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They’ll want to deter anyone else from trying it. So I guess David will have to appear at a magistrates’ court tomorrow and what happens then depends on the magistrate who gets the case. But I’m sure David will be fine. We all know he didn’t do it.’
    I looked up at Sebastian, watching as he brushed his hair off his forehead. He caught me looking at him and smiled. I smiled back. Somehow, it was better with Aunt Beth and Sebastian here. I could see that Mum was glad they’d come round.
    ‘Will Dad be coming home tonight though?’ I asked, my smile fading.
    Mum shook her head. ‘I don’t know,’ she sighed. ‘Sebastian, Beth, did you drive here? Do you think you could give me a lift to the police station? I want to be with David.’
    ‘Of course we’ll drive you there.’ Sebastian smiled at Mum. ‘We’ll stay with you and drive you back as well if you like.’
    ‘We’ll see,’ Mum replied. ‘I might be there for quite a while.’
    An uncomfortable silence fell over us. I forced myself to break it.
    ‘Aunt Beth, when exactly did the money go missing?’ I asked.
    ‘Last night, or rather in the early hours of this morning during the batch-job run,’ Aunt Beth replied.
    ‘What’s the batch-job run?’ Gib asked.
    ‘If you transfer money into, or take money out of your bank account, depending on the transaction the new details don’t always show up immediately,’ Aunt Beth explained. ‘All the details that aren’t updated straight away are stored in a file on the bank’s computers, but the file doesn’t get used until the bank’s batch job reads that file each night. Then the results of each overnight transaction are held in the transaction log file.’
    ‘Is the batch job just a computer program, then?’ Gib asked.
    ‘Since when have you been interested in computer programming? You hate the subject.’ I scowled at him.
    He was just doing it to impress Aunt Beth. He only went near Dad’s PC to play games. Dad and I were the only ones who used it for programming and analytical stuff. ICT at school was my brother’s worst subject. Gib glared at me.
    ‘Gib, the batch job is really a special set of programs that are scheduled to run each night,’ Aunt Beth said quickly, before Gib and I could launch into a full-scale quarrel.
    I was barely listening. Something else had popped into my mind.
    ‘Aunt Beth, Dad said that everyone who works at Universal Bank has to have their bank account there,’ I began. ‘Is that true?’
    ‘Of course. It’s one of the bank’s rules when you start working for them,’ Aunt Beth said.
    ‘Then anyone at the bank who knew what they were doing could have put that money into Dad’s bank account,’ I said, thinking out loud.
    ‘Really, Vicky,’ Mum sighed. ‘Who would do such a thing? More to the point,
why
would they do such a thing? No, it’s just a misunderstanding, that’s all. I’m sure it’ll get sorted out.’
    I didn’t answer. Mum was just trying to reassure Gib and me but somehow – maybe because of the way the day had gone so far – somehow, I didn’t think this would be sorted out quite so easily.
    ‘Don’t worry, Laura, I’ll do everything I can to get this resolved,’ Aunt Beth said.
    ‘Thanks, Beth.’ Mum smiled. The first real smile I’d seen from her all evening. ‘Right then, Gib and Vicky. I don’t know when I’ll be back, so don’t wait up. And don’t forget your homework. Don’t leave it till Sunday evening the way you two usually do.’
    And with that, Mum, Aunt Beth and Sebastian left the room. I still couldn’t take it in about Dad being arrested. I felt so helpless. There had to be something I could do, but what? If only …
    ‘You rotten cow!’ Gib turned on me the moment he heard the front door shut.
    I frowned at him. ‘What did you call me that for?’
    ‘Thank you very much for showing me up in front of Aunt Beth!’ Gib said furiously.
    ‘Oh, that,’ I snorted. ‘You know as well as I do that