Chapter Five: A Mysterious Message

 

“There’s a letter for you on your desk,” my assistant manager, Elaine, says as she walks past me at the front of the restaurant.

 

“The mail has been delivered already?”

 

She shrugs. “No, a courier came by and delivered it. He said it was urgent and for you.” Elaine smiles, nods her head, and then makes her way toward the kitchen. I turn and walk to the office in the back of the restaurant.

 

After settling down in my seat, I pick up the envelope and look at the outside of it. Only my name is on the front. There is no return address. “That’s odd,” I say to myself as I open it up and extract the letter from within.

 

“Dear Sir,” it begins. “My name is Vincent and I am the accountant for an important businessman in the city. I would share his name with you, but he wishes for me to err on the side of discretion.”

 

“Okay.” I shake my head and then look back down to continue reading.

 

“A few days ago, an error was made while transferring a deposit into a bank. That bank happens to be the same bank where you hold an account,” Vincent tells me. “Apparently, your account number differs from ours by just one digit. That is all that it took for the error to occur. As you might have noticed, $100,000 ended up in your account. I’m writing to see if we can rectify this situation.”

 

“Fuck.” My mind begins to race as I think of the money I lost in the investment I had with the pharmaceutical company. The money appears to actually belong to someone, not just the bank.

 

“Of course, we are willing to offer you a finder’s fee of sorts for your trouble. $10,000. Does that sound fair? At any rate, I will come by your restaurant this afternoon to discuss this matter. I look forward to seeing you then.”

 

A flourishing signature appears at the end of the letter. My skin crawls as I think about what I could possibly say to this man about his money. It’s gone, after all. Not one thin dime of it still exists in my own account.

 

“What is it?” Elaine asks as she walks into the office and sees the pained expression on my face. “Were you served court papers? He didn’t say they were court papers when he left them here. They can’t serve papers to you through me.”

 

“No, it’s not court papers,” I reply. “It’s something else.” I hand the assistant manager the letter and allow her to read it.

 

After a minute or so, she asks, “What’s this about? A hundred thousand dollars?”

 

“Yeah, I had the money at one point,” I tell her. “Somehow it ended up in my account, so when I saw it I contacted the bank. They said nothing appeared out of order with the account.”

 

“Layden,” Elaine says with a shocked expression on her face. “Where’s the money now?”

 

“Poof,” I say almost too dramatically as I allow my hands to rise a little and spread apart.

 

“Poof?” She shakes her head. “Do you mean to tell me that you had this guy’s money and you’ve spent it all?”

 

“It showed up in there and I moved it after talking to the bank online. I put it into another account that I have used for investments before.” Swallowing hard, I ask, “Have you seen the news about that pharma company?”

 

Elaine raises an eyebrow. “The fraud investigation?”

 

“That’s the one,” I reply. “Well, they got that money too. It’s all gone.”

 

The assistant manager shakes her head as she covers her mouth. “You are so screwed, Layden.”

 

 

“I’ll talk to the guy and work it out. He’s got to understand that it was an easy decision to make, especially after speaking to the bank and being told that it was mine.”

 

She shakes her head. “I don’t think you understand.”

 

“Understand what? This Victor guy will have to wait until I can get it to him. It was his fault, after all.”

 

“No,” Elaine says while sitting down beside me. “This letter. It’s the sort of thing the mob might do.”

 

“Mob?”

 

“Criminal syndicate. Mafia. You know, the criminals behind all sorts of extortion, prostitution, and other things. That mob.” She grimaces as she looks into my eyes. “Why would you take someone else’s money and invest it as if it was your own?”

 

“Criminal syndicate?” I still haven’t allowed myself to move on past that one point made by Elaine. “Shit. The mob.”

 

She reaches over and puts her hand on my arm. “You have to find some way to pay them back, Layden. They don’t just forgive and forget this sort of thing. People die for less with them.”

 

“That helps,” I say sarcastically.

