Chapter 6 - The Setup
Despite her public bravado, Elena was completely broke. Her accounts were frozen by the feds, and her parents were sitting in county lockup. But the forensic accountant noticed one anomaly: a safe deposit box at a local bank under my mother’s name that Elena hadn't managed to empty yet. It contained my grandmother’s heirloom diamonds and a stack of gold bonds.
We knew she would make a play for it. She needed cash to hire a criminal defense attorney.
Detective Thorne and I set the trap. We allowed the bank to temporarily unfreeze her access to the specific box, giving her the illusion that the authorities had missed it.
I sat in an unmarked police van across the street from the First National Bank, watching the live feed from the bank’s lobby cameras.
Right on cue, Elena walked through the glass doors. She wore large sunglasses and a headscarf, trying to look inconspicuous, which only made her look guiltier. She approached the teller, slid the forged Power of Attorney across the marble counter, and asked to empty the box.
“She’s in the vault,” Thorne said through the radio, racking the slide of his service weapon. “Let her put the stolen assets in her bag. The moment she steps out of the vault, it’s a felony in progress.”
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We watched the screen as Elena greedily stuffed the antique velvet jewelry boxes and gold bonds into her designer purse. She smiled, thinking she had outsmarted us all.
She walked out of the vault and straight into a wall of federal agents.
