The Bank Job by Alex Gray Page A

making their way to offices all over the city. A nine-to-five job that paid well wasn’t a bad thing at all, especially as it wasn’t going to last for ever.
    He paused mid-stride to admire the Ca’ D’Oro building. His History of Art studies had given him a new perspective on his home city, its architectural gems frequently making him smile with pride.
Always look up
, his tutor had told him. And now he did just that, seeing an expanse of blue beyond the decorated rooftops. The summer’s morning was already warm, and he resented having to stay indoors in the stuffy cash room all day, but the thought of picking up his first pay cheque had put a spring in the young man’s step. The work at the bank was deadly dull and his colleagues were not exactly the sort he’d choose to accompany on a night out but the rewards for a student holiday job were there all right. Besides, there was rugby training after work and he was looking forward to the exercise as well as sinking a pint or two with the lads in the Students’ Union.
    The blue and white police tape across the entrance to the neoclassical façade of the bank stopped William Lorimer in his tracks. Glancing up, he noticed that the solid wooden doors to the banking hall were shut fast, its grand marble floor hidden from sight. It wasn’t his usual way in to the building but he stood and stared nevertheless.
    ‘Sorry, sir, they’re closed for business this morning.’
    William’s six-foot-four frame might have towered over the uniformed officer barring his way but the look of authority in this cop’s expression made him take a step backwards.
    ‘I work here,’ he said, shifting his sports bag from one shoulder to the other.
    The officer looked him up and down for a moment.
    ‘Got any ID on you?’
    William rummaged in his trouser pocket for his railcard and flipped it open. The officer squinted at it and nodded.
    ‘Round the side door. There’ll be one of the staff to check you in,’ he said shortly, looking thoughtfully at the tall student.
    William nodded back, curious. The side entrance was the one he usually used. The banking hall was where the tellers worked, not the sort of people he saw on a day-to-day basis.
    ‘Worked here long, have you?’ the policeman asked.
    ‘Just a month,’ William shrugged. Then he gave the officer a tentative grin. ‘First pay packet today. What’s happened anyway?’ He glanced past him at the front door closed to the public. ‘Someone rob the bank?’ he joked.
    The police officer shot him a strange look. ‘You’ll find out soon enough, son,’ he replied.
    Then, as William Lorimer strode off, the policeman spoke into a radio handset, his eyes following the student around the side of the building until he disappeared out of sight.
    William was no longer smiling as he sat at his place in the cash room, fingers counting the dirty banknotes that lay in banded bundles on the curved counter. All around him staff were whispering about the raid.
    ‘Happened just before closing time last night,’ he heard one of them say.
    ‘Wonder why it wasn’t on the news?’ another ventured.
    Nobody had spoken to him at all this morning, William realised as he secured a pile of notes with an elastic band and placed the counted bundle at the back of his table. Mind you, it was pay day and he knew that the woman who sat to his left thought it unfair that a
student with no previous experience
should be on a better scale than most of the
hard-working folk
in this room just because he had a decent clutch of Higher Certificates. Ethel was large and stout, with several chins that wobbled as she munched her way through a daily packet of digestive biscuits. She had never offered even one to the young man by her side.
    ‘Lorimer!’
    All talk stopped as the cashiers turned to see the bank manager enter the long narrow room, his clipped moustache bristling with suppressed indignation as he scanned the seated figures.
    ‘This your bag?’ Mr