Robbery In Progress

*Kelsey*

When we arrived outside the bank it was so busy that I don't even think anyone noticed that we showed up together. Just like last time, and all the times before that, the security cameras were offline. Whoever these guys were, they knew what they were doing. I truly couldn't understand why they were starting to get caught. Maybe Emma was right, maybe this is a cry for help.

"I'm going to call in and make contact," Emma announced as she pulled out her phone. "Anyone know the number for this bank?"

Matty, who always seemed to show up at crime scenes before me, handed her the number scribbled down on a piece of paper, "good ole Google Maps gave me that. No one has tried it yet, we were waiting for you." Emma mumbled her thanks and started dialing. In the meantime, Matty turned towards me. "Weren't you wearing that yesterday?" He asked with a knowing smile on his face.

"I'm...recycling," I replied casually. Or as casually as I could muster under his intent stare.

"And it's just a coincidence that you and Emma showed up at the exact same time?" We both knew he had me but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction so I nodded.

In all honesty, I wasn't sure what to do about what had happened last night. She kissed me, and we had fun watching the show. Sleeping next to her all night, even on a couch, was a big plus too. Which I'm pretty sure is forever burned into my brain now, but we hadn't had time to discuss what that even was. Not that I would know what to say, I was positive she was still getting over her dead fiance and I wasn't really in a place to deal with a relationship right now. My life was so complicated these days.

"Yep, a total coincidence. I think it's just because we live in the same area," that reason hadn't really occurred to me before but it sounded plausible enough. Once Emma's phone started to ring she put it on speaker for us and motioned for everyone to be quiet.

"Emma, is that you?" The familiar voice asked once they picked up. *That must be Joe.* We still weren't totally sure if Joe was his real name but it was all we had to go on.

"Hi Joe. It's me alright. Wanna tell me what's going on in there? I can't seem to see for myself." The fact that she could have such a rapport with murders was still beyond me, but I guess that's why she was the negotiator and I was the detective.

"There's not that much to see, I wouldn't stress about it too hard," his words were teasing. He was obviously picking up what Emma was putting down. But there was a stressed tone beneath his words. It could easily be attributed to the fact that they were in the middle of robbing a bank and the police showed up, but that just didn't seem to fit the story for me. Something more was definitely going on here.

"I find that hard to believe. It would be interesting for me to see you. You know so much of communication is non-verbal. I just don't want to rob ourselves of that." Her face was all serious as she talked with him, but she did have a knack for sounding so calm and welcoming. Like they had all the time in the world. There was a long pause before he responded back to her, and his teasing words were gone. The game was over for him.

"I'm sorry I can't do that. Look, I think we both know how this is going to go down." His tone was so matter of fact but there was so much he wasn't saying. And we could all tell he wanted to say it. "Okay, how is this going to go down, Joe?" Emma asked him, her interest was piqued, I could tell. Hell, mine was too.

"You call in, we have a little chat where you ask me for things we both know I'm not going to be able to give. Then I'm going to make demands that we both know you aren't going to be able to fulfill. And while you're out there, stalling and saying you're working on it, we're going to be in here finishing up the job and disappearing." I raised my eyebrows at that, it seemed to take Emma by surprise as well.

"You just have it all worked out, don't you?" Emma leaned down to write something on a notepad that was sitting on the table as she responded to him. I leaned over to read what she was writing: "professionally trained" and "cop". Well that was certainly a big turn of events. What was a cop doing robbing banks in New York?

"We don't want anyone getting hurt, you know." *That's an odd thing for a murderer to say,* I thought to myself.

"Can you tell me what happened with that security guard a few weeks ago?"

There was a long pause again before he answered, almost as if he might be checking his surroundings before answering. Of course, I couldn't be sure since I can't see him. But I would bet anything that's what he was doing.

"I didn't mean for that to happen. Things got out of hand. I tried to stop him." *Okay, so not our murderer. Interesting.*

"You know that even though you didn't pull the trigger, you were committing a felony when he died." That wasn't a question but a statement.

