Mr. Blue smiled under his mask. "You took the words right out of my mouth."

He turned back to the manager. "I have children, you have children. We don't want them to be fatherless," he said It was the Mastermind's line and an effective one, he thought. "Let's get going."

They hurried to the main vault, which had a dual combination and needed both Bartlett and his assistant manager to open it. In less than sixty seconds, the vault was open.

Mr. Blue then held up a silver metal device for all to see; it looked like a TV remote control. "This is a police scanner," he said. "If the police or the FBI are alerted and come our way, I'll know it as soon as they do. And then you two, and also the two tellers, die. Are there any trip alarms inside the vault?"

The manager shook his head. "No, sir. There are no secret alarms. You have my word."

Mr. Blue smiled again behind his mask," Then let's go get my money. Move it!"

Blue had just about finished loading up the cash when his police scanner suddenly picked up an alert. "Robbery in progress at First Union Bank, downtown Falls Church."

He swiveled toward James Bartlett and shot the bank manager dead. Then he turned and shot Ms Collins through the forehead.

Just the way it had been planned.

Chapter Fifteen

The siren on the roof of my car was screaming. So was my body.

And my brain.

I arrived at the First Union Bank in Falls Church, Virginia, at almost the same time that Kyle Craig and his FBI team got there.

A black helicopter was just settling into the mostly empty shopping-mall parking area directly behind the bank. Kyle and three other agents climbed out of the chopper and headed toward me at a fast trot. They were stooped over and looked like monks hurrying to chapel. All four wore blue FBI windbreakers, which meant the Bureau wanted the public to know the FBI was involved with the investigation. The murders so far were gross and chilling for everyone. People needed to be reassured, to have their hands held.

"You been inside the bank already?" Kyle huffed as he came jogging up to me. He too looked like he hadn't slept.

"I just got here myself. Saw the big bad Belljet sputtering in. Figured it had to be you, or DarthVader. Let's go in together."

"This is Senior Agent Betsey Cavalierre," Kyle said, indicating a smallish woman with lustrous black hair and eyes almost as dark. She wore her oversized FBI windbreaker over a white T-shirt, khaki trousers, running shoes. She was probably in her mid-thirties. Intense-looking and also pretty, though certainly not glamorous.

"This is the rest of the first team. Agents Michael Doud and James Walsh," Kyle continued with the introductions. "This is Alex Cross. He's the VICAP liaison with the DC police. Alex found the bodies of Enrol and Brianne Parker."