Stolen

Daisy was listening to the sound of a call ringing through still. It was still because she had been listening for around five minutes. It would go to voice mail some times, and she would redial again. And again. And again. She had to keep trying though. Eventually, he would answer. He had to. It was the only option at this point. Well, the only good option.

“He’s not going to answer.”

“What other option does he have, Jake?”

“He could just kill all the hostages and himself.”

Daisy hung up as the voice mail came on again, and shot Jake an angry look. “We don’t want that. We want it better than that.”

Jake adjusted his bulletproof vest under the rifle slung across his chest. “Yeah. I’m not saying we want bodies, but I’m not sure on this guy. He doesn’t seem like the predictable type to me.”

Daisy picked up a bullhorn and keyed it. “David. We can talk though this. I need you to pick up the phone though. Please, just talk. I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me, and I know that phone is ringing in the lobby.” She put down the bullhorn, and tried again, as she was starting the phone to dial yet again, she said “everyone is predictable. You just need to get data to make those predictions past general human behavior.”

Ring… ring… click. Someone picked up this time. They were not saying anything, but after an hour of trying, someone picked up the phone.

“David?” Silence. “Is this David?”

The person on the other end took a breath like they were going to talk, and then stopped, and tried again. “Yes.”

“Hi, David. I am Daisy Black, and I work for the police department. We have some people that are really worried about what is going on in there. Can we talk?”

David was silent again. Then the line clicked as he hung up.

“Damnit,” Daisy whispered. “I need you to talk to me.” She looked at Jake, and said “Don’t you say a word.” She dialed again, and he picked up again.

“Look, I, umm. You know... This isn’t going how I wanted it to.” David started talking as soon as he picked up the phone this time.

“Things happen, you know? Tell me what was supposed to happen. What started all this?”

“She stole my heart. She died before she gave it back.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Daisy was honestly confused. Why would a person be robbing a bank over a lost love, and one that is dead to top it off? What was the goal? “Let me ask you something really quick though: Is everyone ok? Is there anyone that needs medical attention?”

“Everyone is fine… well…” He paused and sounded like he was looking around. “I am going to send out two people though. One is having a panic attack, and doesn’t have his medications for that. I have been trying to get him to calm down, however I don’t believe I am helping. That is why I didn’t answer before. They started in to that state around 20 minutes ago. The other followed my instructions too quickly and sprained a wrist it would appear, and I was getting their arm wrapped and getting some ice found before the panic attack person.”

“Ok. Got it. Does anyone else need anything?” Daisy glanced up at Jake who was listening as well.

Jake nodded, and moved the mic for his radio close to his mouth and whispered, “Two hostages being released soon. Keep a close eye and check targets carefully.”

David came back while Jake was whispering “Umm… I don’t think so. They all want to leave of course, and I can’t blame them.”

“Well, we could cut this all short” Daisy laughed. “You could just put down your weapons, let them go, and we can talk face to face.”

“I can’t do that yet. I need to get…” he stopped suddenly, and there were a few seconds of silence. “I haven’t found it. I’m going to get back to that now. Those two are coming out in a few seconds.” With that he hung up.

“David? David… He hung up again.” Daisy slumped back in the chair, and dropped the headset on the desk. “He hung up on me Jake.”

“Yes, he did.”

“I hate that crap.”

David put the handset gently on the cradle and turned back to the group of fifteen people behind him. “Here’s the plan. I am so sorry that we are doing all this, and I apologize again that anyone got hurt. If you be so kind as to guide Luis outside though, Lindsey, they will have paramedics take care of you better than I can.”

Lindsey stood up, and helped guide Louis toward the door. Looking back, she said “I hope you find what you are looking for.” It wasn’t with any hate that she said it either. It was a genuine sentiment.

David leaned against one of the little counters provided to fill out deposit slips or write checks. Most people just use them to lean on any more anyway, so it made sense. He put his head in his hands and rubbed his head for a few moments. “This was supposed to be just get the box and leave” he muttered.

