Chapter Three:

Peter rolled over at the sound of the ringing phone at his side, groaning in annoyance he reached across his side and grabbed the phone, "Caine," he mumbled.

"Get up; I've got a possible lead to how the robbers got away," Kermit's voice spoke clearly over the phone.

Peter looked around the room, it was still dark outside from what he could tell, "Kermit, do you even know what time it is? And where the hell are you?"

"It's four in the morning, I'm at the crime scene going over a map of the building I…barrowed from city council…oh and I bought you coffee so get your ass down here."

Peter groaned and hit his head against the pillow, "I hate you, be right there."

Fifteen minutes later Peter pulled his car in front of the bank and made his way inside the building. "Kermit?" He called, finding it empty. He looked around the darkened building, feel a shiver go down his back as he walked over to the teller's counter. They'd closed down the bank for a few days as part of the investigation. "Kermit?" He yelled again looking around.

A moment later a figure dropped from the ceiling in front of him. Peter jumped back, hitting his back against the sharp counter corner and hissed in pain. There Kermit stood, a little dirty from dust but otherwise no worse for the wear. "Hi Peter."

"What the hell!?" Peter gasped as he set his coffee down and rubbed his sore back.

Kermit pointed towards the ceiling, "There's a back door. Come with me."

"If there's a back door why the hell are you crawling in the ceiling?"

"That's what I'm trying to show you, now grab your coffee and follow me," he looked like an excited little school boy as he dragged his best friend along. Peter followed Kermit into the large safe and looked around. "Now watch this," Kermit rolled back his sleeves and closed the door to the safe.

"Kermit what the hell!?" Peter was stunned, these rooms were air sealed and locked from the outside.

"Wait for it," Kermit said holding up his finger.

Peter heard the air lock seal and he felt his heart rate jack up a notch. Kermit moved over to the wall on the left and pressed his hand against part of the wall. A moment later a blue keypad popped out of the wall. "How long have you been here?" questioned Peter quietly realizing his friend appeared to have done this half a dozen times.

"I couldn't sleep," he offered as if it were the most casual thing in the world. He punched in some code and a few moments later there was another hiss and to Peter's surprise the far side of the vault opened slowly.

"Oh wow…" was all Peter could manage as they stepped forward.

"Whoever has been robbing these banks has an intimate knowledge of them, which means he's worked at five different branches. I've done some checking, the first two banks were merged back in the earlier part of last year, and they only kept forty employees. Which means whoever this guy is he was one of those forty employees."

"And the other three?"

"All of the banks were originally built as bomb shelters back in world war two, which is where this tunnel leads. Down stairs is the underground bunker, but there's no sign of activity, no scuff marks or anything. So then I thought what if these under ground bunkers went up as well."

"Kermit you're a genius."

The ex-mercenary smiled, "I try, anyway so I looked at the schematics…"

"The ones you barrowed?" joked Peter.

"Of course, the under ground bunker isn't shown, which also means they built other stuff that wasn't shown."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, my dear Peter, that there's another escape hatch that leads directly to the cooling and heating tunnels, which as you noticed are big enough for a grown man of thirty-six to fit through."

"You're thirty-eight."

Kermit glared at him through his glasses, "I hate that you know that."

Peter chuckled as he shook his head, "Okay so the guys got out through the heating and cooling system, but then what?"

Kermit nodded, "I checked that out too, when I arrived one of the ceiling panels had been moved. Our biggest problem is we don't look up for answers. I guarantee you if we go back through photos and the other four banks, we'll find that each one has a panel with finger prints on it or that have been disturbed in the past six weeks."

"So essentially you're saying whoever is committing this crime…has a history with these banks and…doesn't escape until after we've left the crime scene?"

"Exactly."

Peter shook his head, "But there's two guys, wouldn't we notice if—"

"You're not getting it Peter, there are two of them. One hurries off to the vault and climbs into the cooling system, directly over an office or cubical, where no one will notice. Then the guy gets all the money before the cops come in, he hides in an office or something, passes the money up through the ceiling, then his friend pulls him up into the system."

Peter shook his head, "Not possible, because otherwise TJ would have noticed if this guy was running off, he's not he's disappearing Kermit. Besides there's not nearly enough lapsed time between busting in here after the gun shot for him to get away."

"Maybe there is—but we've got to get Simms to approve my next idea."

"I swear if I lose my badge over this…"

o0o

Karen Simms sat in her office listening to her lover telling her his theory; she had to agree with Peter, Kermit was a genius. However the time had her confused. "Okay so you're asking that we reenact the entire situation from yesterday?"

Kermit nodded, "I promise you, we'll use blanks, Peter and I will be the two gunmen, and we'll use others in the precinct…"

Karen glanced at Peter for a moment, "What about you Peter? I mean you're Shaolin, is there anything that could slow down time, cause everyone to forget or make someone invisible?"

Peter shrugged, "Honestly I don't know Captain, not that I'm aware of, but then the Shadow Assassin did it—anything is possible, but I'm not going to buy into the theory of invisibility just yet, at least not until we've tested the whole theory out."

"All right, but I want to be there for it."

o0o

Everyone was in place, including twelve other detectives, two were playing the part of the deceased, and Jody was playing TJ. Karen was one of the many "patrons". Kermit explained the time period, from the moment Broderick; who was also a patron, made the call—the silent alarm had been pushed five minutes earlier to the minute the SWAT went in.

"Okay, Peter I've already been up in the cooling and heating, so I'll be the guy to pull you up, I'm going above that office right over there," he pointed across the room. Peter nodded, vaguely aware it was the one furthest from the vault and closest to the door.

"Now you're going to shoot "TJ" and then rush over to that cubical. The SWAT team came in less than a minute after the first gunfire was shot. It was another two minutes before someone cleared that office. Meaning you have a total of three minutes to get in the office, toss me the bags and help me pull you up."

"Okay even I'm sitting here and I don't believe that can be done," Jody offered.

"Can we just do this please, witness say that someone—unrecognizable was standing over by the door, acting mildly strange. Which also means guy number two was already here, and had been for sometime."

Strenlich and seven other detectives busted into the bank, then the office ten minuets later just in time to see Peter stand on top of the desk to reach up to Kermit. Karen and several other detectives stood by the door watching as they helped Kermit down from the ceiling. "So obviously there wasn't enough time," Karen offered as her lover moved towards her.

"Not for him to move, no—but something happened," Kermit offered quietly.

"When's the next bank robbery?" Jody asked.

Peter sighed rubbing his temples, "If they follow the pattern next, Monday. And we have no clue what bank."

"Okay so here's my question, why did two people die?" posed Skalany.

"Maybe something went wrong," offered Peter.

Kermit shook his head, "No—it's something else, Captain, I need a few hours?"

She studied him for a moment, "Why?"

"I've got a couple phone calls and I need to go talk to an old friend."

Karen nodded, "Done."

Peter nodded, "I'll start going through the database of people who worked at the five banks, see if I can come up with any names."

Strenlich sighed, "Okay everyone back on the streets crime hasn't stopped!"