Page 52 of Bruised MC Bear

24

Axe

“Brings back memories, doesn’t it?” Axe asked, climbed out of the driver seat. He looked down the sleepy main street of their hometown from all those years ago. “Hardly anything’s changed.”

Nancy stepped outside and smoothed out her suit jacket. “I’m surprised this place isn’t a ghost town by now.”

They strode toward the front entrance of Costa Verde Savings and Loans. “This bank’s probably the only thing keeping it alive.”

“I just hope this key is enough to get us access,” Nancy muttered as they entered. “We don’t even know whose name the box is in. If there’s still a box.”

“We’ll find out.” Axe looked around the stylish, modern interior of the bank. He glanced down at his leather cut, t-shirt and jeans, then he checked what his sister wore. Nancy fit right in here. He, not so much.

“Good morning. How can I help you?” one of the tellers greeted them from behind the security glass at her station.

Axe cleared his throat, aware of how out of place he looked, but didn’t give a damn at this point. “We’re here about a safety deposit box one of our parents owned.”

The teller nodded. “May I see the key?”

“Sure,” Nancy answered, taking it from the side pocket of her purse. She passed it through the opening in the security glass.

“And what are your parents’ names?”

“Natalie and Alain Voltaire,” Nancy told them. “I’ll write it down as their names have a French spelling.”

“Thank you. I’ll check for you.”

The teller took the key and written names to a coworker sitting at his desk in an inner office. After a brief chat, the man checked something on his computer, then nodded to the teller.

She returned to them with a smile on her face. “If you’ll both just show me a piece of identification confirming that you are Nancy Voltaire and Alexander Voltaire, I’d be happy to take you to open the box.” The teller accepted their driver's licenses and Nancy’s proof of name change. “Follow me.”

She led them past a security guard and around a corner into the open bank vault. With a gesture, the teller pointed to a small private viewing room. “If you’ll have a seat in there, I’ll bring you the box.”

Axe and Nancy took a seat facing the door.

“Are you nervous about what’s inside?” Nancy asked him.

“I’d say more curious than anything.”

“Maybe it’s… ahhh, who knows.” She leaned back in her chair and they waited.

The teller returned a few minutes later and placed a large strongbox on the table. “Thanks for your patience. This is it.” She turned the key on the side but left the lid down. “I’ll leave you to it. Let me know when you’re finished.”

Axe opened the lid when they were alone again. “Okay, well it’s not wads and wads of cash, or a secret insurance policy we didn’t know about,” he said, lifting out an index card folded in two. “That’s all?”

Nancy leaned forward. “What’s on it?”

Axe opened it and almost fell out of his chair from the shock of it. The four names scribbled out were bad enough, but they were written in Mom’s handwriting, not Dad’s. His shaking hand passed it over to Nancy. “Jesus fuck. What the hell was Mom into?” he asked.

He got to his feet and started pacing as he ran agitated hands over his head, gripping his hair by the fistful.

“What?” Nancy shrieked after her eyes scanned the words and poured over them. She snapped her head up to Axe so fast that her bangs whipped off her face from the jolt. “But…I don’t understand. Why did Mom have a list with these names?”

He could hardly contain himself. The four names seemed to have blazed onto the back of his eyelids and his vision.

Director Joseph Adam Riley, Nevada Department of Public Safety

Keith Jackson