The American Café

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153 23 The next morning as Sadie turned right onto Third Street she could see Lance sitting in his police car in front of the bank. She parked beside him and got out, favoring her injured knee. “You still here?” she teased. “Hey, I’ve not only changed clothes since I saw you last night, I’ve had a shower.” Sadie playfully sniffed the air. “I’m glad,” she said as they walked toward the bank. Before they had time to enter, a blue generic-looking sedan drove up and parked on the other side of Sadie’s Explorer. It was Timothy Walker. Walker jumped out of his car and greeted the duo at the front door carrying his sport coat in one hand while he rolled down his long sleeves with the other. “Good morning,” he said. “The home office thought I’d better help out here today.” Sadie thought the young vice-president looked entirely too corporate in his button-down shirt and polished leather loafers. “That sounds great to me. Does that mean I can go home now?” “No, I’d appreciate it if you could stay at least through today. I will need to get back to Sycamore as soon as I’ve written up a report for the security department on last night’s, uh, situation.” Sadie turned her key in the deadbolt and entered the bank with Lance and Walker close behind. Lance immediately began to search the building. Walker headed for the restroom. About halfway across the lobby Sadie realized the air was void of the shrill beeping of the motion detector. She continued on to the keypad and studied it. The steady green light meant the alarm had not been turned on. “Uh, Mr. Walker, did you set the alarm on the motion sensors last night?” 154 When no one answered, she turned around and realized she was alone. Her heart jumped as she limped to the front window, opened the blinds, and looked for Polly. The teller was nowhere in sight. Walker came out of the restroom, adjusting his belt. “Mr. Walker, did you activate the motion detectors last night?” Lance rounded the freestanding partition. “The building is clear, Sadie.” “Thanks, Lance,” she said. “The alarm wasn’t turned on.” Walker spoke up. “I guess that’s my fault. I thought I had it set last night before I left, but I guess it was operator failure. I’m glad you had a police officer here to check the place out this morning.” “Yeah, me too,” said Sadie. “No problem,” said Lance. “Once you get situated, Sadie, just call the office and I’ll come back and take your statement. If I’m not in, Maggie can get me on the radio. I’ll check on you about closing time.” Sadie nodded as Lance left. By then, Polly was making her way up the steps. She brushed through the front door and walked past Sadie. “Good morning,” said Sadie. “Yeah, whatever,” replied Polly. “I can’t believe you got locked in the vault. I didn’t get any sleep last night with all the commotion going on.” As she moved toward her teller station, she saw Walker and stopped short. “This is Mr. Walker from the Sycamore Springs branch,” said Sadie as she relocked the front door. “I guess you had already gone by the time he got here last night.” Walker acknowledged Polly with a nod. Polly’s pale face flushed to a warm pink. “Oh, I guess so.” She put her purse down and went straight to work. The morning flew by. Walker worked on his laptop computer at an empty desk, and Polly made herself look busy doing nothing. Sadie downloaded and printed Tom’s reports, then gathered yesterday’s reports from the vault and proceeded to put everything in order for the absent manager. When Walker finished typing his five-page report, he asked Sadie to read it. She did and made a few suggestions, which he readily accepted. A few customers stopped in. Some transacted business, others came for a cup of coffee, curious about all the activity that had taken place overnight. Shortly before noon, Chief George Stump stopped by and struck up a conversation with Walker. They made small talk for a while, then Sadie 155 heard Stump asking about the night before and whether anything was missing. She sat up straight...