Managers called out from behind their desks at passers-by in the hallway. I overheard shouted requests for “security audits” and “activity reports.”
There were security guards posted at regular intervals down the hallway. I wondered how an uninformed guard could possibly recognize inappropriate behavior in the midst of such unusual activity as people bustled back and forth with stacks of papers in their arms.
We passed a short middle-aged man in a black suit crawling along the floor with a tape measure in his hand. He appeared to be measuring the length of the hallway, although I could not fathom his purpose. I glanced at Jonny, but he wasn’t looking in my direction so I couldn’t see his reaction. Instead he was looking further down the hallway, where a workman was standing atop a step-ladder and mounting a surveillance camera high on the wall.
Still more workmen had been putting in lights in the parking lot when we parked the Taurus. They appeared to be new additions rather than replacements for old lights. Despite the mid-morning sun, the lights shone bright when they tested them as we stepped out of the Taurus. These were bright halogen lights, seemingly capable of lighting a small baseball stadium.
Before we reached the workman on the step-ladder, a voice called out to us through one of the open office doorways. A very young man hurried out into the hallway to greet us. He could not have been older than twenty-eight. His hair was black and longish for someone dressed as conservatively as he was. He wore a grey pinstripe three-piece suit with a white dress shirt underneath. The shirt had French cuffs and he wore silver cufflinks. His tie was red and conservative. On his feet he wore neatly polished black wing-tips. He introduced himself as Tony Miccuzzi, the man we had come to see. He was an information security officer at Bendix of St. Louis.
“Have you got the tape we requested?” Jonny asked after the introductions were over.
“Yup, it contains all of our interaction with First C over the last twenty business days,” Tony said as he extended an 8mm tape cartridge out to Jonny.
Jonny immediately opened his briefcase, resting it on a lifted knee while balancing himself on the other foot. He took a manilla folder out of the briefcase at the same time that hie put the tape in. He opened the folder and laid a single piece of paper on the desk. On the page were neatly typed notes.
“We’ll look over the contents of the tape back in Chicago; I dragged Carl down to St. Louis because I want him to see your EFT operations in action. He was the one that picked up on the delay scam at First Chicago and he may be able to assist us with the investigation. We are already familiar with the protocols; we want to review the policies and practices that are specific to Bendix. For starters, who knows the master key?”
“You really should talk to management about stuff like that,” Tony said hesitantly. “I am too far down the ladder to know all of our policies.”
“We will be talking to management too,” Jonny assured him, “but my experience as an investigator has been that it is the people in the trenches that know how things really get done.”
This appeared to please Tony who now said, “I can tell you right off that I don’t know the master key. Nor do I have access to it.”
For the remainder of the morning the young information security officer reviewed the Bendix security policy with us. He also gave us a tour of the EFT operations room and let us look in on some transfers. Jonny asked lots of questions and took lots of notes. I only watched and listened, choosing to interpret my role as an observer very literally. Jonny did not limit his questions to Tony, but also directed many questions to members of the EFT Operations group. On three seperate occasions Jonny spoke to employees individually, out of ear-shot of Tony and other Bendix employees. For the most part, Jonny’s questions related to procedural aspects of EFT operations. All of the questions were posed in a non-threatening and friendly manner. Jonny played the part of an outsider interested in the logistics of wholesale banking.