Chapter 5 - The Transfer.
I called the bank before I called Andrew.
My hands were steady.
My voice was not.
The fraud department immediately froze the investment account and flagged the transfer.
The representative asked whether I had authorized Andrew Parker to access the account.
“No.”
“Has he ever had online access?”
“Not with my permission.”
The woman paused.
“Mrs. Morgan, the transfer request used valid security answers.”
My stomach dropped.
Of course it had.
Andrew knew my first school.
My grandmother’s middle name.
The street where I grew up.
He knew everything banks used to prove I was me.
The representative confirmed that the money had not moved.
I closed my eyes.
For the first time that morning, I nearly cried from relief.
Megan wrote down every detail.
Then my phone rang.
Andrew.
This time I answered.
“Claire.”
His voice was breathless.
“Something’s wrong with our investment account.”
Our.
I looked at Megan.
She nodded for me to keep him talking.
“What happened?”
“The bank froze it.”
“Why were you accessing it?”
Silence.
Then his tone changed.
“I was trying to move money before a deadline.”
“What deadline?”
“I can explain when I get home.”
“Where are you?”
“At the cottage.”
“Alone?”
Another silence.
“Yes.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
I felt strangely detached.
“Turn on the camera.”
“What?”
“Video call me.”
“Claire, this is ridiculous.”
“Turn on the camera.”
“I’m dealing with a plumbing emergency.”
“Then show me the plumbing.”
His breathing changed.
That was when he understood.
“Who called you?”
I looked at the photographs spread across my table.
“That’s an interesting question.”
“Claire.”
“Is Natalie with you?”
Silence.
It lasted five full seconds.
Then Andrew whispered my name again.
But this time he sounded frightened.
I hung up.
Thirty seconds later, he called again.
I declined it.
Then Lorraine called.
I declined that too.
Megan looked at me.
“He’ll come back.”
“I know.”
“We need to decide what happens when he does.”
I glanced upstairs.
The dent in the headboard suddenly seemed like the beginning of a much larger crime scene.
Rebecca’s phone rang.
Natalie.
Rebecca answered on speaker.
“Mom?”
Natalie sounded confused.
“Why did Andrew just tell me to leave?”
Rebecca looked at me.
I nodded.
“Natalie, I need you to listen carefully.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Andrew is married.”
The silence on the other end broke my heart despite everything.
“No.”
“He is.”
“No, Mom.”
“Natalie.”
“He showed me divorce documents.”
Megan’s head snapped up.
“What documents?”
Natalie began crying.
“He showed me court papers.”
My chest tightened.
Andrew had manufactured an entire divorce.
Megan asked Natalie to photograph everything Andrew had shown her.
Then Natalie said something none of us expected.
“There was another woman here this morning.”
Rebecca frowned.
“What woman?”
“I don’t know.”
“She came before Andrew woke up.”
I leaned toward the phone.
“What did she look like?”
Natalie described a woman in her early thirties with dark hair and a navy coat.
“She gave Andrew an envelope.”
“What happened next?”
“They argued outside.”
“About what?”
“I couldn’t hear everything.”
Natalie hesitated.
“But she kept saying he had until Monday to replace the money.”
Megan and I exchanged a glance.
“What money?”
“I don’t know.”
Natalie started crying again.
“Then she said something about Claire finding out.”
My skin prickled.
“Did Andrew say her name?”
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
Natalie answered.
“Vanessa.”
I knew the name.
Vanessa Cole was the payroll administrator at Andrew’s company.
Andrew had once told me she had been fired for stealing.
But when Megan searched her name, we discovered something strange.
Vanessa had never been fired.
May you like
She had disappeared from the company three months earlier.
And according to a police report, nearly four hundred thousand dollars had disappeared with her.
