The Moneychangers Read Online Free PDF Page A

notes which bankers called "fit." Fortunately there were others who simply didn't care and tellers had instructions to pass out the worst soiled money where they could get away with it, saving their fresh, crisp bills for those who asked for them.
    "Hear there's lots of high-grade counterfeit stuff around. Maybe we could get you a bundle." The second guard winked at his companion.
    Edwina told him, 'That kind of help we can do without. We've been getting too much of it."
    Only last week the bank had discovered nearly a thousand dollars in counterfeit bills money paid in, though the source was unknown. More than likely it had come through numerous depositors some who had been defrauded themselves and were passing their loss along to the bank; others who had no idea the bills were counterfeit, which was not surprising since the quality was remarkably high.
    Agents of the U. S. Secret Sevic e, who had discussed the matter with Edwina and Miles Eastin, were frankly worried. "The counterfeit money we're seeing has never been as good, and there's never been as much in circulation," one of them admitted. A conservative estimate was that thirty million dollars of bogus money had been produced the previous year. "And a lot more never gets detected."
    England and Canada were major supply sources of spurious U.S. currency. The agents also reported that an incredible amount was circulating in Europe. "It's not so easily detected there, so warn your friends who go to Europe never to accept American bills. There's a strong chance they could be worthless."
    The first armed guard shifted the sacks on his shoulders. "Don't worry, folksl These are genuine greenbacks. All part of the servicer" Both guards went down the stairway to the vault.
    E dwina walked to her desk on the platfonn. Th roughout the bank, activity was increasing. The main front doors were open, early customer’s streaming in.
    The platform where, by tradition, the senior officers worked, was raised slightly above the main-floor level and carpeted in crimson. Edwina's desk, the largest and most imposing, was flanked-by two flags behind her and to the right the Stars and Stripes, and on her left the state burger. Sometimes, seated there, she felt as if she were on TV, ready to make a solemn announcement while cameras dollied in.
    The big downtown branch itself was modern. Rebuilt a year or two ago when FMA's adjoining Headquarters Tower was erected, the structure had had design expertise and a fortune lavished on it. The result, in which crimson and mahogany predominated with an appropriate sprinkling of gold, was a combination of customer convenience, excellent working conditi ons and just plain opulence. Oc casionally, Edwina admitted to herself, the opulence seemed to have an edge.
    As she settled down, her tall, lithe figure slipping familiarly into a high-backed swivel chair, she smoothed her short hair needlessly, since as usua l it was impeccably in place,
    Edwina reached for a group of files containing loan applications for amounts higher than other officers in the branch had authority to approve.
    Her own authorization to lend money extended to a million dollars in any single instance, providing two other officers in the branch concurred. They invariably did. Amounts in excess were referred to the bank's credit policy unit over in Headquarters.
    In First Mercantile American, as in any banking system, an acknowledged status symbol was the size of a loan which a bank official had power to sanction. It also determined his or her position on the organization totem pole and was spoken of as "the quality of initial," because an individual's initial put final approval on any loan proposal.
    As a manager, the quality of Edwina's initial was unusually high, though it reflected her responsibility in running FMA's important downtown branch. A manager of a lesser branch might approve loans from ten thousand to half a million dollars, depending on the manager's ability an d