Story Challenge from Misha Burnett
The Heist (Part III)
(Read Part I and Part II)
Clay cowered in the corner of the vault while Theresa packed up some of the jewels into her brown satchel. She ignored her boss when he kept murmuring things such as, “I thought you were a faithful employee” and “I’m still not really sure what’s going on here.”
“What’s going on here is that I was hired to help rob this place. I got a job here to know the ins and outs of the store.” Theresa explained as calmly as she could still stuffing jewels into her bag. “I want to know how the police knew to come here.”
“Beats me,” Clay shrugged his shoulders.
“Don’t lie to me.” Theresa grumbled. “You were probably pretending to sleep and pushed that button under the counter. Don’t deny it.”
“If I pushed that button the entire store would go into lockdown.” Clay stated.
Theresa stopped what she was doing and stared at Clay. She didn’t want to believe him, but it made sense.
The vault door swung open. Instinctively, Theresa grabbed a hold of Clay and held him out in front of her assuming it was the police.
“It’s just me.” Sally whispered. “Don’t ask me how I managed to get here without the police seeing, but we need to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“I got some of the jewels, but I can’t carry all of them.” Theresa took a step forward, stilling holding onto Clay who didn’t bother fighting back.
“We’ll take whatever you’ve got. I think we should just focus on getting out of here at this point.” Sally suggested.
She stepped aside to allow Theresa through the door. Together they walked through the store using Clay as their shield. They made it outside after a few minutes.
“We won’t harm him if you guys don’t harm us.” Theresa warned the police as soon as they were spotted.
Once they made it on the other side of the street, Sally darted into a nearby alley. Once she was in the clear, Theresa pushed Clay away causing him to stumble into the middle of the street. She too then dashed into the alley with a few police officers following.
When the cops turned into the alley they were stunned to see that Theresa and Sally were gone. They had climbed up a fire escape and disappeared into one of the apartments. This apartment was their meeting spot and it was also Margaret’s home.
The window was open a small crack as they were all supposed to meet in the apartment after the heist. Sally opened the window all the way and allowed Theresa to step through first since she was the one with the jewels. She then followed closing the window behind her.
“We only made it out with some jewels, but at least we still have our lives.” Theresa cracked a smile standing by the window.
“That’s better than nothing.” Sally grinned standing next to Theresa.
“Margaret?” Theresa frowned seeing the planner of the heist lying on the ground.
Sally inched closer and examined the body. She pressed her lips together and stood up straighter again.
“She’s been shot.”
“Brendon!” Theresa shouted.
Brendon came out from Margaret’s bedroom with his gun in his hand. He was pointing it right at Theresa. Sally was still on the other side of the room and he didn’t seem to notice her standing by Margaret’s body.
“I don’t know how, but Margaret found out I was the one who called the police. So I had to shoot her.” Brendon sighed. “Theresa, hand over the bag with the jewels and I’ll leave peacefully. I don’t want to have to shoot you as well.”
Theresa hugged her satchel and stared at Brendon as though she were a child who just came face to face with the monster under her bed.
“I’m going to count to three.” Brendon rolled his eyes once Theresa hesitated. “If you don’t give me the bag, I’m going to shoot you and take it. One…”
Theresa still stared horrified at Brendon.
“Two…”
She took a step back as he took a step forward.
“Three.”
BANG!
Theresa jumped at the sudden sound and watched with wide eyes as Brendon fell face down onto the ground, a small hold in his back. She looked up and noticed Sally standing at Brendon’s feet with a gun in her hands. Sally placed it back onto her belt and smiled at Theresa.
“Margaret said I wasn’t allowed to bring explosives, so a gun was the next best thing.”
Theresa chuckled.
“And,” Sally was still grinning, “now we each get half and not a quarter.”
