Authors: Violet Walker
“
O
kay, so, we have five people in town with firearms, including the one cop from Shandaken PD. Beth is still listening in on their radio channel, and we have people around town acting as lookouts.” Henry seemed strangely energized as he brushed snowflakes from his hair. The three of them had just spent an hour shuffling through the snow, banging on doors and getting people to spread the word that Phoenicia’s two banks and any open businesses were going to be hit tonight. Now a small crowd was gathering in the bed and breakfast lobby, and Henry was trying to organize them and brief everyone as new information came in. His phone kept ringing, and he juggled calls and questions like a master. In spite of the danger, he seemed completely in his element.
James, meanwhile, was scowling and watchful, his eyes narrow. He played the recordings on Henry’s phone again, and listened to the voices talking about the two banks on Main Street, the tools they would need to get through the front door and what kind of resistance they could expect. She noticed his hard, thoughtful look, and crossed to him, concerned.
“Hey, what is it?” she asked softly. He shook his head and then tilted it, listening.
“Not sure. Hang on.”
The robbers had a decent plan. Anna had to give them that. Steal the only vehicles capable of getting around in this mess of snow, coordinate over radio, and rob banks, getting well away before anyone could hope to follow them. Half the places they hit were having blackouts. Security systems wouldn’t work, and apparently, they had the gear to get through bank security doors.
She shivered. The broadcasts revealed a gang of at least a dozen people. That outnumbered their armed members over two to one, and half the firearms in town were old hunting rifles. Those were not good odds. “James...maybe it’s better not to try and defend the banks. That money is insured and besides, they outgun us.”
“I agree.” He was still listening. “The banks aren’t the problem. They want to knock them over and roll on down the road, that’s one thing. But there are a dozen armed guys, and they know that nobody’s coming to help us for days. That’s a long time for them to do whatever they want. Even thieves that aren’t normally violent might get tempted.”
Anna felt cold. “James...what is it?”
“Two of those voices are familiar. These guys, they’re local ex-jailbirds, like me. Clever, but no goddamn sense between them. Sons of bitches must have seen an opportunity and pulled together some friends.” His fists clenched at his sides. “If they’re local they know about Henry. If they’re looking for ways to take advantage up here, he’s worth more than all of us.”
Henry came over to them, having noticed James’s expression. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Some of these guys are local. I can recognize their voices from these recordings. None of them are super bright, but now and again, they get a creative idea or two. If they’re local they’ll know about the work you do around here, and that you’re loaded.”
Henry leaned against the lobby wall and glanced outside at the moonlit mounds of snow. Black poked up through the white in spidery clusters, framing his background as he brooded. Finally, he spoke up. “If they target me, fine. It’s not like they can threaten my life very effectively.”
Anna looked at him in shock. “Hey--”
He turned a tight smile on her. “Sorry, but it’s true. Maybe I could distract them with enough money to get their minds off hurting anyone else in town.” He looked very thoughtful. Frowned. Nodded. Then looked between them. “Okay, guys, here’s the deal. I have about five or six documents I need you to sign so I can fax them to my lawyer and get the originals into the mail.”
“Wait, we’re back to paperwork?” James lifted an eyebrow.
“This batch of paperwork protects everyone working for me if something happens when these guys hit town. They need to get signed and out now. Just trust me.” Henry looked back at James firmly.
James looked skeptical but finally nodded.
Anna looked up at the rest of the crowd: Toby, carrying an oblong box and looking worried; a gaggle of angry-looking mountain men and their older kids; the five hunters who had brought four rifles and a crossbow between them; and Greg, a redheaded, rookie cop who had a pistol but mostly looked more terrified than anyone else. Greg had radioed in a distress call to Shandaken, the State Police and the Highway Patrol, but the cavalry had no way of getting out there until the plows came through again.
Henry raised his voice to address the group. “Okay guys, you all know me, I was the maniac at your door an hour ago.” A chuckle went through the crowd. “You’ve all heard the recordings, and you’ve heard the volunteer fire department distress call from up in Pine Hill. These guys are coming here as soon as they’re done stashing their money from robbing the ski resort. If we’re lucky, we have an hour to prepare.
“The idea is that since Greg here has no backup except us,” Greg nodded ruefully and a grizzled hunter patted him on the shoulder, “ee hide out here and inside the firehouse. Let them hit the bank because that money is insured, and just sit tight. At least some of these guys are local. If they start going after us, chances are they know who I am. If I offer them a big bribe, they’ll know I’m good for it. So yeah, I’m going to need you to let me handle them if it comes to a standoff, okay?” Henry took a deep breath and went quiet, his face a little pale, as mutters rose within the crowd.
