Chapter Fourteen

Later on that afternoon, after taking one last deep breath, Natalie nodded at John and together they strode toward the bank teller.

"How can I help you today?" The woman asked, a large smile plastered on her face.

"Actually, I was hoping I could speak to your bank manager. Is he free?"

The teller looked over her shoulder and nodded. "Just a minute please." She was gone for a few minutes, and then suddenly reappeared with an older man beside her.

"How may I help you two?" The man asked.

Natalie flashed him a winning smile. "Actually sir, is there anyway we could go into your office? It's sort of a private matter…."

Trying to remain calm John wondered for the millionth time if he had made a mistake in letting Natalie do this. All she had said was for him to trust her and follow her lead. At first John had started to argue, but remembering how good she had been with Allison, John decided to trust her.

The man nodded, and led them into his office. Once they were seated, Natalie took a second to look around and then smiled at him once more and thanked him for seeing them.

"My name is Natalie Balsom, and this is my fiancé John." As Natalie handed him her old New Jersey license which read Balsom, John tried forced himself not to appear surprised. "The reason we are here is a little bit complicated. See, my mother died after giving birth to me and my father died when I was much younger," Reaching into her purse Natalie pulled out Walter's death certificate and handed it to him. "And well as I was going through some of his things recently I came across a letter he had written to me before he died… see he had been really sick." Natalie took a shaky breath, trying to seem like the devastated daughter.

"In this letter he told me how much he loved me and how he would always be with me, but he also said he had placed my mother and his wedding ring set in a safety deposit box for when I was older." Natalie grabbed a tissue and began to dab at her eyes. "And well in the letter he talked about how much it would mean to him if I used it when I got married."

The bank manager nodded sympathetically. "I am quite sorry to hear about your loss. But I'd be happy to take you down there if you could show me the key."

Natalie drew in another shaky breath. "That's the problem sir; the key must have been misplaced because it wasn't with the letter."

"I'm very sorry, but without the key I can't help you."

Suddenly Natalie burst into tears. "He was all I had…" she choked out, through her sobs. "And this was his last wish…." Trailing off she leaned over and buried her head in John's shoulder. "John, what are we going to do… it's bad enough I have no one to walk me down the aisle or dance with…. Now I can't even fulfill Daddy's last wish… we should postpone the wedding, wait until we find the key…but what if we never do? Oh no… this is awful…" She managed to choke out through her sobs.

Deciding to go with it, John awkwardly hugged her and fixed the bank manager with a desperate look. "Pease sir, isn't there anything you can do? This means so much to her, and the wedding is in two weeks…"

Looking between the couple, and seeing how hysterical the young woman was becoming, the bank manager looked down at the death certificate and Natalie's license. "What box did you say it was?" He finally relented having been in the business long enough to know when someone was sincere.

Natalie pulled away from John, and looked at him through teary, hopeful eyes. "216,"

The bank manager nodded. "I'll have a teller open the box for you. But since your father has passed away I need you to clear out the box so we can free it up."

Wiping away her tears, Natalie jumped up and went over and hugged the man for good measure as John looked on in slight shock. "Oh thank you sir, thank you so much. I'm sure my father is looking down on us right now and smiling."

Still playing the role of the devoted daughter, Natalie continued to talk about Walter as the teller walked them down to the safety deposit boxes. Once the box was opened and John and Natalie had been led into a private room and left alone, Natalie wiped at her eyes and smiled as John looked at her in complete shock.

Seeing his expression, Natalie let out a small laugh. "What? Are you finally seeing what a great criminal I would have made?"

"I was thinking more what a great cop. Seriously Natalie, I worked a ton of undercover operations when I was with the FBI, I don't think I ever met any agent who would have been able to pull that off. How did you come up with it?" He asked, as there had been no definitive plan going in.

Embarrassed by his praise, she shrugged. "It's all about reading people. Once we were in his office I noticed a few of the framed pictures on the side table, one of them was of him and a younger woman on her wedding day, probably his daughter. Once I saw that I knew what angle to go with."

"The tears and everything… Natalie that was amazing."

"And you told me to stay out of this," she said lightly as she began to open the box.

Going over to her John grabbed her hand and stared down at her. "I was wrong. Without your help on this I wouldn't have half of what I do now. Thank you."

Unsure of how to respond, Natalie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked away. "You're welcome," she mumbled before pulling the lid off the box.

The contents of the box now staring up at them, they both gasped in shock.