Читать книгу Borderland - Jennifer Seet - Страница 12

CHAPTER FIVE

The day after the funeral Karen sat across from Logan Massey. Logan, she found out, was the assistant branch manager at the bank. She established a friendly rapport with the beautiful, young woman, noting the sincerity in her voice when she expressed sorrow at the death of Karen’s father. She also felt a trust build up because they immediately got down to business, assuring the appointment would be completed in a timely manner, allowing her to catch her flight to California.

As promised, Logan had the account information ready when Karen arrived at the bank. “I’ll try my best to answer any questions you might have about your father’s account. You expressed some concerns about the balance. Is that correct?”

Karen nodded and waited while she brought up the current statement on the computer.

“Hmmm. Okay. We show a balance of $122,210.79 in checking and $458,156.12 in savings.”

Karen glanced down at the bankbook to double check the accuracy of the figures. “Wait a minute!” she blurted out. “His balance in checking is approximately $50,000 more than that figure. Could you check that again?”

Logan raised her eyes from the screen, noted the look of panic, and read off the numbers again, “$122,210.79.”

Karen spoke softly but emphatically, “No, that’s not right. See.” She passed the bankbook across the desk.

Glancing down, Logan felt a twinge of anxiety and tried hard not to show it. She began the process of balancing the checks written and debited from the account. Everything seemed to be in order but the numbers didn’t agree.

“Mrs. Sands, does anyone else have access to this account?”

Karen started to respond but Logan interrupted, “It looks like there have been quite a few large checks written lately, signed by a Mr. Jake Turner.”

With caution in her voice, “Mr. Turner is my father’s lawyer.”

Logan looked at the computer screen again and confirmed that Travis Morton had given Jake authorization to sign checks from his account about three months ago. “Do you know if your father kept track of these transactions over the last few months?”

Shaking her head, Karen explained, “My Dad has been very ill the last six months. It’s possible he authorized his attorney to pay the medical bills.”

Looking dazed, she explained that she had just recently reunited with her father and had little knowledge of business arrangements made.

Feeling a pang of empathy for this grieving young woman since she had lost both of her parents at a young age, Logan offered to investigate further and call Karen later that day before she left for California.

With a look of concern, extending her hand, she gratefully accepted the young bank officer’s help.

There must be a mistake!

She turned to leave the office, shoulders slumped, a feeling of helplessness permeating her whole being.

“Poor thing”, Logan muttered, watching Karen exit through the revolving doors at the front entrance to the bank.

* * * * *

Working through the lunch hour on Travis Morton’s account, Logan’s alarm increased with each transaction scrutinized. Her heart skipped a beat when she realized that the amount of money missing from the account could only be traced to Mr. Turner, checks to cover medical bills, household expenses, and some written for cash. The difference in the balance came to approximately $50,000 even though the monthly statements seemed to be in order. Apparently no one else had been checking the account the last few months.

“Why would a lawyer need that kind of money?” Logan whispered to herself, now wondering if Jake Turner’s name appeared on any other accounts.

Her fingers flying, she looked for other accounts where his name appeared as a co-signer.

“Hello”, gasping as the computer lit up with several other names.

The details of each account flashed across the screen. Noting a pattern, Logan saw several large checks he had written over the last few years. All accounts were in the names of elderly patrons who rarely came into the bank or called.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if they’re missing money too!”

She spent the next two hours calling some of the owners of the accounts or their caregivers. In every case, Mr. Turner was acknowledged as the person responsible for paying the bills from their accounts. When asked to give their balance, Logan noted huge discrepancies. Questioned about monthly statements, they explained that Mr. Turner received those and sent them duplicate copies.

She wondered if he doctored monthly statements to cover up his thefts?

Not wanting to alarm anyone, she explained that she was confirming the balance as part of an internal audit. Everyone she spoke with was very cooperative, and by the time she completed the last phone call, Logan ascertained that approximately $225,000 was missing from eleven different bank accounts. Mr. Morton suffered the largest loss.

I guess he figured he could take advantage of a sick, old man who didn’t have long to live, she thought. All of the victims were wealthy senior citizens who had entrusted Jake Turner with their life savings.

“The man has a lot of explaining to do,” she fumed, “and I plan to nail him!”

Quickly, she walked over to see Bill Jensen, the bank manager. Peering through the glass, she saw him talking on the phone and gently tapped to get his attention.

He motioned for her to come in, mouthing that he would not be long.

She plopped down in the chair and waited patiently.

