Chapter 7 - The Account Under My Name
Daniel followed me into the garage.
"I can explain the calls."
"You keep saying that. You should put it on a T-shirt."
"Victor called me first."
"Thirty-seven times?"
"He said Mom was in trouble. He said she owed money and Dad couldn't know."
I folded my arms. "And you never thought to mention any of this to your wife?"
"He threatened to expose something about my mother."
"What?"
Daniel stared at the concrete floor.
"He wouldn't say."
I almost screamed.
Instead, I said very quietly, "You protected a secret you didn't even know, from a man you didn't trust, for a mother who was lying to you, and somehow I was the person you kept in the dark."
He winced.
"I know how it sounds."
"It sounds exactly like what happened."
Ortiz stepped into the garage before he could answer.
"Claire, we need you downtown."
At the station, she showed me the CJM Consulting application. My Social Security number was correct. My old apartment address was correct. My mother's maiden name was correct.
The signature was not mine.
"This isn't just someone guessing," I said. "They had access to my records."
Ortiz nodded. "Did Evelyn ever have access to your tax returns?"
I thought back to the previous spring.
Daniel had asked me to bring our tax folder to Richard's house because Evelyn's accountant was helping the family coordinate some deductions.
I had left the folder in Evelyn's home office for two hours.
I felt stupid for trusting people who insisted trust was the price of joining their family.
"Yes," I said.
Ortiz slid another paper toward me.
"CJM received eighty thousand from Bellhaven. Forty thousand moved out the same day. Twenty went to a company called North Star Property Group. Another twenty went as a cashier's check."
"Can you trace it?"
"We're working on it."
Her partner entered and handed her a note.
Ortiz read it, then looked at me.
"We just got a hit on North Star."
"Victor?"
"No."
She turned the paper around.
North Star Property Group was controlled by Evelyn through a trust established eight years earlier.
My anger sharpened.
"So she stole my identity to steal from her husband."
"Looks that way."
Then Ortiz added, "There's more. The cashier's check was deposited into a joint account."
"Evelyn and Victor?"
She shook her head.
"Evelyn and Daniel."
I stopped breathing.
Behind me, the interview-room door opened.
Daniel stood there with an officer.
And the officer was holding handcuffs.
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