Chapter 17 - PATRICK SLOAN TALKS
Patrick Sloan looked smaller than I expected.
For years, his name had existed in documents like a shadow.
In person, he was a sixty-one-year-old man with thinning hair and nervous hands.
I was not allowed inside the formal interview.
But prosecutors later told me enough.
Patrick admitted helping Teresa create fraudulent loans.
He admitted preparing documents.
He admitted instructing people how to conceal transfers.
Then investigators asked about my father.
Patrick denied touching the truck.
He denied ordering anyone to harm him.
But he admitted the conversation my father recorded.
“What did you mean when you said David was becoming a problem?”
Detective Bennett asked.
Patrick answered.
“He threatened to expose us.”
“And Teresa?”
“She panicked.”
“What did she do?”
Patrick stared at the table.
“She called Frank.”
“Why?”
“Frank had worked on David’s truck before.”
“What did she ask him to do?”
Patrick refused to answer.
Prosecutors reminded him cooperation had to be complete.
Finally he whispered.
“She told him to make sure David couldn’t drive to the police station the next morning.”
My stomach turned when Bennett repeated it to me.
“What does that mean?”
“Patrick says he assumed Frank would disable the truck.”
“Not kill him?”
“That’s what Patrick claims.”
“What did Teresa say after the crash?”
Bennett looked down.
“She said Frank went too far.”
I walked out of the room.
I needed air.
Amy found me on the courthouse steps.
I could not stop seeing my father.
Not the accident photographs.
The man.
Teaching me to use a level.
Helping me build a treehouse.
Arguing with me about college tuition.
Laughing at my first terrible attempt to grill ribs.
He had known.
He had been trying to protect me.
And Teresa had spent eleven years turning his memory into a story she controlled.
“She killed him.”
I said.
Amy did not correct me.
Legally, the case was more complicated.
But morally, I knew.
Teresa had set the chain in motion.
The grand jury returned new indictments.
Conspiracy.
Bank fraud.
Identity theft.
Forgery.
Witness intimidation.
And charges connected to my father’s death.
The trial would not happen immediately.
But Teresa’s empire was collapsing.
Betsy entered a plea agreement.
Mason did too.
Melissa Sloan was arrested.
Patrick Sloan became a cooperating witness.
Several victims filed civil suits.
Accounts were frozen.
Properties were seized.
Then investigators found the source of Teresa’s expensive lawyer.
A hidden investment account.
Balance.
$1.3 million.
Money investigators believed came from victims.
My mother had been a millionaire.
While telling me she needed three thousand dollars a month for groceries.
But the biggest surprise was not the money.
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It was the account’s beneficiary.
If Teresa died, everything went to Frederick.
