I know what you’ve been doing. $100,000 to keep my mouth shut. You have until noon on Friday. Unmarked bills in a blue travel case and place it on the bench in the park where you eat lunch. I’m watching.
The words were glaring at me from my laptop screen. My heart was racing and I could feel it pounding in my chest. Someone knows! I closed the laptop and looked around, paranoid that every set of eyes was on me. I had to think straight. Friday is two days away and I don’t have much time. I simply couldn’t let anyone find out what I had been doing. I gathered my things, told my secretary that I suddenly felt ill, and left the bank where I had been a senior loan officer for the past five years.
Once at home I could think a little clearer. Who was this person? The email address was our bank address but a user name I didn’t recognize. It had to be someone in the bank, but who? I opened my laptop to the message and hit the reply button. The message disappeared! Then the computer pinged and I saw a new message from the same sender. I immediately opened it to read: I’m still watching you. Got the money stashed at home? I was stunned. This person really was watching me. I couldn’t think of any ingenious way out of this mess other than to pay. And that meant stealing more money from the bank. I wanted to stop the stealing…one big win at the casino and I’d be able to pay the money back with no one the wiser. I had a cashier’s check in my purse for $15,000 from the last fictitious loan I’d made to myself. I’d go to the casino tonight to see if I could win the money to pay off this person and if not, then I’d take care of it tomorrow at the bank. I felt a little better now because at least I had a plan.
I went to a tawdry little casino on the outskirts of town. I needed a big win tonight so I decided to play poker. I walked in and sat down at a high stakes Texas Hold ‘Em table with four men. After a few hours, I had about $70,000 and the pots and stakes were getting bigger. I needed more money. It was 4:00 am and I had to be at work in just three hours. Then I was dealt the hand that I knew would change my life. My hole cards were the 9 and 10 of spades. The flop showed the 8 and Jack of spades along with the Ace of Clubs. I had a straight flush going and I bet big. Everyone folded but one. The turn card was the 5 of hearts. No help for me, but I bet big again. The pot was now over $120,000. I held my breath as the dealer turned the river card – the Queen of Clubs. Well, I still had a Queen high straight, and I moved all my chips to the center of the table. My competitor saw the greed and desperation in my eyes as he called my bet. I focused on the large pile of chips as I turned over my cards to reveal my straight. He turned over his to reveal an Ace high flush. I’d lost it all.
I drove straight to work knowing what I had to do. My scheme involved several fictitious companies that I had invented and I periodically made loans to them that were small enough not to cause any attention. Often, I had to make loans simply to pay the interest on some of the other loans I had made so none of them would show as delinquent. I had a spreadsheet that helped me keep track of everything. Today, I would need to make several loans totaling $100,000, do all the required paperwork, and cash the proceeds checks.
I went to work on Friday, nervous and scared. At 11:45 a.m., I left for lunch and went to the park. I left the bag under the bench where I always sat and returned to my car. When I looked back, the bag was gone.
Returning to work I felt somewhat relieved, yet still anxious. I opened my email and there was a message that simply read: Thank you. You’ll never see or hear from me again. Magically, the message disappeared from my screen.
I resolved that the gambling had to stop. I couldn’t live like this anymore, scared and paranoid. The hours crawled by and at 3:00 we were getting ready to close the doors when five men in dark suits came in and went straight to the President’s office. Everyone was watching and whispering, including me. Soon, all the men came out, with the president of the bank, and started walking toward me. The president said to me, “Miss Tate, these gentlemen are bank examiners along with a federal marshal. They are here to arrest you for embezzlement of bank funds. The marshal read my rights and placed me in handcuffs. As we were walking out, I scanned the crowd that was watching me in bewilderment. There, in the back, was the geeky little computer guy with the inch thick glasses mockingly smiling at me. He winked.