Ockham's Razor: A Deductive Riddle

Chapter 19

Dean, Lauren and Ian sat in their Traveltel hotel room the following morning. It was painfully apparent that Dean had spent the night there. The room was littered with about twenty beer cans, a half bottle of vodka, and a gallon of orange juice. It had the stale smell of sweat and tobacco. It was also evident that Dean had not spent the night alone.

Lauren, disgusted by being in the room, initiated the conversation about the planning.

Ian, quite willing to let Lauren lead, for now, sat on the stiff chair by the desk. Lauren started the conversation by sitting on a footstool. Dean was inappropriately lazing on the bed.

"Ok, let's get down to business. I've been given the responsibility of blacking out the security cameras. I intend to do this with black spray paint..."

"Wait a minute!" interjected Dean. "Why are you leading? I don't recall anyone making you the leader of this team."

"Really, dude?" replied Lauren. "You interrupted me for a power play?"

"Listen, DUDE," the stress on that last word increased the tension in the room by an order of magnitude. "The Benefactor made me responsible for the work in the bank. You are ONLY responsible for taking care of security. Punch boy there is for the getaway. That makes me the key part of this. I am the leader."

Ian detected the stress on the word "only" and saw Lauren's jaw tighten. This was not good. He did not know Lauren very well at all, but he surmised that she did not suffer fools wisely and could quit the job. And that would put Ian's freedom at risk.

After a very tense moment, Ian finally spoke up. Lauren appeared to be giving them the silent treatment. "Dean, by your own logic, we are not the leaders. Those guys, Rab and the other two are the ones doing the real job. We are the diversion." He paused to think carefully how to proceed. "All of us are required for our diversion. Now let's not argue over stupid things of little value. And Lauren has obviously put some thought into this, so let her start and we'll merge plans later."

This seemed to placate Dean. Ian noted to himself that Dean looked like he wanted any glory that would come from this. Ian did not know how glory would come, but Dean would be looking for it.

Lauren continued, "I've been in the bank and I have seen where the two cameras are. I can get the cameras blacked out within fifteen seconds of entering the building. Once you, Dean, get the staff to shut the safe I am to drop my backpack at the door and exit the building. I then jump into the escape the vehicle. That's my part."

Ian looked at Dean. "I think you should go next, as I have nothing to bring to the discussion until you leave the bank."

Dean sat up. He cleared his throat and as he did another wave of stale booze emanated from his mouth. "Once I get inside, I'm going to wait for Lauren to black out the first camera. I'll then get everyone's attention. I'm not supposed to use a weapon. I don't know how to do it, but I'll come up with something. Once I get the staff moving, I'll make it like I want them to fill up my satchel. Once the safe is closed, I'll exit the building," his voice then became clearly snarky, "I won't take anything. Then, with Lauren, we get into the getaway vehicle, and it's up to you to get us away." With that he looked right at Ian.

Ian took a breath. Both had mentioned a getaway vehicle. He was not sure how they would take the fact that they would have to ride to freedom.

"We will arrive at the bank on bicycles."

"We'll do what?" Dean interjected loudly. Ian had feared this, and Dean's play for authority earlier did not change his thoughts. He had already worked out how he would lay it out to them.

"Let me finish, then complain" Ian retorted. "We'll get there on bikes. I'll set them up outside the door on the left. Once you get out of the building, I'll block traffic on Kingfisher. We'll ride north through the residential streets, cross the pedestrian bridge, get to the commercial complex in west Great Plains. Once there, I'll have a cargo van there for us to ride into. Once the bikes are in there, all trace of us will be gone."

Ian had been switching his eyes from one to the other. Dean was overtly aggressive to the plan. Lauren seemed to be conducting her own assessment of it and it appeared that she understood the rationale behind it.

"You expect me to pedal a bike that distance? What about getting tired? What about me getting killed crossing traffic? What about me getting caught for going too slow?"

"Look," Ian began, "I will block traffic at Kingfisher. There is a construction site on Academy that will have traffic slowed down. I'm blocking access to the pedestrian bridge until we get there. Crossing Lewis and Clark is the only element we cannot control. However, once there, we can cross half at a time. It should take us less than ten minutes from exiting the bank to getting to the van. All you have to do is follow me. As for speed. I have already run the route, and bikes will move faster through the streets than cars. The one area that will give us the greatest advantage will be cutting through a school yard. I've got that well in hand." Ian was hoping his calm explanation would calm Dean. It did not.

Dean's colour in his face turned a dark shade of red. He started hissing his breath. He was ready to burst. Ian cut him off.

"Listen. I've tried to tell you that I've handled everything. Let me put it this way. The damned Benefactor has charged me with getting you away from the bank. The area is too hard to get away by vehicle. This is the best way to do it. It will be by bike. Do you hear that?"

It was Lauren who defused the situation. "Ian, I think this is a good plan. What is the fall away plan if something goes wrong? I think that is what Dean really wants to know."

Ian took a quick look at Dean, he was calming down, but did not seem too happy. He was using Lauren's interjection as an excuse to back off. Ian saw that Lauren had worded her concern so that it appeared he was still the leader. Good call on her part.

"As a backup, we can ride down the bike paths," Ian started inventing "until we get to Oxbow Park further west. We'll intermingle with the other bike riders until we can get across the river and disperse to the four winds."

Dean seemed satisfied with this. Lauren actually smiled at Ian. "That's great."

Ian sat back. While it was not a smooth explanation, it provided him a good chance to evaluate his partners. Lauren, he confirmed, is the solid partner. He could rely upon her. She had a good head on her shoulders and it appeared that she had a solid, analytical mind. She was not a "looker' as far as attractiveness was, but her maturity and ability to process information had a certain appeal for him. Her meekness from the meetings with the Benefactor was gone. A show, for the sake of making the Benefactor under estimate her? Perhaps, once this was over, he would try to ask her out. After all, Ian was tired of only dating pretty girls with empty heads. There was something different about Lauren.

Dean, on the other hand, was a concern. Based upon the limited interaction that Ian had had with him, and the evidence of what went on in this room last night, and his need for glory and "leadership" roles, where nothing exists... it told Ian that Dean was a very superficial person. He seemingly would only do something if it was cool, or appeared to be cool. He was argumentative, needed validation and was likely very unreliable. However, he was the bank man in this job, and there was seemingly no way out. So, Ian would have to find a way to work with Dean, as unpleasant as that may be.

The three of them agreed to meet daily at the hotel at noon until the date of the robbery was given to them. The daily meeting would allow them to not share phone numbers. Given how distasteful working with Dean and the robbery itself was becoming, the less they knew about each other, the better. Keeping their meetings daily would allow them to keep abreast of any changes.

At this point, change was the last thing Ian wanted.