Damek didn’t waste any time, or any words. He went over everything with Kline, told him what had happened right from the start. He was thorough, yet succinct. Kline had heard all of it before. He had a good memory, and he didn’t think he’d missed anything from their research on Sabrina. Still, when Damek finished, he began asking questions.
“You had her scared into doing what you wanted, right?” Kline asked.
The man held up his hands. “Yeah, sure.” His accent was still heavier than usual. “She seemed interested in the money I offered, but maybe not enough to help. We knew about her and her boyfriend, and that loosened her lips. Later, when I wanted to meet her again, she tried to get out of it, so I told her we’d go after her mother and younger brother. That seemed to convince her.”
“She was truly scared, not playing you?”
Damek narrowed his eyes. “You know me. I can’t be fooled like that.”
“She wouldn’t have gone to the police? Maybe once you approached her, she worked with them, telling them what you were planning?”
“No way. I was watching her, and so was one of my men. That woman was scared into doing what we wanted.” He held up a hand. “How about telling me what’s going on.”
Kline studied him, making sure Damek wasn’t fooling him. The man seemed genuinely surprised by the questions, which Kline thought meant he hadn’t had more contact with Sabrina since the robbery. He didn’t seem to know what was going on. Kline looked past him to the sun, then spoke.
“She went to the police.”
“What?”
He nodded. “Thursday, and I haven’t seen her since.”
Damek started pacing, cursing with each step. He said something in another language before addressing Kline again. “Man, you gotta believe me. It was all good. I had her scared. I don’t know what happened. You’re sure she went to the police, not that they questioned her at the bank, got her talking?”
Kline shook his head. “They talked to her that day, like they talked to everybody after the robbery. She went home, and from what I’ve gathered, nothing was unusual until Thursday morning, when she met with another woman. Then Sabrina went to the police and talked. I don’t know what she told them, though.”
“Nobody’s come to me or my men. They haven’t discovered us.”
“When you were planning things, you watched her, right? She didn’t talk to anybody else, didn’t go to the police then?”
“We tailed her, and no, she didn’t go to the police. When I met with her again, I asked her if she talked to them, and she denied it.”
“You believed her?” Kline asked, even though he knew the answer.
“Of course. We wouldn’t have worked with her if I was suspicious.”
“Any idea where she might’ve gone after she talked to them on Thursday?”
“You checked with her friends?”
“Yes.”
Kline’s people had already talked with the friends they knew about, and none of them had any idea where she was. His people were still working on that angle, and Kline was confident they would find Sabrina. He only wished it would happen faster. Kline drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Tell me what Sabrina was like during the robbery,” he said.
“I wasn’t paying that much attention to the people, but she acted scared, just like everyone else.”
“What happened with Rico?”
Damek grunted. “I told you before, he was trying to play the superhero, and my man hit him once. It was no big deal.”
“Any chance he and Sabrina talked, or that she told anyone else about her involvement with you?”
“No.” Damek scrunched up his face, thinking. Then he shook his head emphatically. “No way. She did a pretty good job of acting scared, but she wasn’t running her mouth. At least when I was around the hostages.”
“Who else did she interact with?” Kline asked.
Damek stared at the sky as if picturing the scene. “Nobody that I saw.”
“Was anyone else acting odd?”
“Nothing like that, but another woman tried to talk to one of my guys. She said he didn’t want to get anyone hurt, and my guy told her to shut up.”
“Did he describe her?”
Damek took a second, then said, “Longer hair, lighter-colored, like blond.”
“Tall or short? Fat or thin? Eye color?”
Damek snickered. “Hell, I don’t know what color her eyes were. I was too focused elsewhere. But she was thinner, and looked fit.” He thought some more. “She seemed calm throughout the robbery, though. One of my guys said she tried to help after he hit Rico, and he told her to shut up again.”
Kline thought about his description of the woman. Was this the same woman Sabrina’s neighbor had seen the morning she’d gone to the police? He couldn’t be sure, and he kept peppering Damek with questions, trying to get more information about the woman.
The man finally threw up his hands. “Man, I know you want me to tell you more, but I can’t. You know how a bank robbery goes. There’s a lot of running around, everything happening fast. We had to make sure we did everything right.”
Technically, Kline didn’t know how one went. He’d committed a lot of crimes, but a robbery and hostage-taking at a bank wasn’t among them. He got the gist of what Damek was saying, though. And he had paid the man more for his expertise in the robbery then for attention to every detail of the hostages.
“You’re sure you didn’t miss anything else at the bank? No one else acted suspiciously, as if they knew something they shouldn’t have, or that Sabrina was involved?”
