Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN WHO SWORE I WAS THERE
Derek refused to meet at Dana's office.
He refused to meet at my hotel.
He refused to come to the police station.
He chose a grocery store parking lot in Riverside at noon, under enough cameras that nobody could approach him without being recorded.
Dana insisted on coming.
I insisted Skylar stay with Maria.
Derek arrived ten minutes late in a white work truck with his company name peeling off the side.
He looked nothing like the confident man I remembered from family cookouts.
His beard was uneven.
His shirt was wrinkled.
He kept checking his mirrors.
"I am not getting arrested for Brandon," he said before he even sat down at the outdoor table.
Dana placed her phone face down.
"Nobody here can promise you what law enforcement will do."
"I did some things."
"Then you should probably have your own lawyer."
"I cannot afford one."
Dana's expression did not change.
"That does not make me yours."
Derek looked at me.
"Char, I thought you knew."
I almost stood up.
"Do not call me Char."
He flinched.
"Fine. Charlotte. I thought Brandon had your approval."
"For ninety-six thousand dollars in fake invoices?"
His face tightened.
"Not at first."
"Start at first."
Derek rubbed both hands over his face.
"Brandon came to me in March. He said you two wanted to add rooms for his mom and maybe convert part of the house into a rental later."
"Did I ever speak to you?"
"No."
"Did I ever email you?"
"No."
"Did you find that strange?"
"Brandon said you were busy and he handled the home stuff."
I laughed without humor.
"Of course he did."
Derek continued.
"He asked to use my contractor license for preliminary estimates."
"Is your license valid for the project?"
He looked away.
"Not the way Ethan understood it."
Dana leaned forward.
"Explain."
"My license has limits. I do smaller remodels. Kitchens, bathrooms, decks. Not a two-story addition with that budget."
"So the license number was real but misrepresented?"
"Yes."
"Who submitted it?"
"Brandon."
"When did fake invoices start?"
Derek swallowed.
"After the first business line got approved."
"CWM Holdings?"
He nodded.
"Brandon said it was Charlotte's company and she needed expenses to establish business activity before the big financing closed."
I stared at him.
"You invoiced a company I did not own for work you did not perform."
"He said the money would come back into the project."
"Did it?"
Derek looked at the pavement.
"Some."
"How much did you keep?"
"Seven thousand."
"How much passed through you?"
"About forty-two."
Dana wrote it down.
"Where did the rest go?"
"Cash withdrawals. A check to Brandon. One to his mom's company."
"Summit Family Management?"
He nodded.
I felt physically ill.
"And the ninety-six-thousand-dollar first draw?"
"That was the big one."
"What was supposed to happen to it?"
Derek looked at me for the first time since sitting down.
"I was supposed to keep twelve."
"And the other eighty-four?"
"Split it."
"Between whom?"
He hesitated.
Dana said, "If you are going to talk, talk."
"Brandon, Gertrude, and Hailey."
My stomach dropped.
"Hailey too?"
"She handled the applications and email accounts."
That matched the fake email tied to Skylar.
"What about Vanessa?"
Derek's head snapped up.
"How do you know about Vanessa?"
"Her notary seal is on documents I never signed."
He went pale.
Dana noticed.
"What did Vanessa do?"
Derek shook his head.
"You need to ask her."
"We intend to."
"Ask her about the video."
The same cold I had felt in Dana's office returned.
"What video?"
Derek stood abruptly.
"I have said enough."
"No, you have not."
"I need a lawyer."
Dana nodded.
"That is the first sensible thing you have said."
He looked at me.
"Charlotte, Brandon told us you were going to divorce him and take the house."
"So that made fraud reasonable?"
"No."
"Then why are you telling me?"
"Because Gertrude said they had to secure the money before you could leave."
"Secure whose money?"
Derek did not answer.
He walked to his truck.
Before he got inside, he turned back.
"You think this started because they were broke."
I waited.
"It didn't."
"Then why?"
"Ask Brandon what happened to the money from his father's estate."
He drove away.
I looked at Dana.
"Brandon's father died six years ago."
"Was there an estate?"
"Gertrude said almost everything went to medical bills."
"Maybe it did."
"You do not believe that."
"I believe Derek just handed us a new question."
We drove directly to Vanessa Pike's office.
She worked in a small insurance agency and offered notary services from a desk near the front.
When she saw me through the glass door, she stood so quickly her chair rolled backward.
That was enough for me.
She knew.
I walked in with Dana beside me.
