Chapter 5 - THE MAN IN THE SEDAN
His name was Victor Hale.
Victor had been my father’s friend.
He was also the financial adviser who helped me open my first investment account when I was twenty-four.
After Dad died, Victor became the man who answered questions I did not understand.
Retirement plans.
Insurance.
Investment funds.
Tax strategies.
I trusted him almost as much as I trusted Teresa.
That suddenly seemed like a very dangerous habit.
Detective Reed brought Victor in for questioning.
Victor denied everything.
He said he had been in the neighborhood to visit a client.
When Reed asked for the client’s name, Victor claimed confidentiality.
When Reed showed him the camera footage, Victor became irritated.
When Reed mentioned Bradley Family Holdings, he asked for a lawyer.
That was enough for Rachel.
She started examining every account Victor had ever managed for me.
By evening, she found something.
Five years earlier, I had created a modest investment account with $62,000.
I rarely checked it because Victor sent quarterly summaries.
The balance should have been around $94,000.
It was actually $41,700.
Nearly fifty thousand dollars was missing.
The withdrawals had been disguised as management transfers.
The destination accounts were difficult to trace.
But one recipient name appeared twice.
T. Bradley.
My mother.
Amy sat quietly beside me while Rachel explained it.
I felt humiliated.
Not because money had been stolen.
Because the two people stealing from me had spent years watching me trust them.
Then Detective Reed called.
Mason wanted to talk.
He was scared.
And apparently Teresa had stopped taking his calls.
We met him in an interview room.
Mason looked nothing like the confident cousin who had eaten barbecue at my house hours earlier.
His hands shook.
“I didn’t know everything.”
I stared at him.
“You stole my deed.”
“Aunt Teresa said you approved it.”
“You ran when the police arrived.”
“Because Victor told me if something went wrong, I was supposed to get the folder to him.”
Amy leaned forward.
“What was supposed to happen after he got it?”
Mason swallowed.
“The loan.”
“What loan?”
“The house loan.”
I felt Rachel stiffen beside me.
Mason continued.
“Victor said once the loan funded, Aunt Teresa would control the money.”
“How much?”
“Two hundred eighty thousand.”
“And then?”
Mason looked at me.
There was genuine fear in his face.
“Then she was going to tell you Amy had done it.”
The room became completely silent.
Mason lowered his head.
May you like
“She planned to make it look like your wife stole from you.”
TOBE CONTINUED
