Lucy and Nate sat in the chairs across from Pollero. He closed the door behind them and sat down at his desk, which was immaculate. Behind him on the credenza was a wedding photo—it looked recent, and Pollero was standing with a woman next to the bride. Next to it was a photo of the bride and her husband with a toddler.
“Your daughter?” she asked, nodding toward the photos.
He glanced over and smiled. “Penny. The joy of my life. And her daughter, Gracie. She just turned two.”
“Adorable,” Lucy said. “Again, thank you for agreeing to meet with us on such short notice.”
“I assumed it was because of the news reports Monday night—that you found Denise Albright’s remains. I’m stunned.”
“Her, and her family,” Lucy said. “They were murdered.”
She said it in a calm, reasoned voice—just like she asked about his daughter—and it threw him a bit.
“It’s awful,” he said.
“Based on forensics and our investigation, you may very well have been one of the last people to see Mrs. Albright alive.”
“I—I’m sure that’s not true.”
“According to your statement, she came into the bank on Friday, September 21, at ten fifteen a.m. She made changes to the Kiefer account, of which she was a signatory, and you indicated that she wasn’t under duress.”
“I honestly don’t remember the details, but if she was acting odd, I would have noticed. I knew Mrs. Albright for years. We gave her the loan on her home, when they only had one child. She had her business account with us, when she had a new client she always referred them to our bank. She was meticulous, which I appreciated. If there was a discrepancy in any of her accounts, we worked on finding it together.”
“So you saw her regularly? How often would you say? Every week? Month?”
“Once a month, maybe a little less. With online banking taking off, we don’t see our customers as often as we used to.”
“Did you know her husband?” Lucy asked.
“By sight. He only came in a couple times to sign papers, such as when they refinanced their home. Mrs. Albright handled most, if not all, of the family’s finances, which isn’t a surprise since she was an accountant.”
Interviewing a witness—as well as a suspect—meant quickly profiling the subject. Perhaps unfair at times, it almost always succeeded. Because Pollero was on the old-fashioned side, over fifty, had a daughter roughly Lucy’s age, and was in the conservative banking profession, Lucy and Nate made an unspoken decision that she would be the nice agent and Nate would be more aggressive. Though they hadn’t been partners long, they knew each other’s strengths well.
So when Nate spoke, he was more commanding. Coupled with his military background and intimidating broad shoulders, he came across as authorative.
“Didn’t you think it was suspicious that Mrs. Albright changed the account of one of her clients?”
“I— Um, no, I didn’t.”
“Why?”
“I knew her.”
“I know Agent Kincaid, but I would find it suspicious if she wanted to take her husband off their joint bank account.”
“This was completely different,” he said. “Mrs. Albright set up the account, she had the authority to change it.”
“But she set it up with Mr. Kiefer and he was one of the signatories who was supposed to approve any transaction over ten thousand dollars.”
“Yes, but she had the appropriate forms.”
“Which she could have forged or manipulated Mr. Kiefer into signing,” Nate pushed. “You didn’t even think to call him? Verify that he gave her permission to—essentially—control a three-million-dollar account?”
“I— She wouldn’t— I mean— I had never thought— It wasn’t that unusual.”
“You have a fiduciary responsibility to protect your customers’ assets, and you not only acted wholly unprofessional, but she was able to transfer the money that night without raising any red flags on your end?”
“I— I don’t see why—what—I mean, I followed all regulations for that type of transaction.”
“Agent Dunning, I’m sure Mr. Pollero trusted Mrs. Albright. He’d been her banker for years.”
“I did,” he said, jumping on Lucy’s out. “I trusted her explicitly.”
Lucy gave him a half smile and showed him the photo he had provided three years ago of Denise Albright coming into the bank. She had on large sunglasses, her hair was down and partly shielding her face, and there was no clear shot of her without the sunglasses. Based on photos they had of Denise, the woman may have been her, but the photo was so grainy that they couldn’t even tell the woman’s hair color. The only thing they could be sure of was that she was Caucasian and approximately five feet six inches based on the lines on the door where the image was captured. Denise Albright’s medical records indicated she was a half-inch taller than five foot six but certainly within the range.
“You sent this picture in when asked for surveillance film that morning. You indicated in your statement that the bank only had a camera on the door. But you didn’t provide the entire video, only this image. You can see why my boss is skeptical that this is Denise.” Lucy watched as Pollero stared at the picture.
“Yes, the quality isn’t the best, we’ve since upgraded our system. But that’s Denise.”
Nate said, “Do you know that it is a felony to lie to federal agents?”
“Of course!” he said, his voice rising. “I gave your office everything I had, and I’m sorry I didn’t think anything was wrong, but at the time nothing seemed unusual. I went over all this with the sheriff’s department, and again with the FBI, and I don’t see why you’re coming back now.”
“Because we don’t believe that this is Denise Albright,” Nate said bluntly.
“I would never have authorized the change if it wasn’t her.”
“Denise Albright may already have been dead when she allegedly came into the bank.”
His face drained. “I— That can’t be. The police told me that she and her husband crossed the border that night. That’s what they said. They had a picture to prove it.”
Lucy said, “The correct answer, Mr. Pollero, is that she couldn’t have been dead because you spoke to her at ten fifteen that morning.”
He stared at her, blinked, seemed confused, then said, “Yes, of course. That’s the right answer.”
The way he said it had Lucy backtracking. Something about his demeanor … he had been coached. And her prompt seemed to calm him down, as if she were telling him what to say.
“Thank you for your time,” Lucy said as she stood. Nate clearly didn’t want to leave, but he rose with her, and she was grateful he didn’t argue. They needed to regroup and look at this case in a different way.
“Um, yes, and if you need anything else, let me know,” he said.
Lucy opened the door and Nate followed her out. They got all the way to the car before Nate said, “He was lying and you let him!”
“He was coached. Someone told him exactly what to say to the FBI three years ago to make us go away. He gave Laura what she asked for, nothing more or less. He has never been in trouble, so there was no reason to investigate him. Now there is. We need a warrant for all the records, because I think he’s the one who falsified the banking records that enabled the embezzlement. Bankers are under intense scrutiny, but they also are knowledgeable about how the system works and he could have made it look like Denise authorized the change to the account. He gave us that grainy photo plus his statement that she didn’t appear to be under distress—he did his part. Exactly what he was told to do.”