Foster's

Robbery 3

Mac Dalton was the newest hire on the Robbery Homicide unit. He had been promoted to detective less than six months ago and then shortly after he also got his transfer to Robbery Homicide, beating out several detectives with more seniority for the job, on merit alone. It was a big deal, and because he was so green he wasn't really being taken seriously. This was his first case on his own and he was desperate to prove himself.

But already things were turning out weird.

For starters the robbers had not fled the scene, but apparently had chosen to lock themselves in the safe. There was one casualty, a robber. No one could tell him what happened but it looked like the man had been ripped in half.

There was one person in the bank covered in blood, the dead guy's blood and that was the bank manager. She was clearly close enough to the man when it happened to get blood splatter across her shirt and face but she said she had no idea what happened.

How was that possible?

She said the lights went out, everyone started screaming and the robbers started shooting at shadows and then locked themselves in the safe.

She had simply said that she hit the ground as they shot at anything and everything and just waited for it to be done.

The officers that responded to their 911 call had gotten the robbers out of the safe and they were all shrieking about some sort of faceless monster that had come out of the shadows to attack them.

But none of the tellers had seen anything and neither had the bank manager.

"Okay, so let's try this again," Dalton said.

They were sitting in the Bank Manager's office. She was attempting to start on the paperwork to report what happened, and fielding calls from corporate.

He was being patient with her, but he needed her to answer his questions. She was being evasive, and he was starting to think she was hiding behind the paperwork so she wouldn't have to talk to him.

She was the only one in the back when that one robber bit the dust, she had blood on her from the splatter, she kept saying she didn't know anything but it was clear she was hiding something.

"I don't know what you want to go over this again for," she said but she sighed and put her paperwork down. "But alright, let's do this again."

"So you were on your lunchbreak when the robbers came in, correct?"

"Yes, Christina and I were in the back staff room, we heard the cries and... well... I'm the bank manager. So I had to go out there, I couldn't just leave my tellers like that."

"This particular crew usually just emptied the tills and left. They're more a smash and grab what they can, kind of crew. So why did they choose to go for the safe today?"

"Christina suggested I open the safe for them. Told them I had the codes to get them in," she said and he wrote that down right away. That was strange, a teller just suggesting to the robbers to go for the safe. Why would she do that to her manager, especially someone who was supposed to be her friend?

"Is that regular procedure?"

"No. I'm guessing she cracked under pressure."

Dalton had already talked to Christina Blythe before she had been sent home for the day. She had said nothing about how the safe was her idea, or that she had told them that the Bank Manager could get them in.

She had been crying the whole time, but Dalton got the impression that she was crying fake tears. He didn't want to call her out on it, though, in case he was wrong.

"So, you took the one guy into the back, opened up the safe for him..."

"I know that's not procedure, and I'll probably get in trouble for it... but he had a gun."

"Why would you? That man would have killed you if you disobeyed. Your bosses honestly can't say they'd rather you be dead then they loose money that is no doubt insured."

She shrugged. "You'd think."

Dalton shook his head. And he thought his workplace was cutthroat.

"And then your friend, Miss. Blythe, pulled the fire alarm because she couldn't get to the silent alarm. She was worried that they were going to hurt you..."

He now had all of Angelica's attention. Her head fairly whipped up from the paperwork she was trying to fill out.

"Hi, sorry, dial back, Christina did what?"

"She pulled the fire alarm..."

Her eyes narrowed. "Interesting..." she murmured in drawn out way.

"Why is that interesting?"

Angelica wasn't paying attention to him though, her eyes were still narrowed as she stared off into space. She was no doubt thinking but he couldn't figure out what she was thinking about.

Eventually her eyes focused in on him again and a warm smile donned her lips.

"Nothing, that's just not procedure," she said. "I suppose she thought she was helping. If that is all?"

"Uh... no, after the alarm started what happened?"

"Horse-face-mcgee wasn't happy. He was going to shoot me, so I took cover to avoid any bullets he might have shot at me..."

He had told her the man's name, but Angelica refused to call him anything accept mask-related nicknames.

"And did he knock you down or did you fall?"

Angelica blinked her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"You have a foot print on your chest, Miss. Foster," he said. Immediately her eyes went down to her chest as if just noticing the footprint herself. "He was holding you down. You had to be on the floor for that."

She blinked those eyes again and then sort of chuckled. "Yes, you're right, I did fall. He was holding me down and then the lights went and after that I couldn't really see anything..."

"Right..."

"I think I've answered your questions sufficiently," she said. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to be up to my eyeballs in paperwork. You have my number feel free to call me if you have any other questions."

Dalton probably shouldn't have let her call the shots, but she was right he didn't have any other questions.

So he left the bank, went back to the station to question the remaining robbers. They all said the same thing, that the girl had been no where near them when the monster showed up, in fact they had left her outside the safe with it.

They all had the same description of this formless creature with no face and an inhumane strength. It was strange that they had the exact same story, but with the power cut the cameras had caught nothing.

Angelica Foster couldn't have ripped that robber in half, clearly, and the others were clear that she had been no where near them when it showed up.

It looked like he had nothing to peg this on Angelica, and while he was certain that she knew more than she was letting on, he had no idea what she could be hiding.

Certainly not a faceless monster.