The Short Forever (Stone Barrington 8)

“Of course, Mr. Barrington; we received the funds in good order.”

“Can you tell me the current balance in my account?”

“May I have your code word, please?”

Stone gave it to him.

“One moment.” Stone could hear computer keys clicking. “Your current balance is one hundred dollars, Mr. Barrington.”

Stone felt suddenly ill. “What was the amount you received from New York?”

“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”

“Then why isn’t it in the account?”

“A request was made to transfer the funds shortly before closing yesterday. It was very late, but the request was urgent, so we accommodated Mr. Cabot.”

“Mr. Cabot had access to my account?”

“Why, yes, Mr. Barrington; his signature was on the account application, and he knew the code word.”

Stone felt frozen. “Where were the funds transferred?”

“To an account in Hong Kong,” the account manager replied.

“Thank you, Dr. von Enzberg.” He hung up and trudged down the stairs.

“What’s wrong?” Carpenter asked. “You look ill.”

“I’ve been had,” Stone replied.

52

STONE SANK HEAVILY INTO AN ARMCHAIR in the drawing room.

“Explain,” Carpenter said.

“Lance transferred all the money out of the account yesterday, to a bank in Hong Kong.”

“How could he do that?”

“Apparently, he had access to my account.”

Carpenter stared at him. “Did you sign the account application, then give it back to Lance?”

“Yes.”

“Then he simply added his own signature to the document. Did he know your code?”

“I wrote it on the form. How could I have been so stupid?”

“An expensive oversight,” Carpenter said.

“I could get the Hong Kong account number, and we could trace the funds,” Stone said.

Carpenter shook her head. “Remember the time difference; Cabot has had plenty of opportunity to retransfer the funds half a dozen times; he was probably at it all night. We’d never find it.”

“But your people will reimburse me?”