"Are you a doctor?" asked the boy, watching me intently.
"No. Are you?" I asked.
"No," he said. "I'm seven."
"You're very brave for a seven-year-old. What's your secret?"
He thought about it. "I guess it doesn't make sense not to be."
I nodded. "That's pretty smart thinking."
"She's a nurse," said his mom. "The lady said so, remember?"
"That was a lie," I told them, shrugging. "I figured they wouldn't check."
The little boy glanced at the man and screwed his face up in thought. "That seems like an okay lie," he decided. "Is he gonna die?" he asked, watching the cop more intently now.
"No," said the cop. "It's just going to suck for a while. I'm Officer Andersen."
"I'm Jake," said the boy.
"I'm exhausted," said his mom.
"I'm going to check on those doors," said the security guard. "I don't know why they aren't opening."
"Is there a safety measure in place that locks them?" I asked.
"Yeah, when the security alarm is pressed. One of the tellers must have done that," he said. "There aren't many people who can reset it. The bank manager being just one of them." He winced and I knew what he was thinking. Was the bank manager dead? No one emerged through the internal doors since the explosion and I saw no reason for them to kidnap him if they already got what they came for. I glanced over at the tellers again. My bag of cash remained exactly where I left it. I couldn't understand why they didn't grab it. Ten thousand dollars in untraceable bills was a lot of money.
"They closed the big wooden doors too," said Jake. "I never saw them closed before. Right, Mom?"
"Right, honey," agreed his mom.
We all glanced over in time to see the heavy wooden doors pushed open, and several uniformed officers crowded through, their weapons drawn. The crowd didn't stop hammering at the glass doors until they finally opened. Instead of allowing them to spill out onto the sidewalk, the officers herded the group backwards into a corner of the bank, making them sit with their hands on top of their heads. The police officers fanned out but I already knew they wouldn't find anyone.
"We need help over here," I called out. "The bank robbers are gone. Those people are innocent bystanders."
The nearest officer squinted at me. "Lexi?" she asked.
"Hi, Tara!" I grinned, relieved to see a familiar face.
My cousin, recently returned to Montgomery from several years on the force in Chicago, holstered her weapon and jogged over to us. She clicked the radio at her chest and instructed the EMTs to enter. Within minutes, the bank was flooded with police officers and a pair of paramedics rushed in with a gurney and their huge medical bags. The EMTs took over from me and I rocked back on my heels, wiping my bloodied hands on my yoga pants.
"That's a lot of blood," said Jake, looking very worried now.
"It looks like more than it really is," I told him. "I know it appears scary but it's okay."
"Okay," he said, nodding but still visibly skeptical.
"Are you hurt, ma'am?" one of the EMTs asked me. I shook my head and assured her I was fine but she insisted on waving a light in my eyes and checking my pulse until I shooed her away.
"She's over here," I heard Tara say before I separated from Jake and his mom in the whirlwind of my brothers’ arrival. All of them asked to know what happened and checked me over for any obvious signs of injury.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," I told them a dozen times.
"That's a lot of blood. Are you sure you're not injured?" asked Garrett, my oldest brother and most senior police officer.
"Positive."
"It could be the adrenaline," said Daniel, my middle brother and Alice's husband. "I thought you were at the hospital with Alice?"
"I was and I came here on the way home." I pointed to the cash bag. "I had to make a deposit. They didn't take it."
"Who didn’t?" demanded Jord. He went to hug me, then stopped, pointing to my bloodied hands and clothes while shaking his head. He settled for a pat on my shoulder. I didn't blame him. Lily would freak if Jord arrived home with blood stains and he told her they came from me. On the other hand, she would be instantly at my door with pizza, ice cream, and a bottle of wine faster than I could order it through an app. I considered throwing myself at him before I decided I didn't want to pay for his dry-cleaning bill.
"The bank robbers. Six of them. They came in just after I did but here's the weird thing, no one demanded any money. They told the tellers not to press the security buzzer but they didn't tell them to empty the contents of any of the registers. They didn't even grab the bag of cash I left on the side. Isn't that weird?"
"It is," agreed Garrett. He turned his head and spoke softly to Daniel. Daniel nodded and took off.
"Speaking of the cash, can I get it back now?" I asked, pointing to the bag. I didn't want to leave it there unattended too long just in case someone decided to help themselves. That much cash could tempt anyone.
"Go grab it for Lexi," said Garrett to Jord. Jord jogged to the tellers, grabbed the bag, and jogged back, handing it to me. "You're lucky you asked. One of us might have bagged it as evidence, which could have doomed it to the evidence locker for months. So, if they didn't demand the money, what did they want?"
"I barely got to the teller's window when I heard a gunshot and someone shouting. We all hit the floor and they herded us into the middle and told us to lie flat," I replied, "but I snuck a quick look when I could. I'm not sure what they were doing when Officer Andersen started shooting."
"What in hell possessed him to do that?"
"One of the bank robbers was supposed to check everyone for weapons but Officer Andersen still had his gun and the security guard also carried a backup piece. Officer Andersen suddenly decided to the two of them could take down the robbers."
"That was dumb," said Garrett. He, Jord and I all looked at Officer Andersen now sitting on a gurney as the EMTs strapped him securely. He was talking and nodding to the various police officers who interrogated him.
"The security guard thought so too but instead of realizing the odds were against them and lying low, Andersen yelled Police! before he started shooting. I don't think he actually hit anyone," I explained.
"He took a bullet for all his trouble," said Jord.
"Yeah, and the guy the other robbers deferred to, who was probably the boss, warned us the next shot would be fatal. Then he got pissed at one of the other guys for not checking them better for weapons. He took Andersen's gun and the security guard's before he demanded who the bank manager was."
"He didn't know who it was?" asked Garrett.
I shook my head. "It didn't appear that he did. He threatened to start shooting people until the bank manager identified himself. They took him through that door," I added, pointing.
"Did they bring him back?" Garrett glanced at the small crowd the police successfully managed to corral on one side of the bank.