Chapter 4 - The Audit Begins
At 7:00 AM, my home study looked like a war room.
Three widescreen monitors lined my desk, displaying financial spreadsheets, bank wire logs, and corporate registration documents going back four years—the exact duration of Claire’s marriage to Evan.
During my thirty-two years as a forensic fraud investigator for the federal government, I had dismantled cartel money-laundering operations and exposed billionaire tax dodgers. Exposing a middle-class family of greedy narcissists was like solving a child’s crossword puzzle.
My phone chimed on the desk. It was an alert from my primary forensic software, Vanguard Audit.
“Look at this, Marcus,” I said, pointing at a red-highlighted cluster of transactions on the center screen.
Marcus leaned over my shoulder. “What are we looking at?”
“Raymond’s construction company, Sterling Development, took out a two-million-dollar commercial loan eighteen months ago,” I explained, tracing the digital paper trail with my stylus. “The guarantor on the loan wasn’t Raymond. It was Claire’s signature—forged using a digital stamp created on Evan’s personal laptop.”
“That’s federal bank fraud,” Marcus gasped. “That’s a minimum seven-year sentence.”
“It gets better,” I said, opening a second folder. “The loan money wasn’t spent on construction equipment. Raymond funneled $1.2 million through a shell company in Nevada to pay off his personal gambling debts at the Bellagio, while Judith and Paige used the remaining $800,000 for luxury spa trips, European vacations, and high-end wardrobe purchases.”
“The new dress,” I murmured, my blood boiling anew. “They forced Claire into the rain for spending $200 of her own earned salary on a dress for my retirement dinner, while they were spending hundreds of thousands of her stolen money to keep up appearances.”
My office door opened, and Claire stepped in holding a tray of toast and tea. She looked at the screens, her eyes catching the bold red numbers.
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“Dad... is that Raymond’s company?”
“It was,” I said, turning to face her with a warm, reassuring smile. “By noon today, it will belong to the federal bankruptcy trustee.”
