“Then why do you have the key?”
“Because they never changed the lock.”
Richard stood.
“I need to speak to the vault manager.”
Margaret smiled.
“That's what I've been waiting for.”
Ten minutes later, Richard and the vault manager, Harold Pierce, stood outside the old safety-deposit section.
Margaret followed.
Harold looked nervous.
“Box 417 hasn't been accessed in decades.”
Richard looked at him.
“Can you verify that?”
Harold checked the records.
“Yes.”
“Who rented it?”
Harold read the name.
“Thomas Ellis.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Harold looked confused.
“Mrs. Ellis?”
“Yes.”
“You've been paying the annual rental?”
“No.”
“Then the box should have been classified as abandoned.”
Margaret looked at him.
“Should have been?”
Harold swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Then why wasn't it?”
Nobody answered.
Richard stared at the old records.
There was something wrong.
Very wrong.
He ordered Harold to open the box.
The vault door groaned.
Inside Box 417 was a sealed metal container.
Margaret recognized it immediately.
“That belongs to my husband.”
Harold placed it on the table.
Richard stood nearby.
Margaret opened it.
Inside were documents.
Bank statements.
Property deeds.
Photographs.
A list of account numbers.
And one thick envelope.
Richard picked up a statement.
His eyes widened.
The account balance was enormous.
More than $18 million.
He looked at Margaret.
“Your husband had eighteen million dollars?”
“No.”
Richard frowned.
Margaret pointed at the statement.
“That was the account balance.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn't own all of it.”
Richard looked confused.
“Then whose money was it?”
Margaret stared at him.
“That's what my husband was investigating.”
Harold looked at Richard.
The bank manager was silent.
Margaret slowly opened the thick envelope.
Inside was a handwritten list of names.
Some belonged to wealthy clients.
Some belonged to politicians.
Some belonged to business owners.
And beside each name was a number.
Richard recognized several immediately.
He felt the room become colder.
“These are private clients.”
Margaret nodded.
“My husband discovered that money was being moved between accounts without authorization.”
Richard stared at the list.
“How?”
“Through a special internal account.”
“What account?”
Margaret pointed to the bottom of the page.
There was a handwritten code:
PROJECT ORCHID.
Richard's face went pale.
Because he had heard that name before.
Not from his current employees.
From an old archive.
A file that had supposedly been destroyed twenty years ago.
Richard returned to his office.
He immediately called the bank's legal department.
“Find everything related to Project Orchid.”
The attorney on the phone became quiet.
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
“There shouldn't be anything under that name.”
“That's exactly why I want you to look.”
Meanwhile, Margaret remained in the lobby.
She sat in the same chair.
Customers walked around her.
Some stared.
One man whispered:
“She probably doesn't know where she is.”
Another laughed.