The Vault: An Origin Story

Old Money Millionaire Comes Home

By Tom Hammon | The Examiner
January 23, 2018
 

Multi-millionaire stock market savant Arthur Ramos has purchased property just outside of his hometown, Bakersville. Ramos has not lived in Bakersville since he was a child, but he seems to be coming home to stay.

“Mr. Ramos has applied for the permits to build a residence on the property,” said real estate agent Karen Arnold, who represented Ramos in the purchase.

The property is located on the west shore of the Pawtucket River and just north of the Port of Bakersville. Several local construction companies are expected to bid on the project.

Ramos Builds Massive House With Massive Vault

By Tom Hammon | The Examiner

June 30, 2018

Multi-millionaire stock market savant Arthur Ramos has been busy since purchasing a large amount property in Bakersville earlier this year. Construction is almost complete on his massive 20,000 square foot home.

In addition to the main house, it has been confirmed that there will be a tennis court, a boat house, and a guest house on the property. Ramos is also having a massive vault installed.

“He said it was for his family valuables,” said Bill Dawson, owner of Dawson & Sons Construction. Dawson & Sons won the bid for the project in February of this year.

The vault was originally purchased by Ramos’s grandfather in the late 1800s and has been moved twice since. It is an unusually large structure and took nearly a month to transport.

Ramos could not be reached for comment.

Arthur Ramos was a legend. He was the third installment in a dynasty of Ramos men who pursued wealth ruthlessly and were pretty good at catching it. Arthur’s grandfather found a niche in the newspaper business in Baltimore and then turned the money he made from that into real estate. Arthur’s father turned that real estate money into high dollar commercial real estate and then put his profits into construction. Arthur took the profits from those businesses and learned to play the stock market like a piano. Some of the bigger wins were as much luck as anything, but at the end of the day it wouldn’t be inappropriate to say that Arthur Ramos had more money than God.

Rudy White was also a legend, but in a much less flattering way. Every cop in every town he’d ever lived in knew his name. Rudy came from a long line of criminals, none of whom were very accomplished or interesting. His grandfather’s primary offenses were public intox, domestic violence, assault and battery, and petty theft. His father took to all of that and added his own twist with several charges of armed robbery, breaking and entering, and possession of narcotics. Rudy was known to dabble in all of the above, but his true passion was for burglary, armed robbery, and grand theft auto.

All three generations of White men were short and squatty with a head of reddish brown hair and a chip on their shoulder. In between crimes, they all managed to hold down jobs doing menial, unskilled labor of one sort or another. A lot of Rudy’s employment history was in janitorial services at a mall. He spent his days mopping floors, cleaning glass window panes, and despising all the rich folks who walked around wasting money on ugly shoes and gross smelling perfumes.

One day while Rudy was sweeping up bits of garbage at the mall, he found a discarded newspaper on a bench in the hallway. On the front page was yet another article about Arthur Ramos. Rudy snarled. Ramos represented everything that Rudy wasn’t. He had been born with everything and lived a life of luxury. Everyone drooled over the guy like he was some kind of special talent just for being born in the right family. Rudy spat on the newspaper before he put it in the trash can. “Someday someone will give that guy what he’s got coming to him,” thought Rudy.

A few nights later, Rudy was at a dirty little bar with sticky floors and cheap beers. He sat next to his friend (and occasional partner in crime) Al. They were drinking away their paychecks and becoming more opinionated by the hour. A jukebox with a blown speaker was playing country music in the background, and the only other patrons in the bar were shooting pool on a table with ripped felt. The middle aged bartender was doing something on her phone at the other end of the bar, so Rudy and Al felt like they had enough privacy to start talking shop.

“It isn’t fair, Al,” said Rudy, “Every day I go to that stupid mall and clean up after those mindless idiots who think they have real problems.”
 

“I hear ya,” said Al, “Guys like us are at work all day while they just walk around and throw away money on crap nobody really needs.”

“You’re telling me! I see the price tags on that stuff. There’s people that spend more on a pair of shoes or a new purse than I make in a day. Now tell me how that’s fair.”

“It’s not! Nothing about life ever is.” Al shook his head and looked for clarity in the bottom of his empty pint glass.

