“In October of last year, a young woman by the name of Bethany Nolan was hired. The reason her name came to his attention was because of the strange hiring requirements she insisted on.”

Lizzie frowned. “Which were?”

“She said she was a law student and was just a hair away from taking the bar, and could only work two full weekends a month. But she was willing to work double shifts and once in a while maybe a Friday or a Monday if she could arrange it, so in essence it was the equivalent of a four-day or five-day workweek. She didn’t care that she wasn’t eligible for health benefits, said she was covered under her husband’s policy where he worked, so she was hired with Finn’s approval.

“She was everything you could want in an employee, according to Finn. She came in, worked sixteen hours a day, then they had to hire someone else to process all the new accounts she brought in. She stayed until the end of February, when she said she had to quit. She said she was run-down and needed to fall back and regroup so she could study for the bar. She sent a lovely letter thanking them for giving her the chance to work for such a wonderful company. On her last day she bought her fellow workers, six of them, pizza and gave them all a little token gift and promised to stay in touch. She even offered free legal advice in the future. No one ever heard from her again.”

“And this means what, Cricket?”

“Check Bonnie’s employment records when she worked at East Coast Savings. Fax Finn a picture of Sara Brickman. Isn’t that the name you told me she used when this all came to light? I told him to expect one.”

“But, Cricket, that isn’t going to tell us anything. So what if she worked weekends? She didn’t work weekends at the bank here, so there won’t be a record of her taking off.”

“Finn did say on occasion she would work a third day, depending if she needed extra money. Sometimes she would work a Friday or a Monday. That you can check. But it will be the clincher if the picture of your person matches up with Finn’s employee.

“Finn just thought you might be interested in this because you comped a trip to Vegas?” Lizzie’s fingers tapped on the kitchen table. She’d been hoping for so much more.

Cricket laughed, the sound booming over the wire. “Not exactly. The Post started to run articles on identity theft along with human-interest stories, and, lo and behold, most of those cases were Chase card holders. Finn said at first he thought it was just something they had to deal with, and the next time it would be American Express or Citi. This time they had to take the hit. They brought in a forensic CPA to do an audit, and that’s when they found out that all the new accounts that Bethany Nolan set up were fraudulent. Moreover, remember telling me something about minor foster children being targeted? Well, twenty percent of those accounts were for minor children in the foster care system.