“Umm…” came a meek voice. David raised his head up and looked in the direction to see that Heather, the bank’s manager was raising her hand slowly. “Can we go then?”

He just stared at her for a moment. “Umm. No? How about ‘no?’” he stood up straight. “I still need that box that you said you can’t open.” He pulled the key out of his pocket with a bit of fumbling and arguing in his frustration. He held it out in her direction like a threat almost. “Even though I have the key right here.”

“B-but… but you don’t have a name that matches the box holder.”

He threw up his hands in frustration, and everyone else groaned a little. “… Back to the beginning” David said as he sat in the chair he had dragged out of one of the offices for himself.

“I want to go home,” complained Antonio, “just give the dude his stuff.”

Heather looked offended at Antonio, and saw everyone else nodding and staring daggers at her. “I have to follow the rules though, and they say that the ID needs to be the same as the account holder.”

“Well, we get to sit here until I get my box then.”

This is the way it had been going since the start.

The phone rang again, and they all sat there looking at Heather as it rang.

“The hell with this,” Antonio stood up and grabbed Heather searching her pockets quickly. “I ain’t sittin’ here no longer while we play this crap.” He marched off to her office having not found the keys.

Dave picked up the phone with the sound of Antonio searching Heather’s office. A few of the others joined the search. “Hello?”

“David,” came Daisy’s voice, disapproving, but trying to hide it, “you can’t do that. We need to talk about this. What is it that you want out of this? You said someone broke your heart, but that doesn’t give me much to go on. I would like to know more.”

“Yes. Well, I did say that she stole my heart, and...”

“Found ‘em!” came a shout from behind the counter.

“I’m sorry, I have to go again. Just give me… oh… five minutes?”

“David, I can’t keep...” She was cut off by David hanging up again.

The small cadre of the curious and determined went to the still open vault, and found the right key and box. They returned with David leading the way. In his hands was plain box wrapped in brown paper. Likely at one time a grocery bag considering the occasional bit of color and text on it. Nothing really readable, being hacked off to form corners and seams, as well as wearing away. He walked almost reverently, like he was leading a procession of ardent religious followers, and they, in much the same way, quietly followed looking curious to know the answer to the greatest mystery that took over their lives. What’s in the box?

“Put the box down, and don’t move!”

Dave looked up from the box. The police had been led inside when they left, and Heather was holding the door open for them still. She was quickly ushered off by one of the officers at the end of the formation. He did as instructed.

“At least I found it” he said before they took him away.

“We need to get the bomb disposal guys in here” said Daisy looking at the box sitting on the floor. “He said he had a bomb, we didn’t find one on him, and who knows what is in that.”

“Already on it,” Jake pointed his chin at the guys already coming in with the x-ray plate. “They don’t seem too worried though.” He looked back to Daisy, and continued. “This is a bank that has us do a dog sweep every few months because they had a crazy keep some C-4 on one of their boxes a few years back.”

They watched as they set up the equipment, and then watched as the image appeared on the screen. It was a whole lot of orange, and green shapes, with a few black lines.

“I don’t know what it is,” said the lead tech. “I can tell you it’s not explosive though from what I see. There’s nothing indicating an explosive mass, and no power that I can see. The wires don’t seem to connect to anything that I can work out what it does. Also, that shape makes no sense to me to be honest. Looks almost like some kind of toy really.”

“Thanks.”

“You want to take a look?”

Daisy looked at the box wishing she could do the Superman thing and just see without opening it. “Yeah. Lets see it.”

They opened the paper carefully, but found it was a simple shoe box inside. Opening the lid, there was something wrapped in tissue paper, and an envelope. Jake took the envelope and opened it. Daisy and Dustin, the bomb tech, unwrapped the object. It was, what looked like the model of a human heart.

“Get this,” said Jake as he read the papers. “This is a patent issued to Sabrina and David Hearford. It’s for an artificial heart that could be permanently installed unlike the ones they had that would just go for a week or so. Says you use that to grow cloned tissue on, and then it’s not going to be rejected. The other page is divorce papers.”

Daisy laughed. “She really did steal his heart.”