Prince of Thieves Read Online Free

looked at the open vault door behind Dino, its round piston locks disengaged. Two techs in jumpsuits and bootees were going over the inside walls with blue lasers. Print dust on the outer door showed a beautiful handprint over the dial, but small, likely the manager's. "Morning Glory?"
     
     
"Morning Glory and a Jack-in-the-Box. Worked a bypass and busted in overnight. Phones here are all dead. BayBanks central security tried a callback on the silent and got no answer, dispatched the patrolman. Security chief's on his way over with the codes and specs, but I'm figuring two hard lines and a cellular backup. They tricked out the cell and one of the Nynex lines."
     
     
"Only one?"
     
     
"Waiting on a Nynex truck to confirm. I'm guessing the vault is hardwired, bank-to-station, same as the teller panics. Our guys let the time lock expire and had the manager open sesame."
     
     
"Under duress."
     
     
"That is my understanding."
     
     
Frawley jotted this down. "Easier than humping in SLICE packs and oxy tanks and burning through the vault walls."
     
     
Dino shrugged his pointy shoulders. "Whether they could have jumped the vault bell or not."
     
     
Frawley considered that. "Neutralizing the vault might have tipped their hand too much."
     
     
"Though with some of these guys-- you know it-- burglary is pussy."
     
     
Frawley nodded. "It's not a payday unless they're robbing someone face-to-face."
     
     
"Bottom line is, they know phone lines and Baby Bell tech."
     
     
Frawley nodded, surveying the fouled bank from the perspective of teller station number two, his cop eyes starting to sting. "These are the same guys, Dino."
     
     
"Throwing us curveballs now. Look at this."
     
     
    * * *
THE TREND IN "COMMUNITY BANKING" was to feature the branch manager's office up front, prominent behind glass walls, playing up accessibility and putting a friendly, local face on a corporation that charges you fees for the privilege of handing you back your own money. Kenmore Square was a prime location-- high foot traffic with the student population, the nightclubs, the nearby ballpark-- but the space itself was an odd fit for a bank, deeper than it was wide, owing to the ending curve of the road. The manager's office was tucked away behind the tellers, along the back hallway near the break room and bathrooms.
     
     
A police photographer was inside, his flash throwing shadows off the chunk of ceiling concrete atop the desk. It had crushed a telephone and a computer monitor, cords and keyboard dangling to the floor like entrails. Neatly sheared rebar and steel mesh lay among rubble of plaster, ceiling corkboard, concrete dust, and mottled gray chips.
     
     
Frawley looked up at the layers of flooring visible in the square ceiling hole, seeing an eye chart above an examining-room sink. The robbers had broken into the second-floor optometry shop and cut through overnight. This was the hidden cost of doing business in an older city like Boston, and why banks preferred to open branches in freestanding buildings.
     
     
A red helmet appeared in the hole, a fireman doing a pretend startle. "Thought you guys were bank robbers!"
     
     
Dino nodded upward with a smile. "Off your break already, Spack?"
     
     
He said it old-city style, Spack instead of Spark . Dino could turn the hometown accent on and off like charm.
     
     
"Just getting my eyes checked. This your whiz kid?"
     
     
"Special Agent Frawley, meet Captain Jimmy here."
     
     
Frawley waved at the ceiling with his free hand.
     
     
"A perfect square, two by two," said Captain Jimmy. "Nice work."
     
     
Dino nodded. "If you can get it."
     
     
"Hope you two catch these geniuses before the cancer does." He pointed down through the hole. "Those gray chips there, that's asbestos."
     
     
Frawley said, "Any tools up top?"
     
     
"Nope. Nothing."
     
     
Frawley eyed the smooth cut, turned to Dino. "Industrial concrete saw."
     
     
"Yeah, and a torch for the rebar.