The Getaway - By Tom Barber Page 0,106

and found his real name was Tate. The bags inside the helicopter were found to contain close to four million dollars, with two more in the back of Tate’s stolen car, almost every cent from the two Chase heists and the armoured truck at the Tennis Center. All the money was booked and returned, which pleased everyone, especially the insurance companies.

Archer and Katic were interrogated all night as Jessie was cleaned up, checked by a doctor and calmed down, a female agent looking after her. She was scared and would need time to recover, but thankfully the blindfold had shielded her from seeing the carnage. Inside the interrogation rooms, Archer and Katic gave them every detail, from the very beginning, every angle. It was a long night. Luckily however, once Sanderson cleaned himself up and got his nose looked at, he took over the investigation. Katic had an immaculate record as a Special Agent and the bruising on her face and body spoke for themselves, so her testimony checked out. And the taping Archer had recorded from inside the money bags confirmed everything they were saying. With Sanderson’s approval, they were home free. Not only had they taken down one of the worst bank robbing crews in the history of the city, they had also removed two Federal agents who had changed sides, men who had killed four other fellow agents. Needless to say, Archer was flavour of the month down at Federal Plaza. Seeing as he hadn’t eaten all day, one of the agents even went down to Subway for him and got him some food.

As the clock ticked on towards Monday evening, one of the detectives seemed to be concerned about everything that Archer had seen. He was playing the hard cop, but Archer was too tired to even care.

‘You know an awful lot. I trust we can expect total silence from you,’ he said, sliding a prepared document over the table. ‘You say a word to anyone about any of this, rest assured we won’t be this nice. You’re lucky we’re even considering releasing you.’

‘I’ll sign it on one condition.’

‘I’m not here to bargain.’

‘I think you are. One of your agents murdered my father.’

Pause.

‘What do you want?’

‘Install Katic as head of the Bank Robbery Task Force. All that I ask. Make her the Supervisory Special Agent.’

The man looked at him, then nodded.

‘That’s it?’

‘That’s it.’

‘OK. Deal.’

They shook on it, then Archer read through it and signed the paper. The man swept it off the table.

‘OK. You’re free to go.’

Archer had left the interrogation room, gathered his coat and meagre belongings and headed outside into the main Plaza. Katic was standing out there waiting for him. No sign of her daughter. It was just approaching dusk, and the plaza was golden as the sun set in the distance. She smiled as he approached her.

‘Where’s Jessie?’ he asked.

‘With her grandma. She came down from Chicago and is looking after her. You missed your flight,’ she said.

He nodded.

‘And your booking at the hotel ran out.’

He nodded.

‘C’mon, you can stay with me.’

He didn’t speak.

He just moved forward and kissed her.

And she kissed him back.

At Katic’s apartment, an agent had left a message on Archer’s phone. He said the Bureau had contacted British Airways and organised another flight home for him. Club Class again. This time, Archer had a feeling he was going to enjoy it a hell of a lot more.

With some spare cardboard covering the hole on the front door to her apartment and the holes in her bedroom door and with the place tidied up, Archer and Katic spent the rest of the day and night together. They made love, then ordered take-out, then made love again, and lay there talking for most of the night, learning about each other, their pasts, their lives. Katic talked at length about her life since her husband died. She described him in detail, who he was, his kindness and humility. Archer talked about his father, the time they had spent together before he’d left all those years ago, and found that he felt strangely at peace with it now. That feeling of regret he’d carried with him all week was gone. By the time morning came and they woke up, the two of them knew almost every detail about each other. But one thing that Archer didn’t tell her was that she was being promoted. He figured it would be a pleasant surprise that would come best from the FBI.

Archer’s flight wasn’t until