“I held her wrist multiple times, and I could feel her pulse. It was steady. Not what you’d expect from someone who was that frightened.”

He rubbed his chin with an audible scratching sound. “Anything else about her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m on the wrong track, but her behavior might’ve been over the top. Like she was acting.”

He jotted down more notes, then went over everything with her again. She couldn’t tell if he thought anything of her perception of Sabrina. He finally finished, and he gathered up his notes and files.

“I appreciate your talking to me. This is an ongoing investigation, and I do need you to stay in town.”

“Of course.”

“Did you have a car parked near the bank?”

Jo shook her head. “I walked from my hotel.” She gave him the location.

He arced an eyebrow. “That’s a long walk.”

She shrugged. “It was a beautiful morning.” At least until everything happened at the bank.

“I’ll have an officer drive you wherever you want,” he offered.

“My hotel.”

He stood up. “Wait here, and I’ll get someone.”

“What about my phone and license, and my other stuff?”

“I’ll return everything to you before you go.”

With that, he left her alone in the room, where she continued to run over everything that had happened that morning.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Kline waited at a parking garage off Forest Lane, in northern Dallas, a several-minute drive from National Bank. He was a brawny man, with big hands that had done a lot of damage over the years. He was parked on an upper level, where he had a view of the downtown skyscrapers to the south. The Bank of America Plaza stood tallest, dwarfing the nearby Renaissance Tower. Kline liked Fountain Place, a fifty-eight story prism that defined the city skyline. He remembered seeing the building on reruns of Dallas, and when Kline moved to Texas, one of the first things he’d done was walk all the way around it. Now, after several years of living in Texas, he didn’t pay much attention to the skyscrapers. Too much else to do.

A warm breeze blew, but he was in the shade. No one was parked on level four of the parking garage, and no one would leave their car on the rooftop, even though it wasn’t hot yet. There were no surveillances cameras anywhere in the parking garage, and no one to know he was there. Kline looked around anyway, then checked his expensive watch. Ten minutes late. He wasn’t worried, though. The men he’d hired were experts, and he’d vetted them well. That was what money could buy you. If anything had gone wrong, he would’ve heard about it.

Kline leaned against an unremarkable brown sedan—license plate registered to a fake offshore business—and stared at the empty parking places. He barely noticed the hum of U.S Highway 75 in the distance, his mind on the last twenty-four hours. So far, his plans had worked to perfection. Which was good, because there was no room for failure.

Finally, the sound of a car engine approached. An older-model Chevy sedan turned the corner and drove up the ramp, then parked two spaces down from Kline’s vehicle. A man with closely cropped dark hair, steely eyes, and a big nose got out. He wore faded jeans and a white shirt, as well as a pair of tennis shoes. He looked like any number of people you’d see on the streets or in the nearby stores.

Kline smoothed his own hair, short and blond. “How did it go?” His voice was cool, void of any emotion.

“Your intelligence was flawless,” the man replied, gravelly and with the hint of an accent.

Kline studied him. “But?” He could tell something wasn’t quite right.

The man shrugged. “One of the employees pushed back a little.”

Kline took a couple of steps forward. “How?”

“We had them in a storage room, and the guy started acting tough. One of my guys had to hit him, show him who was boss.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Was he hurt? Did he have to go to the hospital?”

The man shook his head. “Nothing like that. My guy said he couldn’t breathe for a moment. He’ll probably have a bruise.” A slight smile rippled across his face.

“You better hope nothing happened to him,” Kline said. “That could make things bad for you.”

The smile vanished. “Don’t worry. No one will be able to trace the robbery back to us.”

“To you.” Kline was sure the man he’d hired would never be a threat to him. The man didn’t even know Kline’s name, knew nothing about him. The other two had never met Kline, and it would stay that way. Kline knew what he was doing. He was better than good. “Who else was in the bank?”

“Three customers.”

“Did you recognize any of them?”

“No, and no issues there.”

“And the stuff?” Kline asked.

The man moved to the trunk of his car and opened it. Inside was a bulky black bag. “We got everything you told us to,” he said.

“No traces left behind?” Kline asked.

The man shook his head. “I know how to do this, and we were good. The black clothes have already been burned, and one of my associates is heading south with the stolen vehicle. It’ll be discarded where no one will find it.”

“No one saw you in the tunnel systems?”

The man let out a tiny sigh, as if he didn’t like being questioned like this. “I’m telling you, everything went well. You have nothing to worry about.”

Kline couldn’t take a chance; he had to be careful. “For what I paid, that better be the case.”

“You have nothing to worry about,” the man repeated. Then he unzipped the black bag. “It’s all there.”

Kline walked over and looked into the bag. There was a drill and some other tools, papers and file folders, and small pouches he assumed held diamonds, gold, jewelry, and other valuables. The important things that people kept in their safety deposit boxes.

“You have a bag for your stuff?”

“Sure,” the man said.

He reached into the trunk and opened a similar black bag. Kline stepped forward and threw a few things into the second bag. Then he zipped it up and stepped back.

“Dispose of the rest as you wish, but be careful,” Kline said. “If you make a mistake, the police will be after you.”

The man zipped up the other bag and closed the trunk, the sound echoing in the garage. He turned around, eyes narrowed. “I know how to fence this stuff,” he said. “But we’ll wait several months before we sell anything.”

Kline nodded. “Your last payment will arrive in a month, after we’re certain there haven’t been complications.”