Part 3: The Bank Manager’s Discovery
Miles answered the call without taking his eyes off the room.
“This is Miles Hart.”
The silence was unbearable.
Everyone watched his face.
After only a few seconds, the color drained from it.
“You’ve confirmed it?”
Another pause.
“I understand.”
He slowly lowered the phone.
Grandma Beatrice stood perfectly still.
“What did they find?”
Miles looked around the room before answering.
“The account hasn’t been emptied.”
Nobody reacted.
Then he continued.
“It still contains money.”
Vivian suddenly inhaled so sharply everyone heard it.
Grandma noticed.
“So you already knew that.”
Vivian quickly shook her head.
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Miles ignored her.
“The balance should have been nearly zero based on the transactions we already reviewed.”
He looked at Grandma.
“But there is still forty-three thousand, six hundred and twelve dollars remaining.”
I couldn’t understand.
“If they stole the money…why leave any behind?”
“They didn’t.”
Miles replied quietly.
“They couldn’t.”
Grandma frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“The account was frozen two weeks ago.”
Every head turned toward him.
“What?”
“The bank detected suspicious activity after someone attempted to transfer another sixty thousand dollars overseas.”
The room exploded with questions.
“Overseas?”
“When?”
“Who tried?”
Miles raised his hand.
“The transfer failed because the destination bank flagged the receiving account for possible money laundering.”
Nobody spoke.
He continued.
“The fraud software automatically restricted every account connected to Natalie Foster Family Relief LLC.”
Grandma slowly looked toward Vivian.
“You were still trying to move the money?”
“I wasn’t!”
Vivian shouted.
“I swear I wasn’t!”
“Then who was?”
She opened her mouth…
…and closed it again.
Miles picked up the speakerphone.
“The bank manager is still available.”
Grandma nodded.
“Put him on.”
A calm male voice filled the room.
“This is Daniel Brooks, Senior Fraud Manager.”
Grandma introduced herself.
“I have one question.”
“Of course.”
“Who attempted the transfer?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I can’t release names until law enforcement becomes involved.”
Grandma’s expression never changed.
“I’m the sender of every dollar in that account.”
“I understand.”
“And my attorney is standing beside me.”
Another pause.
“Very well.”
Paper shuffled on the other end.
“The transfer request originated from a computer already registered to the LLC.”
Miles asked quietly,
“Do you have an IP address?”
“Yes.”
“Can you identify the location?”
Another few seconds passed.
Then Daniel answered.
“The login originated from a residential internet connection.”
Everyone waited.
“It belongs to a house in Denver.”
Grandma asked,
“Whose house?”
Daniel read directly from the report.
“The registered subscriber is…”
He stopped.
“…Glenn Foster.”
My uncle nearly dropped his glass.
“What?”
His face turned white.
“That’s impossible.”
Vivian whipped around.
“Glenn?”
He looked genuinely stunned.
“I didn’t do anything!”
“You expect us to believe that?”
Grandma asked.
“I don’t even know how to log into those accounts!”
Miles wasn’t convinced.
“The bank also recovered security footage.”
Glenn blinked.
“Security footage?”
“The day the LLC account was opened.”
Vivian’s confidence disappeared.
“What footage?”
“The branch required in-person identity verification.”
He looked directly at me.
“The woman who presented your driver’s license was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap.”
I felt sick.
Miles continued.
“The teller became suspicious afterward because the woman refused to remove her sunglasses.”
Grandma folded her arms.
“So why wasn’t the account stopped?”
“The identification passed every electronic verification.”
Daniel answered.
“The driver’s license was authentic.”
“My driver’s license was never missing.”
I whispered.
Miles looked at me.
“Are you certain?”
I thought back.
The pregnancy.
Doctor appointments.
Baby showers.
Moving after Owen died.
Then I remembered.
Three weeks before Maisie was born…
Vivian had offered to organize my paperwork while I rested.
She had taken my purse upstairs for nearly an hour.
My stomach dropped.
“Oh my God…”
Everyone looked at me.
“I know exactly when she copied my license.”
Vivian’s knees suddenly buckled.
She grabbed the back of a chair to stay standing.
For the first time that night…
She wasn’t trying to defend herself.
She looked terrified.
Because she realized something none of us had yet considered.
If the bank had security footage…
Someone else had walked into that branch pretending to be me.
And if it wasn’t Vivian…
Then another person had helped steal Grandma’s $180,000.
Miles’s phone buzzed again.
He glanced at the screen.
His expression became even more serious.
“This one…”
he said slowly,
“is from the detective assigned to financial crimes.”
Grandma narrowed her eyes.
“What now?”
Miles looked directly at Vivian before answering.
“He says they already know the name of the woman in the surveillance video.”
Vivian’s lips began to tremble.
“No…”
she whispered.
“She promised she’d never talk.”
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART 4…
