The Matchmaker Bandits: The Great Museum Robbery

The Matchmaker Bandits: The Great Museum Robbery

Chapter One – “A Night At The Museum”

It was about 2:30 in the morning on a Friday of the second week of September and it was unseasonably warm outside.

The fact that it was 78 degrees outside made me glad that my job did not require me to work outdoors.

The company I worked for had received the contract to upgrade the computerized network system of the Museum of Arts and Sciences. Since the museum was to open for a new exhibit of rare Egyptian artifacts on the following morning, Joni and I were given one night to complete the job.

I had already been working with Joni for about three months now and we had already developed the comfortableness with each other that new friends start to have.

As the client was not going to be present while we were working, we had both decided to be comfortable and dress casually.

Besides being both very competent and hard-working, Joni was also quite attractive. She has short curly red hair, nice firm breasts and the sexiest pouting lips.

I had always made it a point as a professional not to allow myself to be distracted by such things while on the job… but this time was to be the exception.

I found it increasingly more difficult to concentrate on the job, as Joni had showed up to work that night wearing a cute white blouse, with frills on both collar and sleeves, and a neckline cut just low enough to show enough of her ample bosom to keep me distracted. To make things worse, she was also wearing a somewhat provocative pair of tight red shorts that perfectly accented her curly red hair.

She was busy wiping each workstation and installing the new Operating System on them. Meanwhile, I was working on the last stages of the upgrade on the second of three servers.

She turned to me and said, “Jim, I’m going out to the van and get my utility disk. This damn thing has a boot sector virus on it! I’ll be back in a second.”

As she headed toward the exit I called to her, “Hey, while you’re out there, can you see if there is still some change lying around? I’m dying for some caffeine and sugar.”

“Sure, need anything else?” She asked.

“Nope, just the caffeine fix. Thanks.” Admittedly, a caffeine fix was not the first answer that came to my mind when she asked that last question.

She had been gone a little longer than I expected and I was busy banging away at the keyboard when I heard her voice calling me, “Jim.”

“Just a second, I am almost done.” I said without looking up from the computer screen.

“JIM!” she said louder with urgency in her voice.

When I looked over at her I instantly realized why she was so insistent about getting my attention. Standing behind her were a man and a woman dressed in what appeared to be security guard’s uniforms; both were wearing one of those cheap plastic Lone Ranger masks you buy for Halloween. The man was holding Joni’s arm behind her back and an old style .38 police special to her head. The woman was pointing a similar weapon directly at me. “They’re robbing the museum, Jim!” Joni said with fear in her voice.

“Keep your mouths shut. Do as you are told and don’t give us any trouble and you wont get hurt.” The female robber said to us. “Don’t,” she continued, “and the cops will be creating their own artwork on the floor with chalk! Get the picture?”

Chapter Two – “Boxed And Ready To Go”

While the woman held her weapon on Joni, her companion took me to a storage room located near the museum’s loading dock. I was forced to help him uncrate, then cover with padding, several large paintings that the museum’s personnel had apparently prepared for shipping and subsequent pickup.

The man handed me a 1½-inch drill bit, the likes of which you might use to install a doorknob. He pointed to one of the cordless drills, which I can only assume was used by the museum staff to seal crates, and then told me to drill several holes in one that was unused along with its accompanying lid. Both crate and top were insulated with thick plastic covered padding; and the crate, except for some packing blankets, was empty.

I started to worry when it occurred to me that the crate was just large enough for two people.