Unlucky 13

Chapter 20

The woman in yellow said, “What?” and stiffened her back.

Mackie hissed, “Keep your eyes front. What’s your name?”

“J-J-Jill.”

“Jill, we’re going up to the window. Be good or be dead. Understand? Let’s go, now. Move.”

Randy’s voice inside her head: You’re doing fine, baby doll. Wake her up.

Mackie said, “Jill. I. Said. Move.”

“Please don’t shoot. Please.”

Mackie gave the woman a hard poke and they crossed the eight feet of granite floor between the rope line and the teller’s window. The teller wore a name tag on her blouse. SANDRA CARNAHAN.

Sandra said, “And how may I help you ladies today?”

Mackie leaned in and speaking over Jill’s shoulder said, “I have a gun. Act normal.”

“I understand,” the teller said. Her eyes were huge and fixed on her.

“Don’t hit the alarm, or I will shoot.”

“I have a baby,” the teller said.

“Good for you, Sandra. Your baby wants you to clean out your drawer and give the cash to me. No dye packs. No alarm. Screw with me and your baby loses her mom.”

“I’m doing it. Don’t worry.” Sandra sniffed.

She opened her drawer, piled three stacks of bills into the metal transom, then flipped it so that it opened on the customer side.

Mackie reached around Jill and had just wrapped her hand around the money, when Jill lost it. She screamed.

Sandra was hyperventilating, looking like she was going to scream, run, or both. All the eyes in the bank went to Mackie and the woman in yellow.

Inside Mackie’s head, Randy said, Sandra stepped on the button.

Really? Big mistake, Sandra. This is on you.

Mackie raised her gun, aimed, and fired. The bullet punctured the plexiglass window, but Sandra had ducked under the counter. Mackie turned to see everything going crazy. People dove behind pillars, got under desks, pressed against walls.

Jill dropped to the floor, covered her head, and began keening, “Nooooo, nooooo, noooooo.”

Mackie spoke in a cold monotone, saying to Jill, “Look what you made me do.”

She fired twice, bullets punching neat holes in the yellow vinyl. Then Mackie turned to face the audience from her place on the stage.