Chapter 2
The bank's front door was suddenly yanked open from the outside.
A man in a deep gray overcoat came striding in.
His hair was slicked back with gel, not a single strand out of place.
It was Richard Langston.
The chairman of Horizon Holdings, my boss's boss.
Two men with briefcases followed behind him, our company's ace legal team.
"Jessica!" Richard called out, looking genuinely worried.
The crowd's cameras immediately swung around to point at him.
"Mr. Langston," I said, my voice flat.
Richard walked right past me and reached out to shake Ryan's hand.
He said, "Officer James, I appreciate your help.
"I'm Jessica's boss, Richard Langston, the chairman of Horizon Holdings.
"That 300 thousand dollars was the big prize at our company's annual party.
"When I heard the branch had called the police, I was totally freaked out. I rushed over right away to see what was happening.
He let out a long sigh.
"We're ready to cooperate fully with the investigation. There's no way we can let counterfeit bills circulate," he said.
Then, Richard suddenly changed his tone, lowering his voice so everyone could still hear.
He lowered his voice just enough so everyone in the room could hear.
Richard said, "But Officer, there's something I need to report.
"Jessica's been under a lot of pressure lately, and her mental state hasn't been stable. She's got severe paranoia.
"She's always suspicious, always on edge. We were actually planning to give her a long leave so she could get some treatment at the hospital.
"This whole counterfeit thing it might have something to do with her condition."
I took a deep breath.
That was ruthless.
He showed up just to make sure everyone thinks I'm crazy.
Would the cops even take a word from someone they think is nuts?
The whispers around me grew louder.
Ryan noticed the change in my demeanor and paused his note-taking.
Richard turned to me, looking at me with a paternal gaze.
"Jessica, don't be scared," he said, his voice gentle.
"Money's nothing, what matters is you.
"Just hand over the fake prize to the bank and the company, and I'll handle everything else."
Retrieve the counterfeit bills.
And have them destroyed.
Once the evidence disappears, I would be forever branded as the nutcase who made fake money.
Just then, Amanda tapped on the glass.
"Officer James, here's an automatic system record," she said.
She yanked out a printed sheet and pressed it flat against the glass.
It was a customer inquiry log.
[Date: five days earlier.]
[Subject: customer Jessica Summers asked whether counterfeit bills mixed into a large deposit would trip the bank's counting machine and alert the police automatically.]
The lobby was eerily quiet.
The ladies were staring at me like I was already on death row.
They'd even made up a motive for me.
Supposedly, I'd been probing the bank's defenses five days earlier.
"I never came here," I said, meeting Ryan's gaze. "This record is fake."
Amanda snorted, her eyes full of disdain.
She said, "Ms. Summers, you'd better watch your mouth.
"This is a system-generated work order, with employee ID and IP address. You think you can just say it's fake?"
I stepped forward, pressing myself right up against the bulletproof glass.
I said, "If it's a work order, then where's my signature?
"Is there any two-way audio from the counter that day?
"Is there any footage of me coming in or out of the bank?"
Amanda was left speechless.
She had nothing.
That kind of appointment note could be made by the teller with just a few keystrokes.
Richard didn't miss a beat, and he played his next card as soon as he saw Amanda faltering.
"Jessica," Richard said, his voice gentle and coaxing.
He grabbed a document from the legal team and slid it onto the stainless steel table in front of me.
He said, "Everyone gets that you're not feeling your best right now.
"To clear your name, just jot down how you got the prize at the company party. That'll help sort things out.
"As long as you spell everything out, our legal team will do everything they can to protect you."
It was just a blank page in front of me.
If I wrote down anything like "collected the prize alone" or "handled and kept the money myself," they'd have everything they needed to pin this on me.
Physical evidence, motive, and opportunity, everything they needed to frame me was right there.
I didn't even touch the pen.
"I'm not writing that," I said, my voice steady.
Richard shook his head, putting on a show of regret.
He spread his hands at Ryan, as if to say, "See? She won't even grab the lifeline we're throwing her. She's really out of it."
I glanced down at my phone, which was buzzing nonstop.
It was the company's finance department group chat.
Messages were blowing up the screen.
[I heard that Jessica pulled a switcheroo with the company party prize and put the fake cash in the bank and stashed the real money for herself.]
[Who would've thought? She always acted like such a goody-two-shoes, and now she's putting fake bills in the bank!]
[A finance director pulling a stunt like this? Isn't she scared of ending up in jail?]
[No wonder she's got problems.]
Suddenly, a red alert message popped up.
[From: Director of Administration.]
[Effective immediately, all system access for Finance Director Jessica Summers is suspended.]
[Internal audit procedures have been initiated.]
They just slammed the door on my escape route.
They wouldn't let me access any of the financial backend data.
Ryan cleared his throat, breaking the deadlock.
He asked, "Just saying it isn't proof. Is there any surveillance footage from the prize ceremony at the company party?"
Richard nodded and took out a tablet.
"Here, Officer James, take a look," he said.
The screen lit up.
It showed the backstage prep area at the company party.
A silver metal lockbox sat right in the center of the room.
The surveillance feed showed only me, completely alone.
My back was to the camera, my hand hovering over the lockbox's combination lock.
From the angle, it looked like I was about to crack open the box and make a switch.
As soon as that footage popped up, even Ryan's expression darkened.
I glanced at the timestamp in the bottom right corner.
It was 9:30.
The party wasn't set to start until 10.
As the finance director, I was just doing the routine cash check before the prizes.
But there was still a whole thirty-minute gap before things actually kicked off.
Who else went into the prep room?
The video didn't show the rest of it.
They only showed footage of me.
Richard put the tablet away and gave me a faint, almost imperceptible smirk.
It was the look of a hunter watching his prey walk right into the trap.