Little who just left is Dale.”

Dale came back with the first aid kit. “The dispatcher just called me. She said the only available ambulance is about an hour away.”

“She’s joking,” Geoff said. Dale shook his head. Geoff turned back to Angel. “What do you think? Do you think you can hold on for an hour?”

She shook her head. “I’m already a week past my due date. And it doesn’t feel like she’s going to wait.”

“You know it’s a girl?” Angel nodded. “That’s great. Well, judging by your contractions, and the fact that the baby’s head is starting to crown, I don’t think she’s going to wait, either. We’re going to have this baby right here in this vault.”

Dale made a choking sound, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he was down for the count.

I will spare you all the gory details. Needless to say, the ambulance was diverted to another accident (the curse of living in a small town with one ambulance), and Angel’s baby girl decided she wasn’t going to wait much longer. We finally sent Dale away because he kept passing out every time Angel had a contraction. By the time the ambulance got there, about three hours after her water broke, there was a new sound echoing off the walls of the vault: a baby crying at the top of her lungs.

The paramedics loaded Angel and the baby onto a stretcher, took down some information from Geoff and I, and wheeled her out. Dale came back in as they were leaving. “Police are outside. They want to talk to us about what happened.”

I saw Geoff’s shoulders slump. He knew he was probably going to go to jail. “Tell them there was a woman in labor back here, that’s what happened,” I said.

Dale’s eyes grew wide. “But…but what about him?” he said, jerking his thumb.

“What about him?”

“He held a gun on us, and he tried to rob the bank!” Dale said, clearly frustrated with me.

“Do you see a gun?”

“Of course not. He gave it to his partner.”

“Do you see any proof that he was one of the robbers?”

“Oh, come on, Lizzie. Just because he helped deliver Angel’s baby does not mean he gets a free pass here!”

Geoff just stood there, not sure what to say. “He had a good reason, Dale.”

“You are not serious.” I nodded. He threw his hands up in the air. “And just what am I supposed to tell T.J. and Owen? ‘Gee, I’m sorry, it was a false alarm! Have a nice day!’”

I looked at Geoff. “That works for me. How about you?”

Dale shook his head. “You’re trying to kill me here, woman.” I just looked at him. “Fine, what do you want me to do?”

“Tell them the robbers took off out the back door. Then Geoff can calmly walk out the front door.”

“They aren’t going to buy that for a minute.”

“So tell them that seeing a woman in labor freaked them out. They’ll believe that, considering your reaction to the situation.”

Dale considered that point for a minute. “It might work. I’ll try, but get him out of here quick.” He glanced at Geoff, shook his head, and walked out.

“Why are you doing this?” Geoff asked me.

“Your intentions were honorable, even if your methods leave something to be desired. And you helped a woman in distress.”

“I was just doing what I was trained to do.”

“Then get out of here and go do it.” I looked down at the lockbox, which was still sitting on the table waiting to be opened. “Wait a minute,” I told him. Glancing around, I spotted the keys on the floor under the table and picked them up. It took a couple of tries before I found the right key and opened it. I stared at the contents in shock. Stacks and stacks of money. More money than I had ever seen in one place in my entire life. “How much does a new ambulance cost?”

“Roughly? About $130,000. Why?”

I started counting out $10,000 stacks until there was $140,000 sitting on the table. “Will that be enough?”

Geoff looked at the stacks of money, then up at me for a minute, and then back at the money. “I can’t take that.”

“You need it, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but that’s your money.”

“I just inherited that money.”

“All the more reason you should keep it for yourself.”

I shook my head. “There’s more where this came from, trust me. And it will make me feel good to do something with the money. I can’t tell you more than that. Just trust me. Take it.”

“How am I going to get it out of here?”

“Stuff it inside your shirt, then zip your jacket halfway up.”

“What about those two cops?”

“I’ll take care of them. Hurry up.”

He hesitated for a minute, then did what I told him to. He looked like he had some extra weight around his middle, but hopefully no one would stop him on his way out.

Dale came rushing in. “They’re looking at the security tapes first. I’m not sure you’re going to be able to get him out of here.”

“He can go out the employees’ entrance like his friend did.”

“You better make it quick then,” Dale said. “It’s not going to take them long.”

“You heard him,” I told Geoff. “Get out of here.”

“I don’t know how to thank you.”

I started pushing him out of the vault. “Just don’t do anything this stupid again. Now go!”

He gave me a kiss on the cheek and hurried away. “You are out of your mind, woman,” Dale said. “How do you know he’s not going to come back?”

I showed him the lockbox. “Because Debra just bought him an ambulance.”