Chapter 241: the Deposit

"So what is this chore that is so important, I have to drop everything to do it right this minute?" Blevins asked.

"You are the shotgun guard on a stage coach," I said as I pulled the woody away from the curb in front of the old, almost downtown, converted school building. It had been renovated for the police station and city hall five years before I returned home. One of the things I loved about Aster was that everybody in town was into saving the town's history. Hell, you needed a special permit to demolish a building in the downtown.

"What the hell do you mean?" Blevins asked.

"Well this new cruiser kind of reminds me of a stage coach," I said. "And you are kind of guarding the payroll."

"So where are we headed?" Blevins asked.

"To Tryon to make a deposit in my bank," I replied. He just shook his head in amazement that I would ask him to ride along.

Exactly twenty minutes later we pulled into the parking lot, of the downtown branch, of the Bank of North America. I opened the rear door of the Woody, then I removed the large black nylon backpack.

Blevins followed me through the extra tall glass doors. The teller's windows were situated on the left side of the large lobby. First I went to one of the customer service representatives. The young man was on the phone, so I stood patiently. I also checked out every person who came into the bank. I thought, this would be a really bad time to try to hold up a bank using anything less than ten men with machine guns.

The Customer service guy covered the phone with his hand and asked, "Can I help you?"

"I need to make a rather large cash deposit." He held up his hand, then went back to talking on the phone. He waved toward the teller windows, as though dismissing me. I looked up at Blevins and shrugged with a big ole smile.

"Come on Max, let's just go over there," he said. "I know how you hate to wait in lines, but the line will be a shorter wait than standing here."

Blevins didn't know what I did, but I shrugged and walked to the sign that read 'Please Wait Here To Be Called'. I waited not really nervous, but I was in a state of high alert. Hell. who wouldn't be. Finally it was my turn in front of a teller. I looked up to see the Customer Service Representative typing on his computer. It looked as though Blevins might have been wrong, but only by a couple of seconds.

"How may I help you," the teller asked from behind her bullet proof glass.

"I need to make a cash deposit," I replied.

"Certainly, do you have a deposit slip." she asked.

"Believe it or not I do. I had filled out one even though I knew there would be more papers to fill out as well. I slipped the deposit slip into the small opening at the bottom of the glass. Before she looked at the deposit slip, I added, "The cash is in this back pack. It isn't going to fit through that opening in your glass." I smiled again.

Blevins looked concerned, as if his favor was going to take more than a few minutes. "Should I call the office?" he asked.

"I was thinking more of ordering pizza delivery," I said as the teller looked at the deposit slip.

"Is this a joke?" she asked.

"Not in the least," I replied. "You probably want to call over the manager or at least one of the Customer Service People." I saw her pick up her phone and then a second later the same Customer Service Rep, who had brushed me off, came hustling over.

"Could you come with me please?" he asked.

"Now Sonny listen to me carefully, since I finally have your undivided attention, I am not running all over this bank. I expect that with this kind of money, I can open an account next door, no sweat. So if you want to keep my business, we will do this transaction quickly and efficiently, Right?" I asked.

"Yes Ma'am, absolutely. I was going to suggest a private office for this kind of transaction might be in order." he said.

"And that is why I came to your desk initially. If you had really taken the time to listen to me this transaction would most likely be completed by now. Since you didn't, we have to start over."

"Yes ma'am walk this way please." he said moving gracefully to the small private office most likely used by all the employees who needed privacy.

"Sonny, I can't walk that way with this cane, but I'll follow you," I said just being bitchy.

The teller had given him my deposit slip, so when I put the backpack on the desk he knew what to expect. Even so he was awestruck by the sheer amount of cash in the back pack. I have to admit that I was as well. I'm sure Lamar and his people decided to use cash, just to impress me. Of course I wasn't impressed in the least. I was mostly miffed that it was such a pain in the ass to pass perfectly good money into the banking system.

Blevins waiting while I filled out two different forms. One was for the IRS and one was some kind of declaration about the funds not being derived from any criminal activity. I answered the questions as best I could.

"You understand the funds won't be available for three days on a deposit this large?" the customer rep said.

"Gee whiz honey," I said to Blevins, "I guess you will have to pay for dinner."

"Ms Stone, I'm the bank manager," A large very well dressed man said from the doorway. "I just wanted to say thank you for trusting us with your banking. You have always been one of our preferred customers."

"No, I really haven't been. I started with a retirement check from the United States Air Force. At that time, I couldn't get a credit card from anyone including you. But I do understand, lets just not be too full of crap. I do remember from where I came."