Page 24 of Operation: Integrity

Her fingers shook as she read the entire message, then read it again. The text was so small that making out the words was difficult. She glanced around her.Silly goose, you’ve been alone for hours.Though she still felt strange about talking into the watch. She wasn’t James Bond.

“I tried. I’m sorry. I need to know that Jasmine is okay.” She waited and the watch asked her if she wanted to send her message. She pressed the little button that appeared, and her dictated textwhooshedaway. Her breathing wouldn’t calm down, no matter how often she tried to slow down and think. She was going to make the same mistakes over again. Was she destined to be abad girlthe rest of her life?

Her grandma had been the first one to tell her she was a bad girl. She’d been flirty. Not physically, but she loved to laugh and smile and being friendly with guys had always come easier than friendships with girls. She loved to joke in a way that made men notice her. Since she’d gone much of her life unnoticed by women as friends, this sudden interest and affection from men felt good. She’d always wondered how people could have friends and acting like a flirt—or so she’d been called—fixed that problem.

Her lack of close women friends was her first slideinto the dark world of human trafficking. Since Jasmine befriended her, probably for her money and the fact that she was one of the few women she knew that had a house to herself at her age, Jasmine had immediately wanted to move in. Kelly had agreed, even though Jasmine had been unable to help with the house payment or the groceries.

If only Kelly had known then that Jasmine was already stuck in a life she couldn’t leave. That life had soon become Kelly’s. She shook the watch once more and headed for the phone in her bedroom. She’d avoided using it other than that one time to talk to Connor. Talking aloud still felt strange when she hadn’t used anything technological in years.

She dialed her old landline number, hoping someone friendly had been assigned that number it over the years. She had no other way of getting information.

“Hello?” An elderly man answered the phone.

“Hi, don’t hang up. Please.” She bit her lip for a second. “I’m stranded and I need to call my bank, but I don’t have their number. Could you look up a phone number for me?” It was a long shot, but an elderly man was more likely than most to help her.

“What was that? I can’t hear so good.” He chuckled and it sounded more like wheezing.

“I’m looking for the West Central Savings and Loan, but I don’t have a way to look up the number,” she said slowly and loudly into the receiver.

“Oh, the Savings and Loan? Sure.” She could hear pages flipping, and Kelly almost laughed. She would’ve done the same thing, reach for a phone book. If she’d had one for her hometown, that’s exactly how she would’ve solved the problem. But without access to the internet orother means, calling someone in town was the only answer.

“Yup. Got a pencil?” he asked.

She tugged open her bedside drawer and found a golf pencil and tiny notepad inside. “I do. Go ahead.”

He gave her the 1-800 number and said he hoped that she found what she needed, then hung up. After all the worry about Nathan, the old man had been a breath of fresh air in her life. She took a moment to pray for him, whoever he was, then dialed the number.

Before the phone quit ringing once in her ear, someone picked up. “Vanda Darin, West Central Savings and Loan. How may I direct your call?”

Kelly fumbled over the words, then realized she didn’t have a check with her or even her identification. “I need to find out my account balance. I lost my register . . .” And everything else.

“One moment please, while I transfer you.”

Kelly waited, knowing her wrist was going to buzz any moment with a new text from Nathan.

“Good afternoon. This is Becca Tumes, account specialist. How may I help you?”

“Becca, hi.” Kelly sighed and scraped her hand through her hair. “I’ve lost all of my information, my checks, my driver’s license, everything. But I remember my social security number. If I provide that for you, can you look up my account and tell me the balance?”

“Absolutely, and if you need further assistance in getting a debit card or anything else, please let me know.”

Kelly gave her the information rapidly. Even after losing everything, she was still protective about her social security number. It was the one thing Nathan hadn’t gotten to, at least that she knew of.

“Miss Chambers, I’m sorry. Your account is empty and has been for quite some time. We haven’t had any action on that account in over three years when the last of the funds were drained. It looks like the secondary account holder wrote most of those checks.”

“Secondary?” She’d never added anyone to her checking account, and she’d been glad of that fact after Jasmine had emptied her account the first time. There should’ve not only been a few thousand dollars in her account from before Nathan held her; he’d promised to put money in there.

“Yes, it appears that you came in here about six months prior to the last use of the account and added Nathan Klein to your account. After that, none of the checks on file have any other signer than him.”

“I didn’t add him. How can that be?” She’d given him a deposit slip to put money in the bank for her, but she’d never agreed to give him access to her account.

“Well, you must have. We don’t simply add people without a signature. I’m sure you’ve just forgotten after this much time has passed. Since the account is empty, I won’t be able to send you a card until you deposit something. Will you be sending money in?”

Kelly thanked the Lord that she hadn’t signed up for an account like her parents that charged them monthly for additional security. Namely, if she had, Nathan would’ve gotten around it anyway and all those years of monthly charges would be waiting for her, ruining her credit even more. Nathan had won again.

She’d let him use the lie that she would get money as a dangling carrot in front of her. There was no way that years of work would be spent to find her, especially sinceno money had been added to that account in years. But what about Jasmine?

She hung up the phone as her wrist buzzed.

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