"I do. I wish I could explain more but we have already been on the phone too long." His voice turned hard as he finished. "You have two hours to get us a chopper." With that he hung up. Emma set down her phone and rubbed her temples. "We thought they were professional criminals, but we were wrong. I mean, we were a little wrong, the other members could still be professional criminals. But this guy? Joe? He knows negotiation protocol. I don't think he's doing this because he wants to. I think he's doing this because he has to." *Emma*

I knew something was off about this case right from the beginning. And my suspicions were only confirmed when Joe had called me after they left the bank. But it wasn't until this robbery that I had a better idea of *what* was off. And even though there were still a ton of Joe's in law enforcement, that would definitely narrow it down.

I sent that bit of information back to Drew and the team since they were doing all the background research for this case. Our crime scene investigators were still not able to help out, even with paying extra to put a rush on the case they were still wicked busy. Although, I wasn't sure there would be anything for them to turn up now that we had all this new information.

"We really need to figure out how they are escaping and who these guys are otherwise this cycle will never end. I asked my team to narrow the search on Joe's from Boston, to Joe's from Boston that have a background in law enforcement. It's still a long shot but hopefully it'll help us get an idea of what we are dealing with."

"Do you think he's still in law enforcement? Or maybe he's retired? I can't pin down an age through his voice," it was Matty that spoke up. I thought about his question for a minute before answering. It was always hard to know for sure, especially with such little information.

"I would guess that he's no longer on the force but I don't know how they parted ways. Since he's robbing banks, that could mean he was fired or had some similar negative ending to his career. But he doesn't seem to be too thrilled about everything which makes me think he left honorably and was possibly recruited because of his experience. As for an age...he's on the older side. I don't think I could say more than that for sure without more information." Kelsey jumped in now, "and we still have zero information on the other two. That is, if there are two others. That still isn't totally confirmed."

"Yeah, the only thing we've heard about from someone other than Joe is one of his partners, who's male apparently, is the one that shot the security officer that died a few weeks ago. Could this be just two people?" I asked. I was more thinking out loud than anything but if someone had an answer I was happy to listen.

"I don't think so. Eye witness reports said there was a woman with them. And if it was a guy that shot the guard, we're missing someone. It has to be three at least." Kelsey had a good point. They did mention a woman. But what was her role? She wasn't answering the phone, and she obviously wasn't the muscle. It just didn't add up.

"That's right. Maybe she's the one getting the money out of the vault? I don't know. I'm going to call in again, see what we can find out." I pulled out my phone and redialed the bank. It rang three times before someone picked up.

"Emma," Joe said in greeting.

I sighed, "Joe."

"You get that chopper yet?" He asked.

"You know I haven't," I replied. I heard what almost sounded like a chuckle on the other side of the line.

"That I do," he agreed. "So what are you calling for if not to tell me you've found a chopper?"

"You know the drill, I gotta ask if you'll release some hostages in good faith. Show my bosses that you're willing to cooperate." While I was already sure that he had negotiation training, I still wanted to test it.

"A stalling method. And a check in to boot. Making sure we are still here, which we are. But we won't be for long. And you won't try anything because we've already established that guns will go off if we're cornered and you can't risk any lives." "You know, Joe. If you weren't out here robbing banks, I imagine we would have been friends. Maybe even worked together."

"Ah, but aren't you everyone's friend? That is the job of a negotiator, is it not?" This guy was trained alright, no doubt about it. I shook my head as a smile swept across my face. I was doing that more often these days, it was kind of nice actually, the smiling.

"It is," I agreed. Whoever this guy was, he was good. I bet this guy has medals named after him or something equally ridiculous.

"It's time for me to go now, Emma."

"Any chance you'll let me know where you're going? Or how you are getting out of there?"

"You know I can't do that. But we will meet again, that I can guarantee." With that, the line went dead and out came the hostages. Again.