Chapter 8: What He Said When He Knew
They executed the warrant on a Wednesday.
Carol had told me it would happen, and roughly when, but she had also told me I would not be present and that I should be somewhere I felt safe when it did.
I was at Dana's house.
I was sitting at her kitchen table — the same table where I had sat with untouched tea two weeks earlier — and Dana was beside me and we were not talking very much.
My phone rang at 11:14 in the morning.
It was Matthew.
I looked at Dana.
She looked at me.
I answered and put it on speaker.
"What did you do?" His voice was not the voice I knew.
It was flat and stripped of everything familiar.
"What did you do?"
"I found the account, Matthew."
Silence.
"I found the company.
I found Renee's name on it.
I found the phone in your desk." I kept my voice even.
"I found all of it."
"You don't understand what you've done." The flatness cracked slightly, something harder underneath.
"You have no idea what you've walked into."
"I think I do," I said.
"I think I understand it very clearly."
"Listen to me." His voice shifted — lower, faster.
"This can still be fixed.
If you call your lawyer right now and tell her you made a mistake, that you misread the situation, I can make sure you're protected.
I can make sure none of this touches you."
"None of it touches me," I said.
"I'm the primary account holder, Matthew.
I'm the one who reported it."
Another silence.
Longer this time.
"Renee told me you'd never figure it out," he said.
And then, as if he hadn't just said that, as if those words hadn't just handed me everything: "You were never supposed to find the phone."
Dana closed her eyes.
"Why me?" I said.
"Out of everyone you could have chosen.
We grew up together.
Why did it have to be me?"
The silence stretched long enough that I thought he might not answer.
"Because you trusted me," he said.
"You always trusted me.
Since we were kids." A pause.
"I'm sorry.
That part is real.
I am sorry."
"I know you are," I said.
"But sorry doesn't close the account."
I ended the call.
Dana put her hand over mine on the table.
Neither of us spoke for a moment.
"He said Renee told him I'd never figure it out," I said.
"She was wrong," Dana said.
"She was wrong," I agreed.
Carol called twenty minutes later.
The warrant had been executed at Matthew's office.
The server records had been secured.
Greg Sutter had been taken in for questioning.
Renee Hartwell's accounts had been frozen pending investigation.
"Matthew's attorney has already been in contact," Carol said.
"He'll be formally charged by end of week.
Wire fraud, money laundering.
Possibly more once they finish with the servers."
"And the account in my name?"
"Being unwound as we speak.
You'll need to sign some paperwork, but your exposure is resolved.
The investigators are satisfied with the timeline."
I looked out Dana's kitchen window at her small backyard.
A bird feeder.
A wooden bench.
Ordinary, quiet things.
"Thank you, Carol," I said.
May you like
"You did the hard part," she said.
"I'll be in touch."
