***

As Nick and Jake walked out of the mental hospital Jake commented on Ralph. “He doesn’t seem like he belongs in there.”

“You’re right on most days, but sometimes he is seized by incredible rage that makes him want to tear apart anything and anyone that gets in between him and what he considers justice.”
***

When Nick and Jake returned they got quite a pleasant surprise, because once they explained that the robber was probably still in the bank Rachel stepped forward. “If the robber is still in the bank then we can detect him quickly. He got knocked into the pack of lightly radiated bills when he fought with the bank manager so he got some radiation on his clothes, which means that we can track him.”

“Okay, you guys do that, I’m still looking for someone who was actually in the bank to set off the knockout gas though,” Captain Steel stated, with still a lot of stress obvious on her face but not quite as much as a few minutes ago.

So without another word Rachel picked up a small, but sophisticated looking device and turned it on. It made a crinkling sound as Rachel waved it in one direction and it got louder as she waved it in the opposite direction. “I’ve picked up the radiation, he’s somewhere under these tiles.”

“Good, when we get him out we can question him to find out who helped him,” Jake said.

“I hope you have patience though, this guy won’t be talking for awhile,” Nick said after he pulled up some tiles and looked in to see a large snoring man hugging a big bulging bag of money. Then Nick noticed something that made him take on a more serious tone. “There’s suppose to be two bags of money, where’s the other bag?”

Just then Zach’s voice cut above the sound of everyone else. “Captain Steel, I can’t find Mrs. Leon.”

“There’s the answer to your question,” Rachel said.

“Wow, she wears awful sweaters, she gets in front of the power point when she’s trying to present them and if that wasn’t a big enough list of problems she robbed a bank,” Jake commented.
***

Later that day Mrs. Leon was captured, but without the second bag of money and all that she would say was that she hadn’t done anything wrong, except running away from interrogation to save her turkey from burning in the oven at her home. Everyone knew that she was lying, but the problem was that they still didn’t have any real evidence against her. So naturally Captain Steel was extremely upset, she was so close, and yet she couldn’t get Mrs. Leon.

“For the last time, everyone knows you’re lying, so where’s the money!” Captain Steel shouted.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Mrs. Leon said, in her best attempt at an innocent old lady voice.

Just then there was a powerful raping on the door. Captain Steel answered the door to see Nick on the other side. “I’m about to make you very happy,” Nick said as he went through the door with papers in his hands. “You see, I knew that you were communicating with the security guard somehow, and when it turned out that the robber sat in a surveillance room all day I realized that you probably communicated through a visual code, since sound doesn’t go through those cameras at all. Then I realized that I had seen instructions for how to rob the bank, on your sweater. It was quite a clever code, but fortunately for us it was preserved forever in the surveillance room. You see, the purpose of the orange stripe on your sweater, and the power point was so that the orange stripe would highlight certain words, every time that you stepped in front of the slide the letters that you wanted were projected onto your shirt, basically highlighted, just as I’ve done here. I’ve highlighted all of the words in your power point that got on your sweater.”

At that point Nick laid out the papers that he had set on the table, and Captain Steel read as follows.

We used to be a great bank,
but we have been failing recently,
So, we have to start making better choices tonight!

We have done badly, due to this recession,
and it’s the truth when I say that
we rob ourselves with too many bad deals.

So, we must try some new things,
we must try if we don’t want
the bank to fail.

We need to start by impressing a different group of people.
We could save money by not buying lollipops,
Or we could wear special uniforms to create a sense of order.

No matter what though we need to get more customers,
and we need to save more money, we need to show
who we really are, we can’t cover ourselves with a mask any more.


For far too long we have been in debt.
For far too long we have not shown our true selves.
For far too long we have been walking a bad path.

So I suggest that we devote more money into customer service.
That way we can prove to our customers how good we are,
because right now we are moving backwards instead of forward.


“Don’t worry, actually you should be thanking me. Where you’re going you’ll be given a much better looking outfit than what you’re wearing now,” Nick said as Mrs. Leon was ushered out of the room in handcuffs.