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Randall was in the act of getting up when Skinny Dancer swung around, saw Randall getting to his feet and shouted, “He told you not to move!”
And shot him in the face.
Randall Trotter was dead before he hit the floor.
More screams, then moans of dismay rolled through the lobby. Linette was in a state of disbelief. Randall’s body had fallen across her outstretched arms, pinning her to the floor. She was screaming inside so loud her ears felt numb, but in actuality, she was lying in frozen silence, watching the blood pooling around his head.
“Goddamnit!” Texas Ranger shouted. “What did you do that for? Now how the hell are we gonna get in the vault?”
The third man, who was standing look out at theentrance, was distracted by the disruption of the killing, and didn’t see the cop coming in the door behind him, but Linette did, and this time, her heart nearly stopped.
Jubilee police officer, Wiley Pope, was unaware of the robbery in progress, or that the silent alarm had been activated at the PD, until he entered the lobby. Within a heartbeat, his brain registered the customers in total panic, belly down on the floor with their arms stretched out before them.
The frantic expressions on the teller’s faces.
And the three armed men in the act of robbing the bank.
Wiley was already drawing his weapon, when lookout man finally spotted him, yelled “Cop!” and fired off a shot.
Wiley ducked behind a pillar and fired back. Lookout man dropped, and the other two robbers were scrambling, which gave every teller in sight the opportunity to hit the floor below the counters.
The robbers were firing off shots at Wiley as they scrambled for cover, and he returned fire in rapid succession.
Skinny Dancer dropped.
Wiley and Texas Ranger were the last men standing, and a heartbeat later, both aimed and fired.
Texas Ranger’s shot hit Wiley’s chest and sent himflying backward, while Wiley’s shot ripped through Texas Ranger’s shoulder, splattering blood all over the plexiglass window at the tellers’ stations behind him.
The silence afterward was as frightening as their entry had been.
The robbers were unconscious, bleeding on the floor, and Wiley was staring up at the ceiling, reeling from the impact, and trying to catch his breath.
All of a sudden people began screaming.
Tellers came running out from behind the counters, and a teenage boy was on the phone calling 911, unaware the silent alarm had already been triggered.
Wiley was still struggling to breathe, and grabbing at his shirt when a woman ran into his line of vision.
Oh my God! Linette!
“Help…” Wiley gasped, trying to unsnap his shirt to get to the bulletproof vest beneath.
Linette was in a panic. From the moment the robbers entered the bank, to when Wiley was shot, every dream she’d ever had for ahappy ever afterlife flashed before her eyes. It seemed like a lifetime but it was, in fact, mere seconds. She knew how deadly a chest wound would be, and was up and running toward him when she realized he was tearing at his shirt and struggling to breathe.
Body armor! He was wearing a bulletproof vest! Thank you, God!
Without saying a word, she grabbed at the front of his shirt, knowing the vest that just saved him was now impeding his ability to catch his breath.
Wiley was fighting her, grabbing at her hands, when she grasped his wrists.
“Wiley, don’t fight me! Relax. It knocked the breath from your lungs. Relax and it will come.”
Even as he was struggling to breathe, her voice, and her face splattered with blood shocked him out of his own panic. Then he realized she was mobile and talking, and he was not, so he leaned back against the pillar and tried not to pass out, as she unsnapped his shirt and began yanking at the Velcro straps to loosen the vest.
His heart was pounding, the room was spinning. It felt like he’d just been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer. And then all of a sudden, the vest was loosened, his lungs inflated, and he was finally able to inhale. The look of gratitude that passed between them was telling.
“I hear sirens,” she said. “You’re doing great, Wiley. My God, my God, you saved us.”