“Guys like us can’t even get by on the straight and narrow,” said Rudy, “Even with bending the rules and doing some redistribution of wealth we’re still barely making it.”

Al sat up straight and looked around frantically to see if anyone could hear their conversation.

“Relax, you coward. No one here is listening, and they wouldn’t care if they were. These are our kind of people!” Rudy swung his mug down onto the bar and then held it into the air. Everyone stopped to look for about half a second before going back to whatever they had been doing before the interruption.

“I just hope you don’t talk like that anywhere else,” muttered Al. “I could hear the sirens as we were wrapping up that last job.”

“Oh get over it,” said Rudy dismissively. “We had plenty of time. I’ve been robbing houses since I was 13, and I’ve never been close to getting caught.”

“You better knock on wood talking like that,” said Al. “Those shoppers at the mall might be able to afford a good lawyer, but you sure as hell can’t.”

“That’s true,” said Rudy, “But it doesn’t matter, cause I’d never let them take me alive.”

Both men ordered another beer and then continued the conversation.

“You know what’s crazy?” asked Al.

“What’s that?”

“I bet some of those soccer moms you see there at the mall haven’t ever even had a job. I bet their whole lives have just been handed to them. Living off their parents and then living off some man. Can you imagine?”

“No I can’t,” said Rudy. “But I’ll tell you, I respect even them more than I respect that Arthur Ramos. Privileged idiot. Everyone thinks he’s some kind of hero for getting a fortune handed to him the day he was born. Talk about never working a day in your life. Just handed to him.”

“They say he’s a good businessman,” said Al quietly.

“Oh sure he is,” said Rudy, rolling his eyes. “Did he business man his way into that giant vault full of treasure his granddad left him? Did he business man his way to owning his dad’s company?”

“The universe just gives more to some people, I guess,” said Al.

“It’s not fair,” said Rudy. “And you know what? Maybe Ramos has used up all his good luck!”

He stood up from the bar and knocked over his stool in the process.

“Maybe it’s time the universe took something back from that dick,” said Rudy. He walked out of the bar without paying his tab, jumped in the driver’s seat of his pickup truck, and drove off into the night.

Rudy wasn’t a particularly well educated man, but he had enough experience with breaking and entering that he could plan a burglary like a pro. He knew he couldn’t go to the Ramos estate immediately. He needed to do some research on the place, pack some tools, and establish an alibi. He drove with the window down, and his mind was racing. He didn’t realize it, but he kept licking his lips.

Before his shift at the mall the next day, Rudy went to the library and pulled up all the newspaper articles he could find about the new Ramos mansion. There weren’t a lot of pictures available, but he took careful notes on everything he could see. He looked and looked but could not find a single pictures of a camera or motion detector anywhere on the property past the front gate. This was particularly concerning because cameras you can see are easy enough to avoid. It’s the ones you can’t see that get you.

“Probably some fancy new high-tech stuff out there,” thought Rudy, but he shrugged it off. “Never stopped me before.”

Two nights later the preparations had been completed and it was time to put the plan in motion. Rudy started the night by stopping at a Texaco gas station and buying a 24 pack of cheap beer. He made sure to argue with clerk about the price of tobacco and rolling papers so that he’d make a memorable impression. Then he drove to Al’s house and parked his truck with the bed hanging out slightly into the road. Anyone who passed by would notice it.

“You sure you don’t want in on this?” he asked Al one last time.

“No,” said Al. “I’m staying on the straight and narrow these days. Good luck to you, though.”

About an hour later, Rudy had parked Al’s car next to a dock about half a mile down the river from the Ramos estate. During his research, Rudy had discovered that while the front and sides of the estate were surrounded by a tall iron fence with plenty of lights and cameras, there appeared to be nothing of the sort along the back side that bordered the river. While the front gates were tall and intimidating with a guard house, the dock in the back seemed completely open and almost inviting. Granted, the river was not heavily traversed by small boats, but there wasn’t any reason why one couldn’t be used on it. The locals all preferred the nearby lakes and ponds to the dirty, fast moving river for fishing, but Rudy wasn’t interested in catching fish.

