“You’re on a remote internet banking system, I assume,” I said to Yolanda. “Pull that up, please. We need to get a look at the history of some of your accounts.”

“Okay,” she said, typing into the computer. A logo for internet banking appeared on the screen. “What accounts are you interested in?”

I handed the page of numbers to Harriet, and she read off the first account number as Yolanda typed it in. The account came up onto the screen in confusing rows of figures. But Yolanda seemed to know what she was doing. I told her the first transaction I was looking for—a transfer into this account from another account in the same bank—and gave her the amount and the date. She found it quickly and was able to display the authorization code of the person who made the transfer.

“There’s your culprit right there,” Harriet said, pointing to a number on the screen. “Person number two-zero-two-one. Who’s that?”

“That’s Judith Smythe,” Yolanda replied.

“Judith,” Gwen echoed in a whisper behind her.

Harriet and I glanced at each other. Just as we’d suspected. I felt an urgency grow as Harriet read off the next account number.

We worked that way for the next 15 minutes, verifying a series of transactions in the last two months that showed a total of nearly $200,000 coming into the Smythe accounts from Feed the Need. The first few transfers had been done by Judith; the rest seemed to have been done by Alan. Harriet had just read off yet another account number to Yolanda when she suddenly sat up straight and gasped.

“Whoa!” she said, peering intently at the screen.

“What is it?”

“Hold on a minute.”

She typed quickly into the computer for a few minutes while I watched over her shoulder, trying to figure out what she was doing. I looked at Harriet, but she just shrugged her shoulders. Finally, Yolanda spoke.

“You see that?” she said, pointing at the screen. “We just pulled that account up a minute ago, and the balance was over $300,000.”

“Yes?”

“Now it’s under $10,000!”

I sat back in my chair, wishing I knew a little more about banking and accounting.

“Maybe a big check just cleared,” Gwen said, but Yolanda shook her head.

“Look. The same thing just happened in this account here.”

She typed in some more numbers and a new account flashed on the screen. The account balance was only a few hundred dollars.

“The balance in this account should be about $30,000,” she said.

“You’re right,” said Harriet. “When you had that account up on the screen a few minutes ago, it was $30,000.”

Harriet and I stared at each other in surprise.

“Where’s the money going?” I asked.

Yolanda typed some more, then finally blew out a long, slow breath of relief.

“I found it,” she said. “It’s just been transferred into a different account.”