Chapter 16 - The Attorney Who Had Been Gone for Years
Malcolm Rusk had written the original trust documents twelve years earlier.
Megan had not seen him since her father's funeral.
Afterward, Nathan gradually took over the family's financial affairs, telling Judith that Rusk had retired because of health problems.
Megan assumed that was true.
It was not.
Malcolm Rusk was alive, still licensed, and living less than two hours away.
He had not retired willingly.
He had been pushed out.
Ortiz contacted him before Thomas or Megan could.
Rusk agreed to meet investigators at a small law office where he worked part-time.
His first words about Nathan were not cautious.
"I wondered how long it would take before that man finally went too far."
Rusk was seventy-three, thin, sharp-eyed, and visibly angry even after years away from the Lane family.
He explained that Megan's father had created the trust with strict controls.
No major transfer could legally occur without approval from two independent trustees.
Judith was a beneficiary, not a trustee.
Nathan had been hired only as an adviser.
"Then how did he move the money?" Ortiz asked.
Rusk leaned back.
"Forgery, pressure, or both."
"Probably both."
He said he discovered irregular attempts to change the trust structure five years earlier.
Nathan wanted language added that would allow temporary movement of assets into outside investment vehicles.
Rusk refused.
Within months, Judith accused him of mishandling documents and ended the family's relationship with his firm.
Rusk believed Nathan had encouraged her.
"Why didn't you report him?" Thomas asked during a later recorded call approved by Ortiz.
Rusk sighed.
"Because at that time, I had suspicion and no completed theft."
"And because your mother-in-law insisted everything was her decision."
Megan listened with her eyes closed.
"Did my dad know Nathan couldn't be trusted?"
There was a pause.
"Yes."
That answer hurt her.
Rusk continued.
Megan's father had left a sealed instruction letter with Rusk shortly before his death.
The letter said that if Judith ever attempted to alter the trust under Nathan's guidance, Megan should be notified immediately.
Rusk had tried.
Two certified letters sent to Megan five years earlier were returned as undeliverable.
Thomas frowned.
"We lived at that address."
"I know."
"Then why were they returned?"
Rusk had asked himself the same thing.
Now police retrieved postal records.
Someone had filed a temporary forwarding request for Megan's mail during the exact month Rusk sent the letters.
The forwarding address was a private mailbox rented by Nathan Cole.
Thomas felt the scope of the manipulation expand backward by years.
Nathan had not suddenly become dangerous on Tuesday.
He had been controlling information around the family for a long time.
The payment notebook made more sense now.
M.R. was not receiving money from Nathan.
The numbers next to Malcolm Rusk's initials were listed in a column labeled BLOCKED.
Nathan had recorded amounts he failed to obtain because Rusk stopped early transfers.
The notebook was partly a financial ledger and partly a scorecard.
Nathan had kept track of everyone who stood between him and the trust.
Thomas's name appeared too.
Not as T.R.
As RRP, Reed Residential Projects.
Beside it Nathan had written ACCESS ROUTE.
Thomas stared at the photocopy.
"He never cared about helping my company."
Megan looked at him.
"He was building a path."
Nathan's refinance work had given him credentials, signatures, and account structures he later exploited.
The kindness Thomas remembered from three years earlier had been preparation.
Every time Nathan had offered advice over dinner, attended Eli's birthday party, or brought expensive wine at Christmas, he had been maintaining access.
That realization was almost worse than the obvious crimes.
The family had invited him inside because he had spent years making himself useful.
Rusk provided investigators with one more critical document.
Megan's father had ordered an independent annual audit of the trust.
Nathan had quietly stopped those audits after Rusk was removed.
The meeting Megan scheduled for Tuesday was not merely a personal review.
She had contacted the original audit firm and asked them to restart the process.
If she had attended, years of unauthorized transfers would likely have been exposed within days.
That was why Tuesday mattered.
Judith had wanted the meeting delayed because she feared her own role becoming public.
Nathan needed it stopped because the audit would reveal the full system.
Detective Price had needed it stopped because his payments would eventually be discovered too.
The conspiracy finally had a shape.
But Nathan and Price were still missing.
Ortiz believed they might try to leave the country.
The false passports in the safe-deposit box suggested Nathan had planned for that possibility.
Airports and border points received alerts.
Then a strange transaction appeared.
One of Nathan's dormant shell companies paid six thousand dollars to a marina on Lake Brenton.
The payment had been scheduled weeks earlier for Wednesday, the day after Megan's audit meeting.
Ortiz called the marina.
A forty-foot cabin cruiser had been reserved under one of Nathan's false names.
It was supposed to leave the dock at dawn Thursday.
The boat was gone.
Thomas looked at the calendar.
Thursday had already passed.
"He's on the lake?"
Ortiz shook her head.
"The boat has enough fuel to reach several private docks, including one near the state line."
"Price could be with him."
Megan looked suddenly alarmed.
"Nathan has a cabin."
Thomas turned.
"What cabin?"
"My father used to take us fishing near Lake Brenton."
"After Dad died, Nathan told Mom he bought a place nearby."
"I haven't thought about it in years."
Ortiz was already searching property records.
Nathan owned no cabin under his name.
A corporation called Evergreen Recreational Holdings owned a small property on the north shore.
Evergreen shared an accountant with Harbor Ridge Advisory.
The connection was enough.
State police moved toward the property.
Thomas remained at the hospital with Megan and Eli.
At five-forty that evening, Ortiz called.
The cabin was empty.
But someone had been there recently.
Food was still cold in an open refrigerator.
A fireplace contained freshly burned papers.
Two sleeping areas had been used.
And on the kitchen table, police found a photograph of Thomas, Megan, and Eli taken at Eli's eighth birthday party.
Across Thomas's face, someone had drawn a black X.
May you like
On the back were four handwritten words.
HE STILL TAKES THE FALL.
