Read Shell Game (Stand Alone 2) for Free Online

at the television and listened to the anchorman.
    “The seventy-year-old Broad Street National Bank’s capital base deteriorated precipitously over the last twelve months, according to the FDIC. The less capital a bank has, the weaker the bank is.
    “Broad Street National Bank’s closure is not good news for the Philadelphia area. It has been a big supporter of local businesses and a generous contributor to local charities. The bank has almost eight hundred employees.”
    Edward handed the remote to Johnny Scarfatti and turned to Nick. “That explains things pretty well, doesn’t it?”
    “Yeah.” Nick looked worried.
    “What’s wrong?” Annie asked.
    Nick momentarily shook his head, seemingly gathering his thoughts. He waved a finger at Edward, still appearing to collect himself. “When you talk to Paul tomorrow, you should ask about what happens now to our loans at Broad Street National Bank. That news guy said most of the bank’s assets had been sold to Folsom Financial. What rights does Folsom now have regarding our loans? What about our deposits? We had almost $3 million in our accounts in Broad Street as of the close of business on Thursday. We—” Nick stopped and, after a few seconds, said, “Our receipts on weekends run about $600 thousand. We need to tell our managers to hold the receipts. No deposit drops in Broad Street National Bank over this weekend. We should have our armored car company deliver the receipts to us here. We’ll put them in our vault.”
    “Why?” Katherine asked, her brow knitted and her eyes narrowed.
    “I’ve heard too many horror stories about bank takeovers. I don’t know Folsom Financial, but they could …”
    “What?” Edward demanded.
    “Let’s wait until we meet with Paul tomorrow, Eddie.”
    Katherine left the meeting and walked outside. She felt as though a massive hand gripped and squeezed her lungs. She reached to turn the key in the ignition but paused to think about Gerald Folsom’s role in all of this. It made no sense. First, Frank had gotten into business with Folsom. Coincidence? Maybe. Now, the man owned the bank that held the loan on their business and that bank was playing very rough with her son. Another coincidence? Unlikely.
    She reflected on the last time she’d seen Folsom, before she and Frank had married, while Frank was overseas with the Army. She and two girlfriends had been out to dinner, celebrating Katherine’s engagement to Frank. They had moved to a club after leaving the restaurant. That’s where Folsom had homed in on them like a heat seeking missile on a target. Katherine’s girlfriends were single and weren’t averse to Folsom’s attention. He was tall, blue-eyed, and well-built, with jet-black hair and a roguish reputation. But Folsom was only interested in Katherine.
    She ignored Folsom’s sexual banter for a short while and then called it a night. She went outside to her car and reached to open the car door, when someone grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around, pinning her to the car. Folsom!
    “I wondered how long it would take you to dump your loser friends,” he said.
    She’d gawked at him as though he were an alien from another planet. “Get lost,” she’d said.
    He yanked her to him and shoved his mouth onto hers. She struggled, driving her knee into his crotch. Folsom cried out and dropped to the ground as though he’d been poleaxed.
    “You bitch!” he groaned.
    Katherine opened her car door and drove off, thinking she’d seen and heard the last of Gerald Folsom.
    But Folsom had begun calling her, stalking her. She found threatening notes on several occasions; her car tires were slashed twice. After weeks of harassment, she filed a restraining order against the man. Katherine never heard from Folsom again, and there was no more vandalism. She never told Frank. She felt there was no point after Folsom seemed to drop off the face of the earth. But now, after all these years, Folsom had