“Back in January, a block of mortgages the bank held was sold off to another mortgage company. Since Wong paid a year in advance the way you said he did, he probably never opened the mail informing him that his mortgage had been sold off. It wouldn’t affect him financially one way or the other, as the interest rate stayed the same. Just a different mailing address to mail the checks to.

“Out of that block of mortgages four people that you profiled were on the transfer list. Wong makes five. Wong is the only one who, at that time, had a sterling credit rating. The other four were iffy at best. The mortgage transfer did not affect the other four in any way either. Like I said, just that change of address.

“I hacked into Wong’s credit card company and found out that eight of your profiles have the same credit card company, which is through the originating mortgage bank. Four of your profiles have mortgages that are still at the original bank. So, four stayed, four plus Wong moved. You following me, Maggie?”

“Yeah.”

“Seventeen more of your profiles have either mortgages or credit cards with the new company they were transferred to.

“I then hacked into Human Resources, which is a gold mine, bar none, to see who was hired, fired, etc., and came up with a loan officer who was considered hot spit in her department. She got sick around the beginning of January—mono, she claimed—and took a leave of absence. She never returned. She was married but it appears no one knew. She listed herself as single on her employment application. But…her husband was a loan officer at another bank in town. How do I know this? From the records at the Watergate Apartments, where they are living now. He left around the same time—two weeks later, I think, it’s in the file—and never went back. He told his boss he had to take care of his ailing mother because she was so sick she couldn’t get out of bed. From what I could tell, no one followed up. Neither employee filed for unemployment insurance, and the wife didn’t file for disability. They moved out of their apartment on Connecticut Avenue and didn’t leave a forwarding address. They are paying a boatload of money to live at the Watergate. How am I doing so far?”

“Great,” Maggie said grudgingly. She hated sucking up to Abner, especially when she had to pay him for the privilege.

“Neither the husband or the wife is employed. If I were you, the first thing I would do would be to hire a couple of private dicks to monitor them twenty-four/seven and see what shakes out.”

“And the bank didn’t get suspicious? Didn’t the profiles complain?”

“No, why should they get suspicious? When the wife left, she said she was sick. She didn’t make waves, just left. Nothing was awry at the bank at that time. The dark stuff didn’t hit the fan till around March, at which point the wife had already sent a beautiful letter to HR saying she wouldn’t be back and was returning to her parents’ home in Texas so they could take care of her. She said how she loved everyone, what a wonderful place the bank was to work, and in the years to come she would remember her working experience with fondness. They probably framed the damn letter, and it could be hanging in the president’s office, for all I know.