 

“I’m being serious,” Elaine replies. “This Victor guy is probably the heavy. He’s the one who collects money for them. When he comes to see you, it’s important that you have something to say that will cause him to believe that you will get that money back for them.” The assistant manager shakes her head. “Honestly, Layden, I thought you had more sense than that.”

 

“Look, there’s no way I could have known who it belonged to. I thought that maybe the bank had made a mistake on their own. They told me…”

 

“They told you that it was your money. To them, it looked like your money because it had been deposited into your account with your account number. You should have at least contacted the police and told them what had happened. They would have asked you to hold it for at least thirty days to make sure no one came to make a claim.” Elaine shakes her head before continuing, “You might have to go into hiding.”

 

“You’re scaring the hell out of me,” I tell her. “How do you know all this?”

 

Elaine leans forward in her chair and looks hard at me. “My uncle Joey was in the mob for a while. He ended up having to go into the witness protection program when he left them and turned state’s evidence against one of his old buddies. These people don’t play around, Layden. You need to find that money for them.” She gets up from her seat and turns toward the office door. “If you stick around and meet with this Victor guy, make sure you have something to tell him that is believable and useful. If he thinks the money is gone for good, you might end up dead before the morning.”

 

I nod my head as I watch the assistant manager walk out of the office and close the door behind her. “Shit,” I mutter as I lean back in my chair and run both hands over my head. “I’m going to end up dead if she’s right.” What will I tell Victor? What can I tell him? It’s all gone. There’s not one thin dime left out of the entire one hundred thousand dollars that showed up in my bank account more than a week ago. I can offer him a couple thousand dollars, but then Terri will know that something is going on. We have bills to pay with that money.

 

“Dammit.” I stand to my feet and try to steady myself as I look at the office door. Whatever is said between me and this Victor individual will need to be straight to the point. If he really is a part of the mob, he won’t be so willing to listen to any bullshit from me.

 

“Honesty will be best,” I say to myself as I reach for the office door and open it. “Surely he’ll respect my honesty.” Making my way into the dining room of the restaurant, I see Monica nearby. She smiles as she turns and sees me.

 

“Good morning, Layden.” Her bright eyes cause me to return the smile even though I have a lot on my mind.

 

“Good morning. Ready for another busy day?”

 

The young server laughs. “Well, the breakfast rush was no easy task itself. I’ve been busy since seven o’clock this morning.”

 

I nod my head. “Yeah, I’ll bet you have.” Sighing, I ask, “So, do you still enjoy working here even with the rushes during mealtimes?”

 

Monica raises an eyebrow. “I’ve been here for a couple of years, so I must enjoy it enough.” She giggles as she shakes her head. “What’s eating at you today?” Even she can see that I’m a little preoccupied.

 

“Nothing to worry about,” I tell her with a smile. “I’m fine.”

 

“But the other day you weren’t feeling all that great. You’re not still sick, are you?” The sweet young server has a huge heart for others and often directs her kindness toward me. If I weren’t married, I wouldn’t hesitate to try to get to know her much better.

 

“I’m fine. I promise. Sometimes life just throws you a curveball or two. It’s something that I just have to deal with.” The thought of Victor coming to see me here later today bothers me, but I am beginning to build some resolve at the thought of it. If I’m going to deal with this problem effectively, I need to pull myself together. And I will.

 

“Let me know if you need anything, Layden. Don’t let things tear you down without someone to talk to. I can be a good listener.” Monica smiles at me again and pats the side of my arm before walking past me. The light aroma of her perfume causes my head to spin a little as I get a semi-hardon.

 

“You’re married,” I remind myself quietly as I walk toward the kitchen. Though I would like to make a move on Monica, I won’t. I love Terri dearly and would never cheat on her. We have a remarkable marriage and I can’t imagine doing anything like that behind her back. I worry, though, that she will soon find out about the money that was in our bank account and the man who wants it back. What I will tell her, I have no idea. I first need to prepare for Victor’s visit this afternoon at the restaurant. Hopefully he will be reasonable enough when I explain to him where the money has all gone.