Chapter 3 - The Empty Vault
I showed the terrifying bank notification to the police officer standing in the hospital waiting room.
He immediately radioed dispatch to send a patrol car to the downtown bank branch.
My husband stayed by our son's hospital crib while I rode in the back of the police cruiser.
We sped through the city streets with the sirens blaring and the lights flashing brightly against the buildings.
I prayed desperately that we would arrive in time to stop my mother from making a terrible mistake.
We pulled up to the glass doors of the bank just as the security guard was locking them for the evening.
The officer flashed his badge and forced the panicked bank manager to open the heavy doors.
The manager looked at me with deep sympathy and shook his head slowly.
He explained that my mother had arrived thirty minutes ago with all the proper identification and passwords.
Because her name was still listed as a secondary signer on the old account she had legal access to the funds.
She had successfully withdrawn eighty thousand dollars in untraceable cash and left the building.
I felt all the air completely leave my lungs as my entire financial safety net vanished into thin air.
The police officer demanded to see the security camera footage from the main lobby.
The manager led us into a dark security room and pulled up the digital video files on a large monitor.
We watched the black and white footage of my mother walking up to the teller window.
She looked highly disoriented and kept clutching her large leather purse tightly to her chest.
Then the camera angle shifted and revealed a horrifying detail that completely changed everything.
My mother had not walked into that bank alone.
A tall man wearing a dark baseball cap and a medical mask was standing closely behind her.
He kept his hand firmly gripped on her elbow and whispered instructions directly into her ear.
The officer paused the video and zoomed in on the man's hands resting on the counter.
The man had a very distinct and jagged scar across his left knuckles.
I gasped out loud and covered my mouth in absolute horror.
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I knew exactly who that jagged scar belonged to.
It was my husband's estranged and dangerous older brother who had been banned from our home for years.