He opened the bag that he had brought with him and put on what he had come to loving think of as his “super villain suit”. Over the years he had slowly put together what he found to be the perfect outfit for burglary. He wore soft-soled boots that wouldn’t make much noise when walking on any surface, black jeans, a black sweatshirt, a worn leather toolbelt around his waist, and a black cloth mask that covered his nose and mouth. He always felt better when he was wearing his suit. Like all the rules didn’t apply anymore. Like he was capable of anything. The angry fire that had burned inside him for his whole life didn’t have to be quite so hidden when he was on a job.

Rudy slung his backpack over his shoulders, buckled it in the front, and then hopped down into the small fishing boat that he had stashed there the previous day. It had a trolling motor, and he used it to slowly and quietly make his way toward the Ramos estate. He stayed close to shore, but just far enough out to avoid running aground too early. Luckily, Ramos had a dock with a light, so it was easy to see the target.

It only took about thirty minutes to reach the dock, and once he did, Rudy stepped out and tied up the boat. He crouched near it for about five minutes and listened for movement. Once he was convinced that no attack dogs or security guards were on their way, he crept up onto the massive lawn that surrounded the house, working his way from tree to building to tree. Except for the light on the dock and a few around the house and some of the other structures on the estate, it was completely dark. Rudy had done his homework, though, and he knew the layout of the place in great detail. Up on the left were the tennis courts. Straight ahead was the gazebo. To the right and closer to the house was the pool. The garage was further around on the side, and a massive garden was just on this side of the pool. There were lots and lots of trees, and Rudy kept an eye on the house as he worked his way between them.

From the time he landed, there hadn’t been a single sound made on the property. It was a cool night, and not even the insects were singing. There didn’t appear to be any movement inside the house, and there seemed to be only one room with the lights on. It was on the ground floor, and Rudy worked his way toward it. When he peered inside, he saw movement. He ducked quickly and listened intently, but he didn’t hear anything. When he slowly looked back inside, he was relieved to see the silhouette of someone casually walking down the hall away from the room with the light. When it finally reached the end of the massive hallway, the shadowy figure walked into what looked like a dimly lit bedroom and closed the door.

Rudy breathed a deep sigh of relief and then paused to take stock. He looked around the exterior of the house for cameras but saw none. He looked at the insides of the window panes for alarm wires but saw none. He tiptoed his way around to the front door, but there wasn’t even a sign for a home security company.

“This cocky bastard,” Rudy muttered. “He’s spent his whole life being the most powerful man in the room, and now he thinks no one can touch him. That changes tonight.”

That night Rudy had done things a little differently. In addition to the normal tools he would normally bring on a burglary, he had packed a few new additions. A tarp, zip ties, duct tape, a hacksaw, a sharp hunting knife. Rudy had always had dark fantasies, but the presence of others or a general fear of getting caught had always kept him from indulging them. Tonight might be different, though. Tonight might be the start of something new, he thought. He didn’t need a small time crook partner like Al. He didn’t need his job as a worthless janitor. He was so much more than those things. He was a force. An unstoppable force. And tonight he would prove it.

Rudy worked his way back around to the garage on the side of the house and freed the crowbar from his toolbelt. Before forcing the door, he reached down and tried the handle. To his complete surprise, it turned with no resistance, and the door opened easily on its decorative hinges. Rudy just shook his head.

“It’ll be a miracle if I’m the only one robbing this place tonight.”

The door from the garage into the laundry room was also unlocked, and in no time at all, Rudy was standing in the room into which he had previously looked from outside. It was a grand kitchen, but it seemed more functional than decorative. Rudy didn’t have any interest in stealing a microwave or a knife set. He was after things that were small and easy to carry, and he had a sneaking suspicion that there would be plenty of that if he kept looking.

The kitchen was on the far end of the house, and the bedroom into which he had seen the figure walk earlier was on the opposite end. In between was a long hallway with rooms on each side, and in the exact middle of it all, he could see what looked like a high ceiling and a much larger, open room. He pulled a flashlight from his toolbelt and started working his way through the rooms off of the hallway.

Arthur Ramos was exceptionally rich, but he was not overly flamboyant in his decor. Each room was minimally furnished and decorated. It was all extremely tasteful but also quite lacking in flash. No jeweled chandeliers or silver candelabras. Some of the paintings might have been worth something, but they were all very large and would have been difficult to carry back down to the boat. Much like the kitchen, the house was nice, but excessively more functional than fashionable.

