“Mr. Barrington,” one of them said, “did you make a large cash deposit at your bank recently?”
“No,” Stone replied.
“You did not deposit a million dollars in your bank account?”
“Oh, that deposit. My secretary did that.”
The man removed a plastic envelope containing a banknote and placed it on Stone’s desk. “Do you recognize this?” he asked.
Stone leaned forward and examined the note. “I believe I do,” he replied. “It appears to be a fifty-dollar bill, United States currency.”
“That’s what it appears to be, certainly, but it is not.”
“Then what is it?” Stone asked innocently.
“It’s an extremely good counterfeit note,” the man replied.
“You could have fooled me,” Stone said.
“Have you ever seen it before?”
“I’ve seen many fifty-dollar bills,” Stone replied, “but I don’t recall ever having seen this one.”
“What was the source of the cash your secretary deposited in your bank account?” the other man asked.
“The funds came from a client.”
“And where did he obtain them?”
“From the New York State Lottery, I believe.”
“The New York State Lottery does not give people large sums of cash,” the man said.
“I thought that was why they were in business,” Stone said, “apart from also taking large sums of cash from other people.”
“Quite true,” the man said, “but their policy is, I believe, to issue a check on the state treasury’s funds or to wire transfer winnings to the account of a winner.”
“Well, I can’t argue that with you,” Stone said. “Now that you mention it, when I asked my client where he got the funds and he told me about winning the lottery, I pointed out that very same thing to him.”
“And what did he have to say about that?” the agent asked.
Stone shrugged. “I don’t suppose it would be a breach of attorney-client confidentiality if I told you he told me he cashed a check.”
“On what bank?”
“He didn’t mention its name.”
“And you think a bank would just give your client a million dollars in cash?”
“After corroborating his balance, certainly.”
“Can you tell me how your client managed to include a single counterfeit fifty-dollar bill in a one-million-dollar payment to you?”
“That fifty-dollar bill was not in the cash my client gave me. He gave me only one-hundred-dollar bills.”
“Did you look through all the hundreds?”
“No, I did not.”
“So, it may have been among the cash he gave you?”
“If it was, it was a mistake of his bank,” Stone replied.
“And you don’t know which bank it was?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Would you mind if we asked your client?”
“Not as long as you don’t expect me to give you his name,” Stone replied. “That would be a breach of attorney-client confidentiality.”
“Mr. Barrington,” the man said, sighing. “We are agents of the federal government. As an officer of the court you are obliged to help us in our inquiries.”