“Hey, um, James?” Toby came up quietly behind them and James turned to look at him. He stepped to the side away from Henry to talk to the woodcarver, who quickly pressed the box into his hands. “This was my Dad’s. I can’t use it but it might help you.” He stepped back, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I...I just, well...I can’t do much directly, my Mom needs me.” He swallowed and looked down shamefacedly. “Please bring it back when you beat the bad guys, okay?”
“Don’t you worry about any of that. I will. And thanks for this.” James hefted it, but didn’t open it for now.
Henry spoke up again. “So uh, if you have a firearm, check in with Greg and he’ll split you up between one of the two buildings. We have one snowcat available if things go really bad, but it can only seat six with no cargo. We were planning on a supply run with it before this happened, but if we have to use it to ferry vulnerable people out of town, we’ll manage.”
Toby shook hands with all of them before he went back up the hill to his mother’s house. He looked grim behind his slightly-fogged glasses, and Anna could tell he was scared underneath. But that was all of them.
As things got organized, James ducked back upstairs to open Toby’s gift. “Thought so.” It was a shotgun, antique looking but in good repair, with a box of rounds. “This should even the odds a little. Good on Toby.” He stuffed the shells into his pockets and loaded the weapon with the last five.
Anna stared at him with a shotgun in his hands, and felt a surge of apprehension go through her. They shouldn’t have to deal with situations where James had to steal vehicles or worry about fighting off robbers with shotguns. It was as insane in its own way as Henry facing cancer. She shook her head slowly, tears in her eyes.
He nodded, expression tired and resigned. “Don’t much like this either, sweetheart. This sort of Wild West shit got old a century ago.” But he still held the shotgun like he knew how to use it, and she worried it wasn’t just from practice hunting. He was so honest, forthright and tender with her that she sometimes completely forgot he had been to prison.
“It’s just the difference between what should be and what has to be.” She touched his shoulder, feeling strangely skittish while he held the gun.
“Yeah.” He covered her hand with his own, and then got up to head back downstairs. “I gotta check in with Greg and see where he wants me, but I’m pretty much hoping to stay here--”
Yelling erupted down in the lobby. They looked at each other and ran out and down the stairs, James holding the shotgun gingerly in front of him.
Gary and Henry were trying their best to calm the growing crowd. Anna wondered why for a moment--and then she heard it. The low rumble of multiple heavy diesel engines. “Oh God, they’re here. We’re out of time!”
“Everybody upstairs!” Gary boomed out with surprising power, apparently the sort to man up when the trouble started. “Get the kids to the upper floor! We’re shuttering up and turning off the first floor lights!”
James pushed forward as Anna helped a group of scared, bundled-up kids up the stairs while the father helped his crying wife along. He went to speak to Greg and Henry, and as she went up, she lost sight of both of them. The rumble of the engines grew loud enough to be heard from the upper floor.
“Are they going to shoot us all?” a curly-haired boy with olive skin and huge brown eyes asked in a small voice that high with fear.
“No. They just want money. They will break into the banks, and we’ll hide. And if they find us my friend has some more money to offer them.” Though she prayed it wouldn’t come to that.
Please don’t let it come to that.
“We’ll just all have to hide upstairs and be quiet.”
She got the family to one of the empty suites in the converted attic and then turned back. The kid tugged at her dress hem. “Don’t go, it’s dangerous!”
She turned back and looked at him gently. “I have to. People I love are down there.” She had no idea how to further help them, but she knew that she had to be with them and do what she could.
When she got back downstairs, she saw that everyone with a firearm was now gathered in the lobby, with Henry and Greg marshaling them. She stepped down into the lobby to listen. The rumble of engines had stopped, and she could hear some kind of heavy hammering sound down the street, in the direction of both the town’s banks. It sounded a little like a jackhammer.
“We’ve got everyone sheltering in place, just like with a storm, but with the lights off. If they’re not satisfied with the banks, we guard this space from the stairwell in case they come in shooting. Remember, this crowd isn’t too smart.” Henry looked between James and Greg, and glanced back at her briefly. For a moment his eyes held so much longing that she wanted to run to him, but she held off and let him work.
Henry finished briefing the others before he and James hurried over to her. “Look, I know this sounds crazy, but that paperwork has to be done before there’s any chance I have to negotiate with these guys. Come on.” He turned and took the stairs two at a time, and they hurried after him.
“Don’t even bother to read them. Anna, I need you to sign on the bottom of every document on this pile and feed them into the fax machine. I have my lawyer’s number dialed in already. James, you and I sign these documents and she notarizes them. Seriously, don’t read them, don’t take the time, just go. Please trust me.”
