Page 76 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

Two women, one with Annie’s distinctive red hair, were making their way up to the sidewalk towards the bank.

“So, he has a partner,” Fisher said. “You follow Annie. He doesn’t know you. If he sees you he won’t be suspicious. I’ll watch him.”

“Done,” Brian said and ducked out of the car.

Fisher watched Henry. He was getting more and more skittish, glancing at the building and shaking his head in frustration. If he got too spooked, he might bolt. Fisher decided to get behind him. He wrapped his gun in a newspaper and crept out of the car. He slipped into the shadow of the building and followed the sidewalk until he was ten feet from where Henry paced.

Henry looked as if he were on the verge of a breakdown. Finally, he must have suspected the game was up. Taking swift looks about him, Henry began to hurry down the sidewalk.

Fisher stepped out of the shadows and into his path.

“Henry, is that you?” Fisher asked and grabbed his arm. “You shaved. I almost didn’t recognize you. Almost.”

Henry tried to shake him off, but Fisher dropped his paper and held up his gun.

“Henry the Eighth,” Fisher began, “you have the right to remain silent...”

Henry protested right through his Miranda rights. “You’ve got nothing on me. It’s her. She’s the one.”

Fisher snapped the handcuffs onto Henry’s wrists and glanced over his shoulder to where Brian was leading the woman who’d been with Annie out of the building. She was covered in mud from her neck to her knees.

“What the...?” Fisher glanced at Brian.

Brian looked as if he were trying to hold back a laugh. “Go ask your wife.”

Fisher took the steps up to the bank two at a time. He slammed through the front door only to have his feet shoot out from under him on the slick marble. He landed with a bone crunching thump on the ground. Around him lay three wasted potted plants.

“Oh, Fisher!” Annie wailed as she slid across the floor toward him. She crashed into his hip and threw her arms about his neck. “I’m so glad you’re here. It was Henry...uh...Eric all along. Can you believe that? They dragged me out of my room. Eric and Dotty. Dotty was the smoking woman at the roulette table in Vegas. She’s been his partner all along. And...”

Fisher reached up, grabbed Annie by the back of her neck and kissed her. She was safe. That was all he cared about.

Annie hummed low in the back of her throat and when Fisher released her, she looked completely bemused.

“What happened here?” he asked.

Bank officials and customers had formed a mob around them. Several people shouted questions and one woman saw Fisher’s gun and fainted dead away into a security guard.

“It’s all right.” Fisher pulled out his badge. “I’m FBI.”

“Dotty brought me in here to sign some papers that would free up the account. They have an accomplice working in the bank named Raul, but we never met him. When we entered the building, I knocked her into a plant and they all went down like dominoes. Apparently, they’d just been watered. What a mess. I knocked her flat on her rump!”

Fisher brushed some of the mud off of his pants and grinned. “Grace in motion.”

“That’s me.” She sighed.

Fisher stood, dragging Annie with him. He hugged her close and whispered against her springy red hair, “I was so worried about you. I don’t know what I’d do if...”

“Special Agent, sir,” one of the bank officers interrupted. “We need to talk to Ms. Talbot. We need to debrief her.”

Fisher glared at the balding little man in the bad suit. “Her name is Mrs. McCoy. You don’t need to talk to her. You can talk to me.”

“With all due respect...” the little man began, but Fisher interrupted him. “She said there is an accomplice named Raul working at the bank. That’s all she knows. Now, I’m going to see my wife home. I’ll be back to talk to you shortly.”

Fisher led Annie out of the building without giving the banker a chance to draw a breath.

“Thank you. I’m not really up for explaining something I don’t understand myself,” she said as he stuffed into his unmarked car. Several other special agents had arrived and Fisher told Brian to sweep the bank for Raul and he’d meet him back at the bank within the hour.

“Are you all right?” Fisher asked as he got into the driver’s seat. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”