‘We reached more embedded iron bars. There was a brick wall behind them which we thought would take us into the vault area. Danny cut the bars with the oxyacetylene and when we removed the bricks we’d reached the vault’s concrete base.’
‘Sounds like it’s all goin’ well to me.’
‘It was, until we discovered the concrete was reinforced with thick wire mesh.’
‘So what you’re tellin’ me is the fuckin’ job is going to take longer than planned.’
‘Yeah, we now gotta focus on making the hole wide and deep enough to crawl through with the Kango drills and large wire cutters so we can cut through the concrete and mesh.’
Clifford kept his voice low. ‘You should keep pressing on, John, but I can see you’re knackered. I’ll stand in for David tomorrow night if he’s not better, you go get some more sleep.’
Clifford shut the door and went to get his breakfast. Passing David’s room he could hear the rasping cough. He’d be a liability as a lookout, and it felt good to Clifford that he’d be taking over.
Bradfield and Kath had a midday meeting with the portly and pompous bank manager of the TSB, Mr Adrian Dunbar, who wore a pinstriped suit, red-silk bow tie and matching handkerchief sticking out of his breast pocket. He had a slight lisp and was shocked when given the reason for the detectives’ visit. He said that no one who had come to the bank had been acting suspiciously and there had been no reports of suspicious sounds of any kind, be it machinery or hammering. He was very confident and was not in any way overly concerned.
‘The vault is on a timer and can only be opened during banking hours. Just the assistant manager and I know the code, and if you get it wrong twice it triggers the alarms. In addition, any attempt to cut through the steel vault will cause an inner vibration which will set the alarm off and cause an iron shutter to come down between the outer entry door and the vault itself, making it impossible to exit.’
Bradfield and Kath were shown the vault area. The massive steel door with the big locking wheel in its centre was certainly impressive.
‘As you can see it is impenetrable. The vault is fireproof and airtight, and the air conditioning is turned on automatically when the door is correctly opened.’
‘Well, someone managed to break into the bank in Baker Street a couple of years ago and it was a similar setup.’
‘I am aware of that, Detective, and so were the people who built the vault and installed the security for this bank and I can assure you it is not a similar set-up. Our vault is, as I said, impenetrable. This steel wall is twelve inches thick.’ Dunbar slapped the palm of his hand against it.
‘Well, I hear you loud and clear, Mr Dunbar, but isn’t there a possibility that even with all this high-level security the robbers could be intending to come up beneath the vault?’
Mr Dunbar laughed and dismissed the possibility, saying that when the rebuilding was commissioned they had laid thick wire-meshed concrete and the steel floor was inches thick. Kath glanced at the disappointed Bradfield as it really did appear they had the wrong bank. Even when asked about the contents secured in the vault Mr Dunbar was less than forthcoming and said that over four hundred customers used the facility due to the impressive security measures. His pomposity hardly flagged when he said that the bank took every precaution with regard to their customers’ property and the whole point of the vault was privacy. Each client had a key to their personal secure box and the bank held a second key – both keys were required to open the box. A log book had to be signed and dated by the customer before permission was granted for them to remove and view the contents of their box in private. They would then take it out of the vault and into a small secure room where they could view their valuables, or if they wished to simply place an item in a box there was a table inside the vault to use. A member of staff was always present outside the room, and as the bank manager Dunbar would try and deal with the customers personally.
‘Can you tell us what the deposit boxes contain?’ Kath asked.
‘I don’t know, they are private, but I imagine it more than likely money, jewellery, antiques, private letters and wills.’
‘Could you show us inside the vault, please, Mr Dunbar?’ she asked.
‘I suppose so, but this is all very irregular. Would you both please turn your backs while I press the code to disable the alarm.’
Bradfield glanced at Kath tight-lipped: it was as if the odious little man didn’t trust them.
