Ockham's Razor: A Deductive Riddle

Chapter 20

Over the next half dozen days Ian found himself thinking more about his role in the job. He did not think he was obsessing over it, but he did catch himself thinking about contingencies, and options should things go sideways.

He checked in daily to the Traveltel Motel. Despite initial reluctance to stay there, it was truly evident that Dean was using it as his own personal residence. Lauren stopped coming after three days stating "if they truly want me, they will know where to find me." Ian found that attitude to be mightily attractive, and he secretly wished he had her confidence in dealing with this challenging situation.

Dean seemed to be loving it. Clean room, free television, free wifi. This room looked like a dorm room for a college student. While the evidence of partying and "guests" staying over was never as overt as it was that first night, Ian had no doubts that Dean was being Dean.

Ian understood from the outset that working with Dean would be a challenge. After all, here was a guy that Ian assessed would only do something if it was cool. He seemed lazy and motivated to do nothing but provide pleasure for himself. But, the potential payoff from this job would likely make things really easy, and pleasurable, but Dean did not want to invest any time in practicing, rehearsing or doing anything other than sitting in the room watching the 24-hour movie channels.

It all came to a head within the first week. Ian entered the motel room to see Dean in tracksuit bottoms and nothing else sitting on the bed watching TV. Lauren was nowhere to be found.

"Eh Dean. How do you feel about riding with me to see the escape route I have planned?"

"Screw that." It was a short response. Not quite what Ian expected.

"Why not? You should know it before we ride it for real."

"Why? It's your job to get us away."

"No. It's my job to run the escape route. Your job is to follow me to get away."

"Yeah, right. My job is to hold up the bank. I have the key job. You are merely a support job, to support me. If you want to ride your stupid route, get Lauren to join you."

Ian bit his tongue. While he suffered no delusions of grandeur to think that he was anything more than a pawn in this, to see another pawn try to denigrate his task made his blood start to boil. He decided then and there that he did not like Dean, and would easily forget all about him once the job was done.

Now, Lauren, on the other hand, was something else. Maybe she would ride the route.

While Dean was obviously living in the motel, and Lauren was conspicuously absent, Ian tried to play the middle. He did his daily checks, but also spent quite a bit of time back at his place. As he was there frequently, and preoccupied by the heist, his brain was working in overtime.

Dave began to wonder what was going on.

"It's nothing. I know exams are coming, I'm hurting for cash, lost a bet." Ian's lies came out as short, fact-like statements that were general enough that Dave would understand, but not too general that Dave would ask more questions. In reality, Ian had no exam problems, he still had a small fortune of Chicago money hidden in his apartment and he had not taken any bets at all since he had been to Chicago. But the challenge of the job was making him not be himself.

Dave, seemingly satisfied with the response given, carried on to the next topic, his job and the fact that they were looking for a few more employees. Would Ian like to work there?

At about the two-week mark, Ian found himself at a comfortable place with the getaway ride. He and Dean were able to tolerate each other long enough to have short conversations. He saw Lauren once, but she showed no interest in doing anything other than confirming that no date had been set for the heist.

That left Ian and his brain free to start thinking of other things. Sitting in the quiet of his apartment, he found his mind drifting towards Kate, someone he had not quite forgotten. Would this job give him enough to be able to impress her into going out with him? Either with finances or daring, he was not going to restrict how she got on his arm, he just wanted to have her be with him. Could he afford a lifestyle capable of keeping her attention? She did not act high maintenance, but with her intelligence, personality and drop-dead good looks, she would be getting a lot of attention.

He relaxed a bit fantasizing about taking a trip to somewhere warm, maybe Fiji, with Kate. Embraced in warm sunlight, drinking iced drinks on a beach, letting gentle breezes blow across their tanned bodies. That is the dream.

The heist, in his fantasy, was a stepping stone to getting to realize that dream.

A small noise in the corridor outside his apartment door caught his attention and snapped him out of his reverie. He quietly made his way to the door and cracked it open slightly. He could barely perceive the scent of perfume lingering in the air outside his door. Looking down, he saw the familiar shape of the plain white envelope with nothing written on it.

Apparently, the heist was on.