The Jester's Court

Chapter 10: Somethin' to Look Into

I woke up on the couch. Not only that, I was naked, my feet hurt, and I had a splittin' headache. I froze in place when I realized what all that probably meant, the need to pee momentarily forgotten. If the pattern held, I'd gone out Jesterin' last night. Lord knows, I hoped I hadn't done it in my birthday suit.

I grabbed a robe and some aspirin from the bathroom and headed to the workshop to see what I could see. In a pile next to the work desk, I saw the Jester costume. So, I guess I did have access to information in my head while the Jester. On the desk, I saw the doohickey thing that programmed the cards with the magnetic stripes. I had no clue what it did, but I was pretty certain I was goin' to find out.

I couldn't ignore my bladder any longer, so I took care of the issue before turnin' on the TV. I saw nothin'. I flipped through every news channel I had and there as simply no mention of the Jester. I was highly puzzled, to say the least.

There was no time to keep flippin' through; I needed to get to work. I got ready in record time, and headed out the door. I even skipped my second cup of coffee to do it.

I expected to hear somethin' from the Lieutenant or Danny when I got there, but, nope, nothin'. And, it wasn't like I could ask. So, I sat on pins and needles pretty much for the whole hour before I got the phone call.

"The is Detective Smith, how can I help you?" I asked the caller.

"Detective, I am Mr. Marks from Southern Bank. I would like to report a Jester incident."

I sat up straighter in my chair and grabbed a pen and pad of paper. "Oh? What would you like to report."

"We learned this mornin' that five of our ATMs were tampered with overnight. Looking at the security footage, we saw the Jester at the machine. We are presuming that he is the one behind the reprogramming of the machine."

"Reprogrammin'?" I asked. "Reprogrammin' how?"

Danny was now interested in the conversation, but I didn't want to put it on speaker. Confidentiality was the safe thing right now. Still, he propped himself on my desk and listened to my side. I'd tell him everythin' anyway, so the only thing I minded was how crowded the desk was with his ass on it.

"It was reprogrammed to give out twice the amount requested by the customer, the extra amount to be deducted from a another VIP client's account. The client is not happy."

"I can bet that he or she is not. How much is missin' at this point?" I really didn't need to know that information, but I was really curious.

"We caught it early, so only about ten thousand dollars. The exact amount is, of course, private."

I swallowed a laugh. The Jester had pulled a Robin Hood. I— kind of approved. I still had plenty to be nervous about, however.

"How is the problem bein' rectified?"

"The money is being deducted from the appropriate accounts, of course. But, don't you want to know more about the actual Jester?"

"Yes, of course. How did the Jester manage to reprogram the ATMs?"

Danny's eyebrows shot up. I saw the hint of a smile.

"He used a device that programs a swipe card that is then inserted into the machine. When the ATM reads the card, it accesses the code. Beyond that, I don't know; it's a little above my head."

"Can you provide us with the security footage?"

"Yes, of course, from all five ATMs, if you'd like."

"Yes, that could be quite helpful."

"Very good. Shall we meet in my office, say, at 11AM? I am located at the main branch downtown."

"Okay, that sounds good, but before you go, give me the addresses of the ATMs that were reprogrammed."

He did so, we said our goodbyes, and I turned to Danny. "So, the Jester reprogrammed five of the bank's ATMs last night. They were givin' out double money, deductin' the amount from some rich guy's account."

Danny couldn't help it; he threw his head back and laughed. Those with desks near us looked our way. I motioned for them to turn around and go back to mindin' their own business.

"They've got security cam footage from all five ATMs for us. We're supposed to meet Mr. Marks in his office at eleven," I explained.

"Okay, you go tell the Lieutenant what's going on and I'll take a look at where these ATMs are on the map."

I made my way to the Lieutenant's office and informed her of the Jester's activities. To her credit, she did a much better job at hidin' her humor over the situation. When I came back to our desks, Danny was on the phone. He'd managed to print out a map of the city, but that was all.

He looked at me and I heard him say, "Reprogrammed your ATMs, you say?" He was tryin' to keep the smile out of his voice and failin' miserably.

He cleared his throat, "No, of course you are right. This is very serious. Do you happen to have security footage from the ATMs? Very good. Can we come and collect the footage at, say, 1PM?" He paused before sayin', "Thank you. Now, can you give me addresses of the ATMs, please? He wrote furiously before finally sayin', "Okay, thank you very much for called Mrs. Hamilton. We will see you this afternoon."

The two of us took the time to map out the ATMs. It seemed they went around one of the downtown city blocks, hittin' both sides of the street. There were a lot of ATMs in that area. I was betting we'd hear from more banks before the day was done. No wonder my feet hurt. I wasn't used to walkin' that much in platform boots.

Platform boots. It dawned on me that I had no idea how the Jester had gotten his costume without me knowin'. It implied that he knew he was my altar ego. That was... disconcertin'. The only way he could have done it was to have rented a mailbox somewhere and have had the package delivered there. And, not only that, he'd have to go in there as me in order to pick up the packages.

I was goin' to have to start keepin' a record of the money he was spendin'. Typically, I didn't worry about it. As I said, my wife, or rather, soon-to-be-ex wife, made significantly more money than I did. We'd had it worked out long ago that a certain portion of her check would go into my account. That way, we each had plenty of money, but still maintained personal accounts. Seperate accounts was a thing for her and it didn't bother me, so I had agreed. She'd never changed that, though, I was bettin' it would be changin' any day now.

Even so, I didn't have the kind of money that Danny and his wife did. No Hummer for me. I was pretty no-nonsense when it came to stuff anyway. I guess it was my country boy childhood stickin' with me. A beat-up Honda was good enough for me, though, I did miss havin' a truck.

What concerned me more than the money was the fact that he'd gone out as me to the mailbox place. At least, I was assumin' he had. Surely, he didn't wear the Jester getup; I figured we'd have heard from a store by now if he had. Did he wear any kind of a disguise? I hadn't found any other costumin' at the house. The more I thought about it, the more concerned I became.

Though, in retrospect, I guess it would be much less noticable if he did just go out as me. Nothin' sayin' that I couldn't have a box somewhere. Still, it was somethin' to look into.