"Oh, yes, um, well, see a gentleman came into the bank and presented us with a death certificate for Mr. Carver and a power-of-attorney granting him access to all Mr. Carver's accounts."
"What?" George whispered. It was almost a cry. "When?"
"This morning."
"Did you grant him access?" Leon asked through clenched teeth.
When the bank manager winced, Leon knew he had.
"Did you grant him access to our safety deposit box?" George asked.
"No, sir," the man said quickly. "It requires both your signature and that of Mr. Ford Carver to access the safety deposit box."
"But he got everything in George's accounts?" Ford asked.
"Well, yes, but—"
"And that's why you need to call the cops," Leon said. He was close to snarling. "As you can plainly see, George Carver is alive and well. So, what happened here is a clear case of theft."
"I want the contents of my safety deposit box right now," George said.
Leon didn't blame him a bit.
"Yes, of course." Mr. Branson hurried behind the counter and grabbed a card. He wrote something down on it then slid the card across the counter to George. "If you and Mr. Carver would sign this."
George signed the card then stepped out of the way so Ford could sign it. The bank manager took it back, glanced at it then another card, then smiled. "Please come this way."
Leon so totally wanted to roll his eyes. The bank manager was acting as if this was just any other day. He wasn't paying any attention to the fact that someone had walked into the bank he managed and walked out with George's money.
"You're going to need another bank account," Leon told George as they followed the bank manager into the safety deposit vault.
"And another bank," George replied. "I don't trust this one anymore."
"How much money did you lose?"
"Actually, not that much. I only had about two hundred dollars in there."
It seemed odd to Leon that someone would clear out George's bank account for only two hundred dollars on the morning he was going to become a billionaire. "Mr. Branson?"
The man glanced back at him. "Yes?"
"This person that came in this morning, did they close out George's bank account?"
"I was instructed that Mr. Carver had one more check that would be deposited in the next few days. At that time, we were to close out Mr. Carver's bank account and transfer the money to another account."
Well, wasn't that convenient?
"Do you have video surveillance inside the bank?" The police were going to need it to prosecute whoever had done this.
The bank manager's head snapped back before he lifted his nose into the air. The man was clearly insulted. Well, too damn bad. "Of course."
"I'm sure the police will want to see that video." Leon certainly did. He wanted to be able to put a face to whoever was trying to make George's life hell, and then he was going to show them what hell really looked like.
Leon followed George and Ford to the metal table sitting in the middle of the room. The bank manager pulled a metal box out of the wall then walked over and set it on the table. When he just stood there, Leon cleared his throat.
"We're going to need a moment."
"Of course," Mr. Branson said. "I'll…uh…I'll just go call the authorities."
