Page 87 of Love Me Till Wednesday

It must be a mistake.

Nina had noticed it, too. She tapped out a message on her Teams chat with Lisa.

Couldn’t help but see that. I thought you said the house sale hadn’t gone through yet?

Lisa replied.

It hasn’t.

She added a shocked face emoji.

Bought any lottery tickets lately?

Lisa typed

Yes, but none of the numbers have come up.

What if it was a scam? She’d heard about criminals deliberately overpaying you and then persuading you to return the money to them. Once your money hit their bank account, they cancelled the initial payment, leaving you thousands of pounds out of pocket. She couldn’t afford to do that with £1 million. She needed to get to the bottom of this urgently.

‘Colin. I’ve got some tasks I need to attend to. I’ve contributed all I can. Can I be excused?’

‘If you must,’ he snapped.

She left the room and headed to one of the booths in the corner of the main office area, where she could talk without being overheard. After a frustrating five minutes trying to get past her bank’s automated chatbot, she finally spoke to a human.

‘I’ve had an unexpected transaction on my bank account this afternoon.’

‘Let me check for you, madam,’ the voice at the end of the phone said. ‘Ooh. That’s a very nice amount to receive.’

‘Yes, but I’ve no idea who it’s from. Is it a scam?’

She could hear the man at the other end of the phone tapping away on his keyboard.

‘It looks like it’s from a legitimate account. We haven’t flagged it as fraudulent. I suggest you get in touch with them directly and query it. Is it someone you’ve ordered something from?’

‘No. I’ve never heard of them before.’

‘Sometimes a company’s bank name can differ from their trading name.’

‘So how do I find out who they are?’

‘Try Googling. I’d offer to do it for you, but our internet browsing is restricted here.’

‘Thank you very much for your help,’ she said, ending the call.

Lisa launched her web browser and searched for NNE. The top result was a market research company. That didn’t make sense at all. She scrolled through the rest of the results. Nothing leapt out at her as a possibility.

Nina was walking towards her. ‘Any news?’

‘No. It’s not obviously a con. Any idea who NNE are?’

Nina shook her head. ‘Look on Companies House. It should say what they do and who owns them.’

Lisa revised her search. ‘No, nothing there. Perhaps they’re not a British company. I don’t know what to do now.’

Nina shrugged. ‘I’d stick it in your savings account and wait for someone to get in touch.’

That evening, Lisa was cooking dinner when the phone rang. Jim. He didn’t usually call at this time on a weekday. He was either working late or putting the kids to bed.

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