Wanted!

Five Years LaterLark Renault pushed the Total key on her shiny new Victor adding machine, pulled the crank and compared the number which printed on the paper tape to the sum on her ledger page. She smiled and sat back in satisfaction.Balanced to the penny.She closed the ledger. The last of the quarterly reports Mr. Templeton, the Ida Grove Bank's president, had asked her to compile was finished. She took great pride in that he trusted her with the responsibility, especially since she'd only arrived in this western Iowa town barely six months ago and was his newest employee.Not that the institution had a large number of people on the payroll. Still, he'd expanded her duties beyond that of a teller, even trusting her with managing the place by herself every day while the rest of the employees went to lunch.Lark supposed it was her gift with numbers. She was amazingly accurate with them. Sums came quickly to her, even without the aid of the latest Victor Mr. Templeton ordered just for her. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division -- numbers fascinated her, any which way she could figure them."Miss Renault. Come in here, please."Mr. Templeton called her from his office at the rear of the small bank and sent her thoughts scattering. She rose quickly from her desk to obey.Glass enclosed the crisp, efficient room where he conducted the most important financial transactions. Here, he could see each customer as they walked in and the tellers who assisted them. Here, too, was where the vault had been placed and, under Mr. Templeton's watchful eye, no one could enter the steel-enclosed chamber without his notice."My wife and son will be arriving soon," he said. Silver streaked the hair at his temples, though he was only a decade or so older than Lark's twenty-two years. His well-tailored suit showed not a speck of lint or unnecessary wrinkle. He was always fastidious about his appearance, from his meticulously trimmed fingernails to the shine on his leather shoes. "Show them in when they get here, won't you?""Certainly, Mr. Templeton.""We'll be going to Omaha for the weekend, so I'll be leaving the bank early this afternoon. I'd like you to close up for me in my absence."Pride swelled through her at this new responsibility. "I can do that, Mr. Templeton. Of course."He smiled, gave her a brisk nod of dismissal and immersed himself in his work again. Upon leaving his office to return to her desk, she nearly collided with Mrs. Pankonin, the head cashier."So you'll be locking the doors today," she sniffed in a voice their employer couldn't hear. She held a stack of bank notes in each hand and was on her way into the vault to store them."Yes, I will." Lark refused to let the older woman's antagonism deflate her pride. Perhaps if she wasn't so crotchety all the time, Mr. Templeton would be more inclined to depend on her more. As it was, most days he tended to avoid her. "Excuse me, won't you?"Lark sashayed past her. From Mrs. Pankonin's perspective, she guessed, it wasn't fair that Mr. Templeton depended on Lark so much, not when Mrs. Pankonin had been employed longer than any of them, including Mr. Templeton himself. The woman knew the workings of the bank, inside and out. She was certainly capable of any task given to her.Lark closed her mind to the woman's jealousy. She loved her job too much to let the pinch-nosed, whiny-voiced widow bother her unduly.She had just finished figuring the interest due upon a draft and recording a customer's payment when Amelia Templeton arrived with her six-year-old son, Phillip. A cloud of expensive perfume alerted Lark to her presence, and before she could direct the pair into the president's office, Phillip pulled his hand from his mother's and darted toward Lark."I sit here, Mama," he said and crawled onto the chair closest to Lark's desk."But, Phillip," Amelia said with a doting smile. "Don't you want to see Papa? He has peppermCrooks, Pam is the author of 'Wanted! ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373294138 and ISBN 0373294131.