Chapter 6: What She Said About David
I did not sleep that night.
Not because of the threat about David.
I knew what my husband had done with the money from the sale of his business.
I had been there.
I had signed the same documents he had.
There was nothing in those records that could hurt anyone, because David had done nothing wrong.
What kept me awake was the fact that Lennox had been holding a file on my husband for three years.
Three years of sitting at my kitchen table at Christmas.
Three years of birthday calls and family dinners and photographs.
Three years of knowing she had something she believed she could use.
I got up at five-thirty and made coffee.
Terrence was already at the table.
He had not slept either.
The sealed box was open in front of him and he had gone through every folder.
"There's nothing about Dad," he said when I sat down.
"I went through everything.
Whatever she claims to have, it wasn't in that box."
"I know."
"Then what did she mean?"
"She meant to make us stop." I poured two cups.
"She didn't expect us to keep going.
She expected me to panic about your father's name and she expected you to back down to protect me."
He wrapped both hands around his cup.
"She knows you," he said.
It was not an accusation.
It was just true.
"She's had a long time to learn."
Patricia had called at midnight to tell us she had contacted a colleague who handled financial crjme cases and that we should not reach out to Lennox or Maribel until we spoke again in the morning.
She had also told us to write down every interaction with Lennox we could remember from the past two years, with dates wherever possible.
Terrence had been doing that all night.
The legal pad beside the box had three pages of notes.
At eight-fifteen, Patricia arrived with a man she introduced as her colleague, Warren Achebe.
He was younger than I expected, quiet, and he carried a laptop bag and said very little during introductions.
He sat down, opened his laptop, and began reading the documents Patricia had photographed the night before.
After ten minutes he looked up.
"The forged signature alone is a felony," he said.
"Combined with the wire transfers and the deed discrepancy, we are looking at forgery, wire fraud, and potentially mortgage fraud depending on what the loan documents show about the collateral representation." He looked at Terrence.
"Did you sign anything at the closing that you did not read fully?"
"Lennox handled most of the paperwork.
She said it was standard."
Warren nodded.
"I'd like the closing documents.
All of them."
"They're in the car," Terrence said.
"She kept everything in a folder in the car.
I brought it last night."
He went to get it.
While he was outside, Patricia looked at me.
"The voice memo," she said.
"The threat about your husband.
I need to ask you directly — is there anything in David's business records that could be misrepresented?"
"David sold his printing business in 2013 for $340,000.
We used $180,000 to pay off the mortgage on this house.
The rest went into savings and his retirement account.
Everything was declared.
Our accountant handled it.
I still have the returns."
"Good.
Keep them accessible." She paused.
"Lennox may have a document that looks concerning out of context.
That is a common tactic.
We present the full picture and it disappears."
Terrence came back with the folder.
Warren spent forty minutes with the closing documents.
When he finished, he turned his laptop toward us.
He had pulled the official HUD settlement statement from the county recorder's database.
The number on the official statement was $689,000.
The number on the copy Lennox had given Terrence at closing was $620,000.
She had given him a document with the wrong number on it.
Printed on what looked like official letterhead.
With the right signatures in the right places.
"She made a fake closing summary," Terrence said.
"A convincing one," Warren said.
"But the county record doesn't lie.
The house sold for $689,000.
You were told $620,000.
The $69,000 difference went somewhere before it reached the joint account."
"To Dana," I said.
"The agent."
"Possibly split," Warren said.
"We'll need Dana's financial records to know how much she kept and how much moved on."
Terrence stood up from the table and walked to the window.
He stood there with his back to us for a moment.
"I trusted her," he said.
Not to anyone in particular.
Just to the window and the morning outside it.
Nobody answered.
There was nothing to say to that.
His phone buzzed.
He looked at it.
His shoulders changed.
"It's Maribel," he said.
"She wants to meet.
She says she has something to tell me that Lennox doesn't know she's telling me."
Warren and Patricia exchanged a look.
"Meet her," Warren said.
"Today.
May you like
Somewhere public.
And leave your phone recording in your pocket the entire time."