“I do,” Anna replied softly, grabbing her notary seal from her bag.
James hesitated, then nodded quietly. “Let’s do this.”
Under any other circumstances, Anna would have gone over those documents with a microscope if someone told her to sign them without reading them but there was no time; no time at all. She signed and signed and used her seal, and sent faxes of everything before dropping the documents into an express mail envelope, addressing it and sealing it. The box downstairs wouldn’t be picked up for days, of course, but legally they were covered. Anna cradled the envelope as she ran downstairs with Henry and James, and shoved it into the box before she could think about how ridiculously mundane the action was under the circumstances. She wondered why Henry found the matter so urgent. Maybe he was literally preparing for the worst, in case the robbers--
No, that’s not going to happen. They will hit the banks and then leave us alone. Who would attack a bed and breakfast?
Whatever the case, she trusted him to have a good reason for his strange behavior. She just hoped she would understand what it was soon.
I
t took an hour for the robbers to strip out the banks. The lookouts reported from upstairs windows overlooking the scenes, sitting in the dark with their phones: they used demolition and road repair equipment, likely stolen in their spree, and tore the buildings apart getting through the doors and into the vaults. The thumps and grinds and crashes terrified Anna, but she held it together as she sat in the stairwell next to Henry, with James standing guard in front of them.
She reached for Henry’s hand, offering comfort and asking for it at the same time, and he clasped hers firmly. “Do you trust me?” he asked her softly.
She nodded. He had hurt her terribly before, without even meaning to, but she weighed that against everything else and still came up believing in him.
“Good.” His fingers caressed the back of her hand, and her breath caught. She saw that flicker of longing in his eyes again, and her mouth went dry. He opened his mouth to say more, and then shook his head, going quiet, as if at a loss for words.
“Let’s just hope they’re satisfied with the bank vaults.” James’s voice held the growl of an angry guard dog.
They weren’t, and they started searching up and down the main street, breaking windows and looting. Occasional screams in the darkness stung Anna’s ears and made Henry tense beside her. He never let go of her hand.
Finally, it was their turn. James’s eyes narrowed as he watched the crowd of men walk up to the glass front of the lobby. A single tall figure banged imperiously on the door. “Anybody home?”
“Shit, yeah, I know this guy.” James shook his head. Gary looked up at him from his seat lower on the stairs. James explained, “Al Cody, Jake Cody’s kid, from Woodstock. Been in and out of jail for ten years. Fancies himself a criminal mastermind.”
“Just what we need.” Greg got up and walked up to the door. “This is Greg Seligman from Shandaken PD, we’ve got families in here and not much of value. If you try to break in we’re going to have to fire on you.”
Laughter rippled through the crowd outside. “Well, we wouldn’t want that,” that deep voice said sarcastically. “Get a clue. We’ve got you outnumbered, Officer!”
James racked his shotgun. “He’s got help.”
A startled pause. “Holy shit, Jimmy Thompson! What the Hell, James, you got a death wish suddenly?” But the laughter outside weakened and died. Anna found herself wondering what kind of reputation James had among the local ex-cons.
“Hiya, Al.” James’s voice dripped icicles. “Not really, but if you bust in here I’ll still blow your face off.”
Anna started to shake, and Henry put his arm around her. “It’s all right. He knows how to handle himself. Nobody’s going to get shot, especially not James. I won’t let it happen.” He pulled her against him gently, and kissed her forehead. She felt his heart beating hard under her hand. “Just let him do his thing.”
“Okay, guys, here’s the deal.” Al raised his voice. “We know that you guys have a goddamn billionaire staying in town right now. You small town gossips never can keep your mouths shut, especially when you’ve had enough to drink.” Disdain soured his tone.
Anna stiffened and looked at Henry...and saw his expression go from worried to terrifyingly calm. “Henry...?”
He leaned over and hugged her, burying his face in her hair. “It’s gonna be okay. Just trust me,” he whispered in her ear.
Then he stood up, slipping away from her, and moved out of reach, down into the shadowed lobby, and headed toward the door. She let out an inarticulate gasp and stood, reaching out emptily for a moment.
Come back….
But he had asked her to trust him, and after a moment, she steeled herself and let her hand drop.
Al prattled on. “This Reid guy’s buddy to a lot of you, and I respect that. But here’s the deal. We just want his money. I mean, everybody wants to be a billionaire. I read up. He’s worth twenty four billion! That’s two billion apiece for me and all my boys. You give him up, we strip his funds, we’ll probably even drop his ass off somewhere.”
“That’s some bullshit, right there, everybody knows you killed a man up on Bear Mountain--” James growled, but Henry spoke up as he walked over to join them.
