Chapter 9: What Patricia Osei Found
Patricia Osei arrived at the house on a Thursday morning.
She was fifty-three, quiet-voiced, and she asked to see the documents before she said almost anything else.
Jasmine laid them out on the dining room table in the order Carol had suggested.
Patricia read through everything without commenting.
She took her own photographs.
She made notes in a small leather notebook.
When she finished, she closed the notebook and looked at David.
"The property transfer is unenforceable," she said.
"Gerald Hargrove's disbarment predates the execution of that document by twenty-three months.
Anything he signed after that date carries no legal weight." She paused.
"The house is solely yours."
David exhaled slowly.
"The holding company," Patricia continued, "is a more serious matter.
The structure of the asset transfer, combined with the pattern of withdrawals over the past eighteen months, meets the threshold for fraudulent transfer under state law." She looked at him carefully.
"The question is whether you want to pursue this civilly, criminally, or both."
"What's the difference?" Jasmine asked.
"Civil means you file to recover the assets and dissolve the holding company.
Criminal means law enforcement becomes involved and Jessica potentially faces charges." Patricia set her pen down.
"I want to be honest with you.
A criminal referral is possible here, but it takes longer, and it means your financial history becomes part of the record."
David nodded slowly.
"She threatened to use that history," he said.
"I know.
And it matters." Patricia leaned forward slightly.
"But I've looked at what you've given me.
The decisions you made eight years ago were unwise.
They were not criminal.
Your exposure is embarrassment, not prosecution." She looked at him steadily.
"Hers is the opposite."
The room was quiet.
"What do you want to do?" Patricia asked.
David looked at Jasmine.
She didn't tell him what to say.
She just looked back at him.
"Both," he said.
"Civil and criminal referral."
Patricia nodded once.
"Then we start today."
The process took twelve days.
Patricia filed the civil motion to invalidate the property transfer and dissolve the holding company.
She filed a concurrent report with the county financial crimes unit, supported by the bank records, the Hargrove correspondence, and the holding company registration documents.
On the ninth day, Jessica called David's cell phone.
He put it on speaker.
Jasmine was in the kitchen.
She didn't move.
"David," Jessica said.
"This has gone too far.
You know I was trying to protect us."
"You took $47,000," he said.
"That money went into the marriage—"
"Patricia Osei has the account records," he said.
"She knows where it went.
So do I now."
A pause.
"I'll give it back," Jessica said.
"All of it.
If you drop the filing."
"No."
"David—"
"Jessica.
Don't call this number again." He ended the call.
He set the phone on the counter.
Jasmine stood at the other end of the kitchen and didn't say anything.
Neither did he.
He just stood there for a moment.
Then he straightened up, poured himself a glass of water, and drank it.
"Your mother would have figured this out in about four days," he said.
"I needed eleven minutes to find the holding company," Jasmine said.
"She probably would have done it in five."
He laughed.
May you like
It was short and it cracked a little in the middle, but it was real.
It was the first time Jasmine had heard him laugh in longer than she could easily remember.
