Chapter 2 - the missing signatures)
Margaret did not know her husband had started an investigation.
She only knew he became secretive.
Robert began waking before sunrise.
He made phone calls from the garage.
He asked for copies of documents Margaret had not seen in years.
One Thursday morning, he asked for the deed to the house.
Margaret found it in the locked metal box inside their bedroom closet.
"Why?"
"Updating the estate records."
"You updated them last year."
"I want another copy."
She handed it to him.
Robert looked through the pages.
Then his expression changed.
"What?"
He compared the final page to something on his phone.
Margaret stepped closer.
"Robert?"
He folded the deed.
"Nothing."
"That's becoming your favorite word."
He kissed her forehead.
"Go have lunch with Susan."
"I don't want lunch with Susan."
"Then have coffee with Susan."
Margaret stared at him.
"Are you trying to get rid of me?"
"For ninety minutes."
"Why?"
"Because I've been married to you long enough to know you won't leave me alone otherwise."
She almost smiled.
Almost.
At noon, Margaret met her sister Susan at a cafe.
While she was gone, Robert welcomed a woman named Eleanor Price into the house.
Eleanor had handled the Hayes family's legal matters for twenty years.
She was fifty-six, sharp-eyed and famous in the family for never speaking when a raised eyebrow could do the work.
Robert placed the deed in front of her.
"This isn't right."
Eleanor examined it.
"What am I looking for?"
"The notarized signature on the second mortgage authorization."
Eleanor looked at him.
"You took out a second mortgage?"
"No."
Her posture changed.
She read the page again.
Then she said, "This copy says you authorized a secured credit line against the property six months ago."
"I didn't."
"For three hundred eighty thousand dollars."
Robert's jaw tightened.
"Where did it go?"
Eleanor pulled out her laptop.
"It may take time to trace."
"I know where some of it went."
"You do?"
Robert placed three bank statements beside the deed.
"Daniel's company."
Eleanor looked down.
Cole Urban Development.
Daniel's construction venture had been struggling for two years.
Everyone knew that.
What they did not know was how badly.
Eleanor studied the transactions.
"These are transfers from Hayes Family Holdings."
"Exactly."
"Did you authorize them?"
"No."
"Vanessa has signing authority on that account."
"I gave it to her when I was hospitalized."
Eleanor looked up.
"When?"
"Last winter."
"Did you revoke it?"
"I thought I did."
Eleanor leaned back.
"Thought?"
Robert looked tired.
"When your heart is failing and five people bring you forms every day, you start assuming the people around you aren't stealing from you."
Eleanor said nothing.
Robert tapped one transfer.
"Ninety thousand."
Another.
"Forty-two."
Another.
"Seventy-five."
Eleanor calculated silently.
"Two hundred seven thousand total."
"That we can see."
"Does Margaret know?"
"No."
"She needs to."
Robert's face tightened.
"Not yet."
"Robert."
"If I'm wrong, I don't want my last months destroying Margaret's relationship with our daughter."
"And if you're right?"
Robert looked toward the kitchen where Margaret's reading glasses rested beside the fruit bowl.
"Then I need proof before I die."
Eleanor closed the laptop.
"You understand this may be criminal."
"Yes."
"Forgery. Elder financial exploitation. Fraud."
"I understand."
"And if Vanessa did it with Daniel, your daughter may be charged."
Robert's eyes glistened.
"I understand that too."
Eleanor softened slightly.
"What do you want me to do?"
"Find out who notarized the mortgage."
Eleanor wrote it down.
"And?"
"Check whether anyone contacted my insurance company about changing the beneficiary."
Eleanor stopped writing.
"Why?"
Robert removed Daniel's yellow sticky note from his wallet.
Still Margaret.
Eleanor read it.
"Where did this come from?"
"A box Daniel brought to my house."
Eleanor looked at Robert.
Neither of them spoke for several seconds.
Then Eleanor said, "I'm going to need permission to move quickly."
"You have it."
"And if I find evidence?"
Robert's fingers tightened around the head of his cane.
"We protect Margaret first."
"What about Vanessa?"
Robert looked down.
"Vanessa is thirty-nine years old."
He swallowed.
"At some point, protecting your child from consequences becomes helping them hurt somebody else."
By the next afternoon, Eleanor had her first answer.
The notary stamp on the mortgage belonged to a man named Gavin Pike.
His commission had been revoked eight months earlier.
Reason: fraudulent acknowledgments.
Eleanor called Robert.
"Do you know that name?"
"No."
"Daniel might."
"Why?"
"Because Pike worked as a compliance officer at the same investment firm Daniel worked for fifteen years ago."
Robert closed his eyes.
Eleanor continued.
"And Robert?"
"Yes?"
"I contacted the insurance company."
Silence.
"Someone submitted a beneficiary change request three months ago."
Robert gripped the phone.
"To whom?"
"Vanessa Cole."
His daughter.
"Was it accepted?"
"No. The signature failed verification."
Robert sat down slowly.
"Who submitted it?"
"Online portal from an IP address registered to Cole Urban Development."
Daniel's office.
Robert's breathing became shallow.
Eleanor heard it.
"Robert?"
"I'm here."
"Do you want me to call Margaret?"
"No."
"You shouldn't handle this alone."
"I'm not."
"What are you going to do?"
Robert looked through the window.
Across the street, a dark SUV had just pulled away from the curb.
He had seen the same SUV two days earlier.
May you like
Robert stared at it.
"I'm going to find Gavin Pike."
