The Famous and the Dead

41



Clint sat in the Kia and watched the front of the Imperial Bank building from down the street. He wore a new Cardinals baseball cap and sunglasses and his peacoat. His new binoculars were powerful and they brought up the lobby so close it was like he could walk right in. He saw that the bank was closed up and most of the offices were not open yet. There were a few people in the café. The girl making the coffee drinks was pretty. The same big blue-shirted security guard he’d seen before was at his station, sitting behind what looked like a marble desk, reading a newspaper. Clint didn’t know exactly where the ATF office was, but the building was only two stories high and not very large. The reflective glass would be no match for the Stinger.

He glanced into the backseat at the bright Mexican blanket and the shape of the Stinger, armed and ready.

When the black Charger stopped at the entrance to the parking structure Clint understood that God himself had just singled him out to perform a miracle. He held the glasses absolutely still and watched the window go down and Charlie Hood push a card into the reader. The arm rose and Hood drove in. Clint felt his finger throbbing but he smiled anyway. Should he wait for Hood to drive back out? How long was he going to be in there? What were his chances of hitting the Charger compared with hitting the building? After all, he’d never fired one of these things. Bird in the hand?