“James. It’s all right.”
James looked at him in astonishment. “Boss...wait, no. You can’t go with this guy. He’s got no goddamn honor, he will not keep his word.”
“Oh, well, I’ll keep my goddamn word about one thing,” Al called, and they realized his crew had spread out along the front of the building and were splashing something on its walls from big jugs. Anna smelled gasoline and stood up in horror. James bit back a curse. Al went on. “If you don’t cough up Henry Reid in the next five minutes, I will burn this building down and kill you and everybody in there.”
Henry looked between them as Anna ran back to his side. He seemed almost serene now, so focused and fearless that James stared at him in amazement.
“Boss, you can’t. You won’t come back alive. And they’ll take everything you’ve worked for, too.” James shook his head, pain in his eyes.
Henry smiled slowly. “No, they won’t.”
James stopped and blinked at him.
Anna stared between them. “What’s going on?”
Henry smiled wider, and his voice was full of confidence. “Once they’re well away with me, go upstairs. There are two letters in envelopes in my desk drawer. Read them. It will make everything clear.”
“Three minutes, you dumb fucks!” Al called. “It’s freezing out here and I’m getting pissed off, might light this fire a little early!”
Henry turned to Anna and engulfed her in a tight hug. She squeezed him back desperately, wanting so much to force him to stay. His heart pounded against her cheek. He was warm and alive in her arms and she sobbed, knowing she had to let him go.
After a moment, she did, and he shook hands with James, who stood stiffly, fighting his urge to fight as Henry let go and stepped past him, opening the door.
“I’m here. Stand your people down. I’ll make the arrangements you want.”
“We’ll need your account numbers.” She caught a glimpse of Al, his black rumply hair and flat eyes and weasel face, and hated him more with every second as Henry turned to walk off with him. “You behave and give us everything we need, and I’ll drop you off down the road. It’ll be a cold walk back, but you’ll live.”
“I understand. I don’t plan to cause any trouble.”
It took everything she had not to run after them. Everything. She sobbed, knees going weak, and James caught her by the shoulder and pulled her aside and against his chest.
“We have to trust him, baby,” he whispered against her hair, and she buried her face against his shirt and shivered while the snowcats started up and then slowly rumbled away.
She started pulling toward the disappearing snowcats, thinking
Henry,
and James set the shotgun down and held her back silently until she gave up and stood trembling in his arms. It was possible that an hour from now Henry would come stumbling back down the road, chilled through and broke but very much alive. She hated to rely on a maybe to keep herself from falling apart, but it was what she had for now. Maybe she would see him again.
James gently let her go and put his hand back on her shoulder. “He had a job for us to do.”
The envelopes. They went back upstairs to Henry’s suite, where Anna found them tucked into the single desk drawer. They each had one addressed to them, and she tore hers open hastily.
Anna
There’s no life that ends without unfinished business. Or regrets.
I don’t know how long I have, so I put this in a letter to leave you with less unfinished business if I should go suddenly.
I have been in love with you since I met you and I know it was the same with you. I had to force myself not to be with you, because I knew what was coming for me. I’m luckier than some of the men in my family. I made it well past thirty. The thing was that I never wanted to leave a woman the way my mother and aunt were both left--as young widows. The pain they went through broke my heart. So, I tried to always keep things casual with women. But you got in, in spite of that. I didn’t know what to do, and I was stupid about it. I hurt you, and it was what I had always been trying to avoid. I hope that when you remember me, you think of the good times we had and the good we did, and not about that.
I want you to go with James. He’s a good man and he’s loved you just as long as I have. He will take care of you when I can’t. I’ve just made sure that he has the means to do so without ever having to struggle again.
You both have a lot of work ahead of you, and I’m not sorry to leave it in your hands. I can’t think of better. I know you will keep my work up when I’m gone. My lawyer’s card is enclosed. Call her for details as soon as you can.
Please keep Monty. I can’t stand the idea of his going to a shelter.
With all my love,
Henry
She sat back, tears flowing freely down her cheeks as she struggled with her anguish. The sound of the motors died away entirely outside. They were safe, thanks to Henry...Henry, who was prepared to face death to protect them.
She heard a choking sound from the corner where James had retreated to read his own letter. He was rubbing his face, his eyes wide and alarmingly wet. “...aw Hell,” he gasped out softly, blinking several times. The letter dropped from his suddenly limp fingers.
Alarmed, she went to him, and he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight, his whole body shaking. “Those papers he had us sign.” he muttered breathlessly. “That’s why they can’t get his holdings no matter what they do. He already gave them all to us.”