delegates mingled with the rest of the tourists in the city and busied themselves cashing the travelers’ cheques. For the moment, everything was going according to plan.
What Pascoe didn't know and couldn’t probably have foreseen, was that Ed Dodge and his daughter had chosen not to stay with the herd in London, but had gone for a day-trip to France. The couple had arrived in Dover late on the Saturday morning and had taken the courtesy bus to the hover port. There, they had taken advantage of a 30 minute wait for their flight, by changing their travelers’ cheques. As luck would have it, the Bureau-de-Change, run by Thomas Cook was one of the busiest in the world and handled thousands of transactions each year. The experienced counter-clerk who served Dodge, had never seen or heard of "Dallasbank" and was loathe to part with any money until he had checked. Eventually, finding no notification of dubious cheques labeled "Dallasbank" and satisfied that Dodge and his daughter seemed to be typical American tourists with their passports in order, the cashier gave them the benefit of the doubt.
While the Dodges were embarking on the hover -craft to Calais, the Thomas Cook clerk searched again through his 'bible' for any reference to the "Second National City Bank of Dallas." He found none, but being diligent and having nothing better to do until the next flight arrival, he also checked for the "First National City Bank of Dallas" which apparently didn't exist either and this really struck him as odd. Why name a bank as the "Second National" if there wasn't a "First National," the cashier wondered. He retrieved the cheques from his cash drawer and sorted them into two piles; one for the American Dodge and one for his daughter. An examination of the cheques showed him that while both groups of cheques had sequential numbering, there was a reasonable gap between the serial numbers of those cheques changed by Dodge and those changed by his daughter. There were no water marks, but he knew that not every cheque carried one and the ink did have had a definite texture and the paper was of good quality. In all, the clerk spent twenty minutes examining the cheques before replacing them in his till.
Several hours later, the manager of the Hover port branch, although officially on holiday, stopped by the office and the cashier brought the suspect cheques to his attention. The manager, a genial faced giant of a man with naval beard and moustache had more than 30 years’ experience in foreign exchange. He didn't recognize the bank either, although he noticed that the name was typically American. He examined the cheques under a fluoroscope to see if the ink or fibers in the paper fluoresced, but they didn't and he found nothing. He had a gut-feeling about the cheques, but because it was the holiday period, knew he could not contact his own head office until the following Tuesday. Knowing that he would have to take eventual responsibility for the cheques, he decided to play safe and instructed his staff not to accept any more cheques- drawn on "Dallasbank".
The Dodges, oblivious of the problems they had left in their wake, changed more che ques at the French Hover port, without further problem.
In Paris, 180 miles south of Calais, T.T. Ford also had no problems changing che ques at the "Charles de Gaulle" airport or the "Gare du Nord" railway station. In all, it was an uneventful weekend for the small French contingent.
Later in the weekend, the pace hotted up considerably at the Change Alley office. The number of visitors had increased steadily from the Saturday afternoon onwards, with more than 20 people stopping by to deposit their cash. Only two of their callers had exchanged all their che ques - the rest divested themselves of cash they didn't want to carry around anymore.
Sam took the easy way to the Change Alley office, arriving by underground at Bank Station. She emerged from the labyrinth at the corner of Cornhill and
What Pascoe didn't know and couldn’t probably have foreseen, was that Ed Dodge and his daughter had chosen not to stay with the herd in London, but had gone for a day-trip to France. The couple had arrived in Dover late on the Saturday morning and had taken the courtesy bus to the hover port. There, they had taken advantage of a 30 minute wait for their flight, by changing their travelers’ cheques. As luck would have it, the Bureau-de-Change, run by Thomas Cook was one of the busiest in the world and handled thousands of transactions each year. The experienced counter-clerk who served Dodge, had never seen or heard of "Dallasbank" and was loathe to part with any money until he had checked. Eventually, finding no notification of dubious cheques labeled "Dallasbank" and satisfied that Dodge and his daughter seemed to be typical American tourists with their passports in order, the cashier gave them the benefit of the doubt.
While the Dodges were embarking on the hover -craft to Calais, the Thomas Cook clerk searched again through his 'bible' for any reference to the "Second National City Bank of Dallas." He found none, but being diligent and having nothing better to do until the next flight arrival, he also checked for the "First National City Bank of Dallas" which apparently didn't exist either and this really struck him as odd. Why name a bank as the "Second National" if there wasn't a "First National," the cashier wondered. He retrieved the cheques from his cash drawer and sorted them into two piles; one for the American Dodge and one for his daughter. An examination of the cheques showed him that while both groups of cheques had sequential numbering, there was a reasonable gap between the serial numbers of those cheques changed by Dodge and those changed by his daughter. There were no water marks, but he knew that not every cheque carried one and the ink did have had a definite texture and the paper was of good quality. In all, the clerk spent twenty minutes examining the cheques before replacing them in his till.
Several hours later, the manager of the Hover port branch, although officially on holiday, stopped by the office and the cashier brought the suspect cheques to his attention. The manager, a genial faced giant of a man with naval beard and moustache had more than 30 years’ experience in foreign exchange. He didn't recognize the bank either, although he noticed that the name was typically American. He examined the cheques under a fluoroscope to see if the ink or fibers in the paper fluoresced, but they didn't and he found nothing. He had a gut-feeling about the cheques, but because it was the holiday period, knew he could not contact his own head office until the following Tuesday. Knowing that he would have to take eventual responsibility for the cheques, he decided to play safe and instructed his staff not to accept any more cheques- drawn on "Dallasbank".
The Dodges, oblivious of the problems they had left in their wake, changed more che ques at the French Hover port, without further problem.
In Paris, 180 miles south of Calais, T.T. Ford also had no problems changing che ques at the "Charles de Gaulle" airport or the "Gare du Nord" railway station. In all, it was an uneventful weekend for the small French contingent.
Later in the weekend, the pace hotted up considerably at the Change Alley office. The number of visitors had increased steadily from the Saturday afternoon onwards, with more than 20 people stopping by to deposit their cash. Only two of their callers had exchanged all their che ques - the rest divested themselves of cash they didn't want to carry around anymore.
Sam took the easy way to the Change Alley office, arriving by underground at Bank Station. She emerged from the labyrinth at the corner of Cornhill and
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