The Moneychangers Read Online Free Page B

represent another twenty million.
    As Edwina stood back, the senior teller and Miles Eastin together swung open the huge, precision-engineered vault door. It would remain open until the close of business tonight.
    "Just took a phone message," Eastin informed the operations of ricer. "Scratch two more tellers for today." Tottenhoe's look of melancholy deepened. "Is it flu?" Edwina asked.
    An epidemic had swept the city for the past ten days, leaving the bank short of staff, especially tellers. "Yes, it is," Miles Eastin answered.
    Tottenhoe complained, "If I could just catch it myself, I could go home to bed and leave someone else to worry about manning the counter"." He asked Edwina, "Do you insist we open today?" "It seems to be expected of us."
    "Then we'll empty an executive chair or two. You're the first elected," he said to Miles Eastin, "so get a cash box and be ready for the public. Do you remember how to count?"
    "Up to twenty," Eastin said. "As long as I can work with my socks off."
    Edwina smiled. She had no fears about young Eastin; everything he touched he did well. When Tottenhoe retire d next year, Miles Eastin would almost certainly be her choice as operations officer.
    He returned the smile. "Not to worry, Mrs. D'Orsey. I'm a pretty good utility outfielder. Besides, I played handball for three hours last night and managed to keep score." "But did you win?" "When I keep score? Of course."
    Edwina was aware, too, of Eastin's other hobby, one which had proved useful to the bank the study and collection of currencies and coin. It was Miles Eastin who gave orientation talks to new employees at the branch, and he liked to toss in historical nuggets such as the fact that paper money and inflation were both invented in China The first recorded instance of inflation, he would explain, was during the thirteenth century when the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan, was unable to pay his soldiers in coin, so used a wood printing block to produce military money. Unfortunately so much was printed that it quickly became worthless. "Some people," young Eastin would quip, "believe the dollar is being Mongolized right now." Because of his studies, Eastin had also become the resident expert on counterfeit money, and doubtful bills which turned up were referred to him for his opinion.
    The three of them E dwina, Eastin, Tottenhoe ascended the stairs from the vault to the main banking area.
    Canvas sacks containing cash were being delivered from an armored truck outside, the money accompanied by two armed guards.
    Cash arriving in large volume always came early in the morning, having been transferred earlier still from the Federal Reserve to First Mercantile American's own Central Cash Vault. From there it was distributed to branch banks in the FMA system. Reason for the sameday schedule was simple. Excess cash in vaults earned nothing; there were dangers, too, of loss or robbery.
    The trick, for any branch bank manager, was never to run short of cash, but not to hold too much. A large branch bank like FMA's downtown kept a workin g cash float of half a million dollars. The money now arriving another quarter million was the difference required on an average banking day.
    Tottenhoe grumbled to the delivery guards, "I hope you've brought us some cleaner money than we've been getting lately."
    "I told them guys over at Centr al Cash about your beef, Mr. Tot tenhoe," one guard said. He was youngish, with long black hair overflowing his uniform cap and collar. Edwina looked downward, wondering if he were wearing shoes. He was.
    'Whey said you'd phoned in, too," the guard added. "Now me, I'll take money clean or dirty."
    "Unfortunately," the operations officer said, "some of our customers won't."
    New currency, arriving from the Bureau of Printing and Engraving via the Federal Reserv e, was keenly competed for by banks. A surprising number of customers, referred to as "the carriage trade," rejected dirty bills and demanded new, or at least clean