Rudy was getting frustrated. He wanted to hurry up and find enough valuables to consider the robbery a success so that the could focus on what he really wanted to do that evening. He wasn’t even looking for cameras or motion sensors as this point. Since entering the house, his desire to indulge his darkest impulses had been growing. He kept reaching down and running one gloved finger along the handle of the hacksaw hanging from his toolbelt.

He finally reached the middle of the long hallway where it opened up into a large living area. The ceiling was three times higher than in the hallway, and the room was beautifully crafted. The molding was ornate, and the walls were painted with massive murals. There was a grand chestnut colored piano next to a long leather sofa. A large fireplace with a beautiful hearth dominated the center of one wall, and dark wood bookcases punctuated the murals. To anyone else the room would have been overwhelmingly beautiful. To Rudy, it was disgusting.

“Nothing to steal in here either. I’m done. Time to get on with it.”

As he turned to start walking toward the bedroom at the far end of the hall, for a split second the beam of Rudy’s flashlight caught something unexpected. In the back left corner of the living room was a mahogany banister with iron supports. As Rudy investigated further, he saw that there was a spiral staircase leading down to a basement.

“This seems promising,” he thought for the first time since entering the house.

He walked carefully down, ducking his head to avoid hitting it on the underside of the staircase, which was unusually low. It was hard to see as he walked because the staircase was so narrow. When he got to the bottom, though, he smiled a large, predatory smile. In front of him was the famous Ramos family vault.

The vault was huge. It was set into what must have been a ten foot by ten foot square of steel with a circular door that was adorned with a set of three concentric locks. It had the look of something from a previous era. The design was beautifully functional. It was not out of place in the tastefully decorated house, but it radiated the air of something that was not to be trifled with.

Rudy chuckled at the grand vault. This was not his first attempt at safe cracking, and it sure as hell wouldn’t be his last. He slung his backpack down onto the ground in front of him and pulled out a powerful battery powered drill, a sharp metal bit, and a stethoscope. He walked forward, prepared to do battle. As he approached the vault door, though, he noticed that it stood slightly ajar.

“Are you kidding me?” thought Rudy. “This guy doesn’t even close his own vault? He deserves to lose everything. Everything!”

Rudy crept forward toward the vault. The door was heavy, so he could barely move it. It had been left open just far enough that he was able to squeeze in. Once he got inside, it looked just like something he’d seen in the movies. It was like a room full of safety deposit boxes and bathed in harsh fluorescent light. One of the boxes was cracked open slightly, and it was full of gold. He worked his way around the room and several drawers that had been left unlocked. He found gold, then diamonds. After filling his backpack with the contents of those two drawers, he had enough room for more. He pulled open a drawer from the next column and found… a corpse.

Rudy stumbled backwards. He thought he was in a vault, not a morgue. The smell was overwhelming.

“What the hell?” thought Rudy. “What kind of creep keeps a body in their vault?”

He already had plenty of jewels. He turned around to leave. He was finally going to find Ramos and extract his revenge. That’s when the door slammed shut. And then the gas poured in.

Rudy didn’t know how much later it was when he slowly regained consciousness. His head was pounding, and his throat felt like he’d been eating sand. Bright lights blinded him, so he close his eyes and shook his head. When he reopened them, he saw that he was hanging upside down in the vault.

“What… what’s going on?” he yelled.

“Hello there,” said a smooth voice. “Welcome to my vault.”

Rudy looked to his left and saw an inverted image of Arthur Ramos standing next to him. Ramos was wearing a white apron and sharpening a scalpel.

“What is this?” shouted Rudy. “What’s happening?”

“This,” said Arthur, “Is the beginning of me carrying on a family tradition. You are my first. But you are merely one more link in a chain that stretches on for decades.”

Rudy twisted and turned, but he couldn’t move. His arms, torso, and legs seemed to be secured tightly to gurney that was suspended from the ceiling.

“The Ramos family treasure,” said Arthur, “is the lives we have claimed.”

With that, he stepped on a switch on the floor, and all of the drawers in the vault opened. One section of them contained jewels and gold. The next forty drawers contained corpses that had been mutilated horribly and aged for a long time. The last forty were empty and ready to accept new bodies.