Vanessa's coworker looked up.
"Can I help you?"
"I need to speak with Vanessa about a notarization."
Vanessa forced a smile.
"Charlotte. What a surprise."
"I doubt that."
Her coworker looked between us.
Vanessa gestured toward a small meeting room.
"We can talk in private."
Dana and I followed her.
Vanessa closed the door.
"Before you start, I need you to understand that I do hundreds of notarizations."
Dana placed a copy of the May fourteenth document on the table.
"Do you remember this one?"
Vanessa looked at the seal.
"Maybe."
"It says Charlotte appeared before you."
"If it says that, then she did."
I stared at her.
"I was in Sacramento."
Vanessa's eyes flicked toward me.
"Maybe the date is wrong."
"I have hotel records, badge scans, photographs, a panel recording, and colleagues who were with me at the time listed on that certificate."
Vanessa went quiet.
Dana placed a second notarized document beside the first.
"And this one?"
Vanessa barely looked.
"I would have to check my journal."
"Please do."
Her jaw tightened.
"I am working."
"Then tell us when we can inspect the journal through the proper process."
"You cannot demand my journal."
Dana smiled faintly.
"I did not demand it."
Vanessa looked at me.
"Why are you doing this?"
I almost could not believe the question.
"Because your seal is on a forged loan application against my home."
"I did not forge anything."
"Then who did?"
"I just notarized what I was given."
Dana's voice sharpened.
"Without Charlotte present?"
Vanessa realized what she had said.
Her face drained.
"That is not what I meant."
"What did you mean?"
"I mean I verified the person."
"Which person?"
Vanessa stood.
"This conversation is over."
I stayed seated.
"Was it Hailey?"
Her eyes snapped toward me.
That answered more than words could.
"She wore my blazer, didn't she?"
Vanessa's lips parted.
"She held my license beside her face."
"Stop."
"You knew it was not me."
"Stop."
"You stamped it anyway."
Vanessa grabbed the door handle.
Dana spoke before she opened it.
"A fraud investigator at the lender knows there was a video identification call."
Vanessa froze.
Dana continued.
"If your journal, device records, or communications show you participated, deleting anything now will make your situation worse."
Vanessa slowly let go of the handle.
Her shoulders began to shake.
"Gertrude said Charlotte knew."
I stood.
"No."
"She said you hated paperwork and told Brandon to handle everything."
"Then why did Hailey have to pretend to be me?"
Vanessa closed her eyes.
"Because the lender required a visual verification."
There it was.
She had finally said it.
"You watched Hailey impersonate me."
"Only on the first call."
I felt my throat tighten.
"The first call?"
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Dana's voice was quiet.
"How many were there?"
Vanessa sat down again.
"Three."
"For which accounts?"
"The personal line. The business line. And the home equity application."
"Did Hailey impersonate Charlotte each time?"
Vanessa shook her head.
"Twice."
"Who did it the third time?"
She looked at me, and whatever I expected to hear, it was not what came next.
"Gertrude."
I actually laughed.
"Gertrude does not look anything like me."
"She didn't have to."
"What does that mean?"
Vanessa rubbed tears from her cheeks.
"The third verification was not your face."
Dana leaned forward.
"Explain."
"It was a document verification with a live witness."
"Who was the witness?"
Vanessa looked at the closed door.
Then back at me.
"Brandon."
"What did he say?"
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"He swore you were in the room but too sick to appear on camera."
I could barely speak.
"And you notarized that?"
Vanessa nodded.
"Gertrude held your passport up to the camera."
"While Brandon said I was there."
Another nod.
My own husband had not merely watched.
He had personally vouched for the lie.
Vanessa started crying harder.
"I thought it was family money."
"It was my identity."
"I know."
"You did not know when you stamped it?"
She said nothing.
Dana collected the copies from the table.
"You should get your own attorney and preserve your notary journal, messages, emails, and devices."
Vanessa nodded.
As we reached the door, she called my name.
"Charlotte."
I turned.
"There is one thing Gertrude was scared you would find."
I waited.
"A red ledger."
"What ledger?"
"I never saw inside it."
"Then how do you know?"
"Because the night Hailey did the second video, Gertrude told Brandon that if you ever found the red ledger, none of them would be able to talk their way out of it."
I thought of the six record boxes shipped to Riverside that morning.
I thought of the locked office.
I thought of Brandon's father's estate.
"Where is it?"
Vanessa shook her head.
May you like
"I don't know."
Then she added, "But Brandon does."
