Dick smiled and squeezed his wife’s hand. “Tomorrow we start getting ready. We must leave no clues behind. I’ll leave $400 with our realtor to take care of the remaining month on our lease. All our bills are paid. We can take only essentials and won’t leave a forwarding address. Pack whatever you need to take care of the kids for a few days. We will be traveling by car and moving fast. The KGB will be able to track us by the banks I visit to get our money.

“There are five banks I must visit in the next week. There will be long hours in the car. Where we can, I’ll leave you all in a motel, while I take what we need from the safety deposit boxes. When we have been to all the banks, we have to think through every move. The first six to eight months will be the most dangerous.

“You’re good at reading maps. When we pick up our escape car, you can start planning our routes. We’ll change cars in Minneapolis, and I’ll visit the bank and then on to Chicago.”

 

March 1975

 

Three days later, the Olsens pulled into the Minneapolis Airport in their three-year-old Dodge sedan early in the morning. This is the last of the Olsens, Dick thought. When we get back in the car, we will be a different family. We will be Frank and Alice Kincaid and children Jack and Christina. I don’t want to confuse Jack with constantly changing his name. Christina is too young to notice. Switching identities adds stress to all our lives. I’m looking forward to the time we can all be Brandons. In the next two years we’ll have to deal with identity changes and all its complications.

Dick let his wife and two children off at the departure gate for Northwest Airlines, so they would look like they were catching a leaving flight. Sue took the children through the interior of the airport then moved up to the arrival gate area where they would wait for Dick to pick them up and assume their new identities. Two weeks earlier Dick had parked a year-old Ford station wagon in the long-term lot. There was an empty space beside the station wagon, and Dick pulled the Dodge in the empty space. It took only a few minutes to transfer the baggage and do a final check of the Dodge’s interior for anything he might have missed earlier. The Ford station wagon started up despite its wait in the cold weather.

He pulled to the curb at the Northwest arrival gate and Sue, now Alice, who had been watching for the grey Ford wagon, came out with the still bundled-up children. Jack was lifted into the backseat and strapped into a child’s car seat. Alice held Christina on her lap. The chill of the car’s interior had given way to the powerful car heater. She leaned over and gave her husband a kiss.

“This is an improvement, Mr. Frank Kincaid. Much more space. If we had to we could sleep in the car.”

“I’ll try to do as well on the next change. The Ford dealer was happy to make a cash deal. This is a good car. Equipped with tires to handle bad weather. I think it is supposed to snow later today. I hope we are in Chicago before the roads get icy. You and the kids will have to stay in the car while I go in the bank here. I want to find street parking within a few blocks of the bank. It shouldn’t take me more than 30 minutes. As soon as I come out, we’ll leave for Chicago. We can have lunch at a McDonald’s. Okay?”

“Yes, and I can feed the baby while we’re waiting for you. I have crackers and chocolate milk for Jack. We’ll be okay. Go and make us rich. Never thought I would be married to a bank robber.”

“Hey, it’s our money. I’m just withdrawing it a bit early.”

“Somehow, I don’t think the KGB will accept that explanation.”