Bill noticed the worried look on her face and quickly made up an excuse to end his phone conversation.

“Hey, don’t look so serious kid. What’s up?”

Exhaling, “I think I have a problem and I need your help.”

His tone turned cautious. “What’s wrong?”

When she summarized the events of the afternoon, his brow creased and he started to rub his chin with his hand, a habit he had, stroking his beard.

The only problem was he had shaved off his beard last year when his wife, Alice, declared that either the beard went or she did! She was finally fed up with ‘the scratchy old thing’. When it came to his wife, Bill was a pussycat. He shaved off the beard but never shook the habit of stroking his chin like it was still there.

As Logan watched this unconscious movement, she was reminded of the attention they had given her since she started working at the bank three years ago. Calling her “kid” was not derogatory at all. In fact, he used the term affectionately as her parents would have.

When Bill and Alice found out her parents had died in a tragic car accident when she was in college, they welcomed her into their home as they would a daughter. She was always with them for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and all the other holidays. For the first time since her parents’ accident, Logan felt a true sense of family with Bill and Alice, who had no children themselves and looked upon Logan as their daughter.

Now he listened intently, concern mounting as he considered the ramifications of what she was telling him.

“I don’t like this, Bill. I think we might want to pull in one of our auditors to look at it.”

He stared out the window, pondering the sticky situation and the action to take. He had never regretted the day he hired Logan. She waltzed into his office three years ago with an air of confidence about her that did not travel far from the surface.

He recognized her brash ‘can do’ attitude was tied more to a lack of self-esteem than arrogance. So, he went about nurturing her enthusiasm and channeling it deeper and deeper until inherent charm and creativity slowly emerged, confirming his faith.

Just a few months ago, Logan was promoted to assistant branch manager, her gratitude only matched by his pride in her accomplishments. He trusted her suspicions and recognized her genuine concern.

After several minutes of silence, he swiveled his chair around to face her. “Okay. I want you to handle this. Call Scott and ask him to take a look. Can you free your schedule so you can work with him?”

Logan nodded affirmatively.

“If this turns out to be what we think it is, Jake Turner could be in big trouble. I mean this is a criminal offense.”

“I know”, Logan said softly, face drawn and lines forming across her forehead.

As she turned to leave, Bill added, “Be careful”.

Her hand waved up and down in a dismissive motion as she moved toward the door.

He watched her leave with more than a little worry for her…and the bank.

Returning to her desk, she placed a call to Scott Harris, their best auditor. Tracking him down at a nearby branch, he promised to be there in an hour.

Logan pulled her lunch bag out of the bottom drawer and nibbled absentmindedly on her sandwich. Anxiety grew every time she glanced up at the computer screen.

I don’t understand ... Why does he need that kind of money? I mean, $225,000? Lawyers make good money. It just doesn’t make sense. She stared straight ahead, lost in thought.

Her eyes traveled up to the clock on the wall. Dreading the call, she punched in the numbers to Travis Morton’s residence. Karen answered on the first ring. Logan summarized the steps she had taken that morning to investigate the account.

Listening intently as Logan explained that other irregularities were found and the bank would have an auditor look into it later, Karen reminded her that she had to fly back to California but would be available by cell phone. She gave Logan both that number and her home phone number before they ended the call.

Karen’s hand still rested on the receiver when Harry walked into the room.

He bent over to pick up her suitcases.

“That was Ms. Massey from the bank. Evidently there is a discrepancy of $50,000 between what is in the account and what the bank statement shows. She also found missing funds in other accounts, all controlled by Jake Turner.”

Harry hit the table with one of the suitcases as he turned towards her. The lamp swayed and would have fallen if she had not grabbed it with her free hand. His irritation increased as he realized that he had been right all along. He was angry with himself for not telling Travis or Karen sooner.

“I knew it!” He struggled to gain his composure. “What does Ms. Massey plan to do now?”

“She has an auditor coming this afternoon to go over the accounts and call me when they know more.”

“I wish I had warned you. I felt like something wasn’t right but I wasn’t sure.”

Karen reached up and brushed her fingers against his cheek, gently stroking his face. Softly, “Let the bank handle it, Harry. Jonathon and I will be back next week. Maybe he’ll be in jail by then.”

“Nothing would give me more pleasure.” Reaching out, he wrapped his arms around her, planting a kiss on top of her head. “Don’t worry. Everything will be okay.”

All Karen could muster was a slight nod of her head as she buried herself in his shoulder and wept.

But Harry’s intuition told him there was more to come, a lot more.