The signatures were perfect.
With her camera phone, she chose the deposit icon for a bank account in Glasgow, Scotland, took a picture of the check, and pressed send. She sent the second check to an account in London and at last, Teresa remembered to breathe.
Step one was complete.
She put everything back exactly as she found it, grabbed the birth certificate, the cash and the checks, and raced up the stairs to Laura's bedroom.
She pulled the gun out of her uniform pocket, carefully wiped her fingerprints off with a cloth, and then walked to the nightstand beside Laura's bed. She opened the drawer, positioned the gun so Laura could easily grab it and closed the drawer.
Next, she went to the closet, opened a shoe drawer and removed an empty, quart size baggie and a roll of tape. She set the birth certificate aside, counted out a hundred dollars and set that aside as well. She put the checks and the rest of the cash inside the baggie and sealed it.
Teresa unbuttoned it, let her uniform fall to the floor and taped the baggie to her leg. She took the white ball gown off the hanger and put it on. It was a little too large, but she didn't care. What she cared about was the bag full of money that bulged on the side of her leg. She hadn't counted on that.
Starting to panic, she quickly looked around. In such a vast quantity of clothes, there had to be something she could use. At last, she spotted a peach colored shawl and calmed. She grabbed it, the cash and birth certificate, slipped her feet into the pair of Laura's shoes she tried on earlier, and hurried to the dressing table. It only took a moment to pile her long dark hair on top of her head and pin it in place. Satisfied, she added a touch of color to her cheeks, found an unused tube of lipstick and applied it to her lips. The color didn't look great on her, but she didn't care about that either.
"Good enough," she muttered.
Step two was complete.
She called a cab, put the shawl around her shoulders, picked up the birth certificate and cash, and turned off the light. She was about to leave, when she remembered the invitation, rushed back to the office, grabbed it out of the top drawer, and then went to the living room to wait.
By then, she was exhausted, but she was too nervous to rest.
It didn't take long for the taxi to arrive, and when she saw it come through the gate, she rushed out the door to make good her escape.