Chapter 12

     He was Dad, to me.  To everyone else, he was Jeremy M. Benson, or Officer Benson.  To me he was not only my mentor, but also my savior, and often times my protector as I was growing up.  As a teenager, he nurtured and protected me, and most of the times he was overprotective of me.  I remember being on restriction a lot as a teen.  I spent more time in my room for silly little infractions of the rules, than anyone I knew.  I was sheltered and naďve as a child and into early adulthood.

Chapter 13

     Dad had a sense of humor.  He said,

     “The Detectives had to cover all the bases to make sure you are not the Mastermind behind the robbery.”

He laughed, Lacy laughed, and I looked at him with a cockeyed grin, and then realized he had actually put me at ease with his pun. 

    “You’re very funny Dad.” 

I told him.

I stayed for about an hour or so.

     I never quite understood why I could go out and in one day, come home employed, and Ben could make a career of job hunting. 

     To my surprise, the only ones to show up this night were Andy and I.

  Chapter 14

     “Well I am looking you know, but nobody is hiring right now.” 

I thought to myself, yeh!  That seems to be the favorite excuse.  I decided not to ad fuel for another fight, as we had just made up, so to him I said,

     “I know, but in the meantime we need more money coming in.  We have to pay the phone bill and the electric.  Then the rent is due the week after that.” 

         “What do you mean we are safer now?” 

To this he replied,

     “I carry my pistol to work with me now.” 

I also noticed he was locking the door after we were both there.

Chapter 15

     In the morning, As I entered the factory, I tried to put all other thoughts out of my mind except why I was here.  I noticed right away, the place looked the same as it did when I worked here three years ago. 

     “Can I get an application?  I heard you are hiring now.” 

     “Yes of course.” 

Andrea Thomson, the secretary, then reached into the top drawer of her desk and pulled out two sheets of paper.  As she handed the pages to me, she said,

     “You are in luck, Jeff is here and doing interviews this morning."

“You seem to have come at the right time, and your old position is available.  You can start right now.  Do you have any problem with that?”

Chapter 16

     There was a pile of material pieces on one side of the machine.   I kept busy, and the afternoon went as fast for me as the morning had.  The bell sounded to let everyone know it was quitting time.  Everyone put a small piece of material under the needles of the rows of machines and headed for the break room to get personal items from the lockers and punch out.  I was now in a big hurry to go; I had to make it to the bank to cash my check from the knitting mill.  Today was Friday and that meant the bank would be open late.  I cashed my check and headed home to grab a quick bite and go to sleep so I would have at least four or five hours before getting ready for my last shift of the week at the knitting mill.

Chapter 17

When I arrived home, Ben was just waking from an after noon nap.  Well nice to see one of us is getting enough sleep.  This I stated to myself, to him I asked,

     “Did you get enough sleep?” 

He could hear the sarcasm in my voice and he did not honor me with an answer.

  This was the latest I had ever gotten to work, since the first day I started the job.  Andy was panicking.  He thought I was not going to show up.  I explained to him that I had overslept. 

Chapter 18

     On Monday morning,  Ben came out dressed in his job hunting clothes and let me know he would be taking me to work.  The day went smoothly and after the shift was over, I went out to find Ben was not there.  No surprise there, I thought.  He finally showed up about an hour late.

 I was at work at my usual time.  The night went smoothly.  When I arrived home,

    Ben was not up yet.  I walked into the bedroom and was shocked at the sight…

Chapter 19

      I made the call to Laura.  She said,

     “Preston and I will be over to pick you up."  I needed to write a letter for Ben and leave it on the table.

 Dear Ben,

I am sorry, but I give up.  I have tried to make it work for the last time…

I am going to stay with Laura and Preston until I can get things together.  Please do not come over there, as it will not help matters.  I have made up my mind and I will not change it as I have in the past.

     No Love left,

     Annie

Chapter 20

      Ralph, and I hit it off from the start.  We sat up all night and talked.  It was now 1973, and I had just had my 21st birthday.  Ralph and I had been seeing each other now for a whole three weeks, when we decided to leave the state together.  We were going to head for the West coast, California here we come. 

     We never did make it to California; instead, we ended up in Iowa.  We were lucky, we found jobs at the first place we went to apply, and by that evening, we were moving in to our first apartment together.

     Our jobs were in Dunell, Minnesota.  Our boss called for us both to come to his office.  

      The only other call I had to make was to Detective Jameson.  I let him know we were taking The Unexpected Trip.

Chapter 21

     After the trip, we decided to move back to Pennsylvania.  Ralph had asked me to marry him, I accepted and we decided on a date.  We would be married on June 2, 1974.

     As it turned out my divorce from Ben was final five days prior to that date.  I was a free woman for a total of five days.

     By the time, the two-year anniversary of the robbery came around Ralph had decided to re-enlist in the Navy.  By the time we were ready to leave, I had just found out we were expecting our first child. The day was coming quick now for us to pull out and get on the road once again headed for the west coast…

Chapter 22

       We had only been living in the house for one week when I went into labor.    The staff at the clinic wasted no time in shipping me off in an ambulance.  The Tripler Medical Center was an hour’s drive from our housing.  I delivered my first-born child.  She was very premature.  She only weighed 1 pound and 15 ounces at birth, and was 13 inches long.  We named her Kindra.  She was due on July 31, 1975, but arrived on May 8, 1975.  She was our little miracle baby.  Before long a child was lost and another born.

    Time seemed to fly by now and one day as promised, I received a letter.  It was the middle of 1977, when the letter letting me know, the statute of limitations was finally up on the 1972 robbery…

THE END