EARLY JOE KEPPLER

From 'THE ARMORED TRUCK MYSTERY' in EARLY JOE KEPPLER

CHAPTER I

Gerry Hogan was having a slow morning. She had clocked in only six customers through her register since opening nearly an hour ago at the big Marlboro Giant Supermarket. Most of the customers that early had just dropped in for a few small items and used the ten and fifteen items lines. It would be a while before the onslaught of stay-at-home moms would arrive ready to fill their carts with some real heavy duty shopping. For now the moms were probably sitting back having a long awaited cup of coffee congratulating themselves on having gotten the kids off to school another day in plenty of time to catch the school bus. Friday had been payday so it was time again to participate in their favorite pastime, the joy of shopping. Armed with coupons and one or two little ones who weren’t yet old enough for school, they would enter in twos and sometimes threes. It made for more fun. They would trade gossip, get the shopping done and give the kids an outing all in one swoop.

Today was Monday and since business was slow, Gerry began to do a bit of reminiscing about her fabulous weekend. Dan had actually surprised her. He had made arrangements for the kids to stay with her parents and they had the entire weekend to themselves. Dining, dancing, spending more money than they could afford, what was he up to? He must be covering up something she hadn’t found out about, yet. And to add to her suspicion, he had actually bought roses. Well never mind, she was just going to enjoy it, and not look too hard and not ask too many questions.

With time on her hands, Gerry turned to look out in the direction of the parking lot. The day was nice and sunny, the usual few scattered cars left by late shift employees and others whose owners were taking advantage of the lack of a morning rush were parking in close. Two painters in coveralls were busy repainting the handicapped parking spaces directly in front of the store and off in the distance was a man changing a flat on a beat-up red Chevy.

“My, don’t we look lovely today? When are you going to leave that husband of yours and fly away with me to some deserted South Pacific island?”

She didn’t have to look. It was Joe Ellis again. He had come by for his usual pack of cigars. She could count on it. Everyday he bought a pack of cigars before going off to work down at the tobacco warehouse and everyday he had a new line that he’d thought up overnight and would use to flirt with her. With that big belly and that dreaded cigar smell he had, she wondered why he would think that any woman would go away with him, unless of course she was a cigar smoker herself.

“I keep telling you what you have to do to get me to go with you and you keep ignoring me,” Gerry said. “Get the tickets for me and the kids and turn over your bank book to me and I’m ready,” she chided back.

“You know I just forgot to have your name put on my bankbook. I’ll try to remember to do that this week. My, my, you sure fit nicely in them jeans,” Joe Ellis said.

She ignored his last remark, rang up his bill and gave him his receipt and change.

“Bye, Darlin’, see you tomorrow.” With that Joe Ellis had the last word. Gerry watched him smiling as he went out the door.

While they had been talking, the armored truck that usually came by to pick-up the weekend receipts, had moved into its usual parking place and one of the painters was apparently talking to one of the guards in the passenger seat. She took a closer look and saw that he no longer was holding a paintbrush but was holding what looked like a handgun. The man had also pulled down what looked liked a stocking over his face. The other “painter” was now getting into the act. As the guard dismounted from the passenger side, he took his place next to the driver. He too had a handgun. The dismounted guard was now being forced into the back of the armored truck.

“Robbery! Robbery!” Gerry yelled at the top of her voice. “They’re robbing the armored truck!” she said, pointing in the direction of the action outside the store.

Jim Jacobs, from his position in the loft office, immediately locked the doors, picked up the phone and dialed 911. His assistant rushed out on the floor.

“Everybody get down. They’ve got guns! The doors are locked and we’re notifying the police,” the assistant said.

The truck began to move away rapidly, tires screeching as it headed from the parking lot out to the main street and making a right turn on to Route #664. It took about five minutes before the first squad car arrived on the scene. Jacobs open the front door to let the officer in. Customers, seeing that it was all over headed for the door but were stopped by the officer who instructed Jacobs not to let anyone leave and to only let policemen enter.

The officer asked to use the store speaker system to make an announcement. Jacobs obliged. The officer spoke into the mike.

“I’m sorry, folks. I’m Officer Banks. You are all potential witnesses. I can’t let you go just yet. As soon as we get some more officers in here and get your names and addresses, and phone numbers, we’ll be able to let most of you go. Please bear with me.”

There was some mumbling and groaning about having to get to work and several other important places just as two other squad cars appeared on the scene. The officers came in with guns drawn, but seeing that Officer Banks had everything under control, re-holstered their weapons, pulled out pen and pads and immediately began to ask questions about who saw what. It seemed that no one noticed anything until Gerry began shouting; “Robbery.” Most of the shoppers had jobs to go to and were allowed to leave as soon as they showed identification to the officers and left the information they wanted. A crowd of potential customers had driven up and were waiting outside to get in. Some left, others waited and were curious as to what happened and wanted to question departing customers as they were permitted to leave the store.

As the key witness, Gerry could just see herself being tied up for days at the county police office. And whenever the bad guys were caught, perhaps hours if not days on the witness stand. And what would happen to her if she testified against them and it didn’t stick? She could be in a world of trouble. Seems like she should have taken Joe Ellis up on that trip to a beautiful isle, then she wouldn’t be in all this trouble. She’d have to lay down some ground rules with the police. She would not talk until she had been insured that her name and address would not be given to the media. She’d like to get on television but not this way. Gosh, she knew the day hadn’t started out so quietly for nothing.

Jim Jacobs was the only one who had something to smile about. The dummies had made their move too soon. Another five minutes and they would have had his weekend receipts as well.

* * *

A Joe Kepper Mystery. XLibris Corporation, c2003. ISBN: 1-4134-4319-2 (Hard Cover) $28.79; ISBN: 1-4134-4318-4 (Soft Cover) $18.69, Library of Congress 2003099470.

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