Read Online Danny Dempsey and the Unlikely Alliance by Denis Byrne - Free Book Online

were sidling closer to the security guard. At least they thought they were. They were so intent on convincing anyone listening, they didn’t notice that he, too, was playing the same game, sidling away from them every bit as stealthily as they imagined they’d been advancing on him.
    When they finally paid him their full attention, looking at him while continuing with their pleading for help, he seemed to be even further away from them as when they’d entered the bank. Which wasn’t really all that surprising, Superintendent Clifford being such an enormous man, a couple of his sidles equalled half a dozen of theirs. He’d had some difficulty finding a security guard’s uniform to fit him, but now that he had, he was quite enjoying the experience of impersonating one.
    â€˜Aren’t any of you going to do anything?’ one of the crash victims asked in a plaintive voice, as nobody appeared to be paying any attention to their plight. ‘What’s wrong with you people?’
    But there was no answer forthcoming. The lone teller seemed altogether unmoved, standing there yawning, as he waited for the two old ladies hunched over at the counter, busily filling in lodgement forms. There was also a boy dozing on an old-fashioned mahogany bench near the door, a haversack at his feet, his head resting on his chest in peaceful repose.
    â€˜All right, Laurence!’ the second man growled, recovering from his recent trauma with remarkable forgetfulness. ‘Time for action. This is going to be a piece of cake. You take care of the guard. I don’t think we’ve too much else to worry about.’
    Laurence made an admirable transformation from accident victim to athleticism in the blink of an eye. He tore open his violin case and whipped out a canister of Mace, did a couple of rolling somersaults across the floor towards the security guard and came upright with the agility of an acrobat right in front of him.
    Once he’d put the big gorilla out of action, it would be all plain sailing. A couple of old ladies and a hitchhiking kid weren’t going to present any further problems. He pointed the canister upwards and pressed the plunger. A jet of Mace shot out just like it was supposed to.
    If only all our jobs had been as easy as this one, Laurence thought to himself, we could have done one every day. But there was something wrong. Why wasn’t the gorilla spluttering and coughing and reeling around the place with his hands covering his eyes? Because he’s just put on a gas-mask, you dummy, that’s why! Laurence couldn’t believe it. Things weren’t supposed to work out this way! Not after all that planning!
    Then everything went pear-shaped altogether. He was picked up like a child and tossed in the direction of the two old ladies, both of whom had turned to catch him as he flew through the air. This wasn’t happening, he kept telling himself. I’m still in bed. From what he could make out as he sailed towards them, one of the old ladies had a moustache. He hadn’t time to get a look at the second one, but learned afterwards at his trial that he was a Garda officer, as was the one with the moustache. And he could vouch for the fact that as both of them held him in grips of steel before his hands were cuffed behind his back, that neither of them had ever been old ladies in their lives.
    And the kid was now getting in on the act. Laurence definitely knew now that it was all just a bad dream, that he’d wake up shortly and have a nice cup of coffee to start the day. He saw his twin brother, Steve, trying to make a run for it. He hadn’t been able to get his shotgun out of the case fast enough before the security guard kicked it out of his reach, so he was doing the sensible thing, heading for the door and freedom.
    Once he reached his wheelchair parked around the corner, they’d have no chance of catching him. But before Steve got to the door, the