“She smart, your woman?” he asked me.
“Yes,” I said. “A lot smarter than I am.”
“Yeah, well, that I can believe. How long she been in there now?”
“Only a couple of minutes,” I said. “It just seems like a long time.”
“How long should it take? You go in, you show them the key…”
“Just hang in. Maybe the bank is busy. Maybe it’s taking her a while to get someone to help her.”
Merker fidgeted nervously, scratched his nose, but, mercifully, stuck nothing in it for once. “She has to get the signature right. If she can do that, she’ll be fine.”
“She’s been forging mine for years,” I told him. “She can do this.”
But it was torture, sitting out there in the truck, having no idea of how it was going inside.
“Maybe I should go in,” I said. “Just watch from a distance, see that everything is going okay.”
Merker snorted. “Yeah, that’s a great plan. I sit out here all by myself, let the two of you just run off.” Merker turned on the radio, twisting the dial from station to station, then, deciding there was nothing interesting enough to take his mind off his current situation, turned it off.
“Shit,” he said, looking up the street. A police cruiser with two officers was approaching. “Shit shit shit,” he said. “She fucking told.”
I glanced down again at the handle of the stun gun. “Relax,” I said. “They’re just driving down the street. It’s not like they’re slowing down or anything. If they were—”
The police car slowed down.
“Shit!” Merker said through clenched teeth. He slammed his fist into the steering wheel. “She’s blabbed, I know it.”
“She won’t have done that,” I said. Unless, of course, she was unable to pass herself off as Marilyn Winter and had to confess to what she was up to, what was at stake.
The cruiser came to a stop in front of the bank, and the cop on the passenger side got out. He said something to the driver, held up two fingers, as if to say he’d only be a couple of minutes. Unless, of course, it meant to send for two more police cruisers.
Merker got out his cell phone, punched in some numbers. “Leo?”
“Jesus!” I said. “Nothing’s happened yet.”
Merker waved at me to shut up. “Just checking in, man. How’s it going there?” Merker listened, nodded, looking back and forth between me and the bank across the street. The cop had the door open and was going inside. It looked as though he was reaching into his back pocket.
“He’s going for his wallet,” I said. “He’s just going to the ATM.”
Merker was listening to Leo. “Okay, good, yeah, well, we’re just waiting on this end. What?” Leo was telling him something else. “Well, take some Pepto or something. Fuck, I got bigger things to worry about than your stomach. I’ll call you back if anything goes wrong here.”
He put the phone back into his pocket.
“Where’s the cruiser?” he asked.
“It kept on going. I think he’s doing a loop around the block. If there were a problem, he wouldn’t waste time looking for a parking spot.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He looked in his mirror, checking to see whether the cop car was still visible. “Hang on,” he said, opened the door, and stepped out so he could get a better view down the street.
I leaned swiftly across the seat, reached down and grabbed hold of the stun gun. I was back in position, holding the gun down by my right side, between my body and the door, by the time Merker was getting back in.
“I think he’s doing a slow drive around the block,” he said. “Maybe you’re right, maybe he’s just using the money machine. He better be.”
His eyes were trained on the doors of the bank. “Come on. Come on. I want to see somebody come out of there. Your wife, or that cop, and not together.”
I’d been waiting for my moment, some way to get the drop on Merker, and now it was at hand. Stunning him would only put him out of commission for a few seconds, but it would be long enough to wrest the gun away from him, to get his cell phone, to smash his goddamn fucking head in if I had to. Then I could wave down either the cop as he came out of the bank, with or without Sarah, or the other one doing a loop around the block. Once Merker was subdued, police could surround our house, get Katie out safely.
My mouth was dry, my heart was pounding in my ears.
There was nothing to say to Merker. No need to give him a warning. No need to tell him to freeze or drop his weapon.
I could just stun the bastard.
And so, while he sat with his back to me, focused on the bank doors, I steadied the stun gun in my lap and pointed it at him.
And pulled the trigger.
The gun went bzzzt.
Merker did not suddenly go into spasms. He did not crumple into his seat or fall against the steering wheel. He did not scream in pain.