Dean stepped back, pale, saying nothing further, the earlier confidence that had carried him through the exchange entirely gone.
Gerald turned back to Edward. "Mr. Harris, I am deeply sorry. This is not remotely the standard we hold ourselves to, and I intend to look into this thoroughly. Is there anything I can do right now — the account discrepancy you mentioned, I'd be glad to look into it myself."
"I'd appreciate that," Edward said, his tone softening again now that the immediate confrontation had resolved. He handed Gerald the printed statement. "It's a small thing, really. A transaction I didn't recognize. I suspect it's nothing more than an automated fee I'd simply forgotten about, but I wanted to be sure."
Gerald reviewed the statement quickly, cross-referencing it against his own terminal, and within a few minutes had identified the transaction — a routine, previously authorized quarterly fee, exactly the unremarkable explanation Edward had suspected all along.
"There it is," Gerald said, turning the screen slightly so Edward could see. "Quarterly account maintenance fee, authorized under the account terms you signed off on two years ago. Nothing irregular, I'm glad to say."
"Good," Edward said, a faint, genuine smile crossing his face for the first time since he'd walked through the doors that morning. "That's all I really wanted to know."
Before leaving, Edward asked Gerald for a few minutes alone with Dean — not in front of the remaining customers still watching from the line, but somewhere quieter, where the conversation could happen properly rather than as a public spectacle.
They stepped into a small side office near the teller line, Gerald hovering nearby but giving them space, and Edward settled slowly into a chair across from Dean, setting his cane against the edge of the desk.
"I want to understand something," Edward said. "Not to embarrass you further — I think you've had enough of that for one morning. I genuinely want to understand what was happening in your head when I first walked up to that counter."