Chapter 7 - THE CAMERA ABOVE THE COUNTER
Elaine requested immediate access to the security footage.
Daniel tried to object.
“There are privacy protocols.”
Elaine held out her hand.
“Your access card.”
He did not move.
One executive security officer stepped beside him.
Daniel slowly removed the card from his belt and surrendered it.
The wall monitors switched to protected review mode.
No readable information appeared to customers, but Elaine could see the live archive.
Camera one showed Martha entering.
Camera two captured Jessica laughing with another teller after seeing the coat.
Camera three recorded Daniel taking the cashier’s check.
Camera four captured the kick from the side.
There was no ambiguity.
His supporting foot planted.
His knee lifted.
His shoe struck.
Martha fell.
Alexander watched once.
Only once.
Then he turned away.
Daniel began speaking rapidly.
“The angle makes it look worse.”
Elaine paused the recording at the point of impact.
“Which angle would make kicking a sixty-eight-year-old customer look appropriate?”
Daniel looked at Jessica.
She stepped backward.
He turned toward Marcus.
The guard lowered his eyes.
No one would rescue him.
Martha looked at the paused image.
Her own body appeared small against the glass wall.
For a moment, she was no longer inside the bank.
She was twenty-nine again.
Back against a kitchen cabinet.
Her former husband blocking the door.
Her son crying in the hallway.
She gripped the cashier’s check until the memory passed.
Alexander noticed.
“Mom?”
“I’m here.”
The medical officer approached.
This time, Martha allowed the examination.
May you like
Daniel watched as the bank owner knelt beside the woman he had called a beggar.
His career was no longer the largest thing he feared losing.
