“Moving right along here. I spoke to the office manager of Nikki’s old law firm and to Lizzie, who is on the first leg of her delayed honeymoon. The three memory sticks we passed on to the firm held the name and Social Security number of every person whose identity was stolen. Strangely enough, one of the sticks contained only the names of the kids in foster care, which apparently was a separate operation from the others. Restitution will be made as soon as possible. In some cases, like Harry’s, for instance, a substantial bonus will be paid for pain and suffering. The firm will be working directly with the three major credit reporting agencies to delete all the negatives and help the victims get their lives back on track.”

“And Bonnie and Clyde?” Alexis asked.

“You’ll never have to worry about them again. They’re in custody, and the FBI can truthfully say they captured them since Bert’s agents freed them from the bathroom, where they were tethered to the toilet.

“Furthermore, the memory sticks had a record of the names and addresses of all their accomplices: the people who used the credit cards to buy merchandise and those who picked up the illegally obtained items and put them up for sale on the black market. The FBI will be having a field day going after those slimeballs.”

“What about the banks that allowed all this to happen?” Kathryn asked.

“Well, Chase recognized that they were at significant risk of being taken to the cleaners by lawyers for the former foster-child victims whose identities were stolen by one of Chase’s own employees. They will be treating each of those cases as deserving of a large payment for pain and suffering, even if the child is still in foster care and has not yet suffered any known loss.”

Charles smiled. And then he laughed out loud. “Finally, I think you might really enjoy what I’m about to tell you. It seems the bank presidents recently held a minisummit of some sort, and, remarkably, they all agreed to hire a professional to handle their Internet banking security to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The professional’s name is Abner Tookus.”

Maggie’s fist shot in the air as the others whooped and hollered. “How much are they paying him?” she finally managed to ask.

“High seven figures,” Charles said with a straight face. “I’m told they had to coax him to come back from his honeymoon in Hawaii.”

The Sisters and their guests laughed so hard they didn’t hear Charles say, “Well done, girls, well done indeed.”

They were the vigilantes, and they were women.

Of course the job was well done.

Epilogue

Epilogue

Charles stood in the middle of the compound and rang the bell; the sound was pure and clear as it ricocheted over Big Pine Mountain. The Sisters scurried from all directions into the main building.