Chapter 26
My hands found the small external backup drive, no larger than a deck of cards, hidden beneath a stack of tax returns from five years ago.
I slid the drive into my coat pocket, my fingers brushing the level eight access card that had once opened every door in my agency. I took my father’s yellow notepad from the top shelf and placed it carefully in the bottom of my small leather suitcase.
When I looked out the living room window, I saw the black sedan idling by the curb three stories below.
The rear window of the sedan was rolled down exactly three inches. Patricia Vance sat in the back seat, her fingers slowly smoothing her green silk scarf as she watched the movers carry my floor lamp out to the truck.
“We need you to step outside the threshold now, ma’am,” the agent said from the doorway.
I pulled the zipper of my suitcase closed, the metal teeth snapping together in the quiet room. I walked past him without looking at the half-empty shelves.
The air inside the bank lobby was warm and smelled of damp umbrellas and floor wax. I stood in the third lane, my suitcase resting against my shin while a woman two slots ahead debated a car loan with the branch manager.
When the teller beckoned me forward, I slid my black debit card across the counter.
“I would like to withdraw five thousand dollars from my personal savings account,” I said.
The teller, a young woman with a silver name tag that read Sarah, tapped her keyboard. She paused, her eyes scanning the side of her screen before she tapped the keys again.
“I am seeing a restriction on this account, Ms. Harper,” she said.
“That is my individual account,” I said. “It was established ten years before I met Harrison.”
“The system has a federal holding flag,” she said, turning the monitor slightly toward me. “It is tied to the Vance marital trust audit. I cannot override it.”
“What about the secondary checking account?” I asked.
Sarah clicked through to another screen, then looked up at me with a soft, sympathetic shrug.
May you like
“The balance is listed as zero,” she said. “The funds were transferred to the registry of the court at noon.”
“I see,” I said, taking my card back.
