Chapter 6: The Voice Behind the Door
“That isn’t possible,” Daniel said.
“Vanessa is standing here.”
Grace lowered her voice.
“The woman says she is Vanessa Hale.”
Celia looked at her daughter.
“Who did you send?”
Vanessa picked up her bag.
“I don’t know what she’s talking about.”
“Grace, lock the box,” I said.
“No one opens it without me.”
“It’s already blocked.
Can you come to the branch?”
“We’re leaving now.”
Vanessa stepped in front of the doorway.
“The bank is closed.”
“Not to its security manager,” Grace said through the phone.
At the branch, a woman in a dark coat sat behind the glass doors.
She stood when Vanessa entered.
Vanessa whispered, “Paula, don’t say anything.”
Daniel heard her.
“Who is Paula?”
The woman clutched a folder.
“Vanessa said Mr.
Hale was too ill to come.”
“I’m standing in front of you,” I said.
Paula looked at Vanessa.
“You told me he couldn’t recognize anyone.”
Grace unlocked the inner door.
“Mr.
Hale, we retained the documents she presented.”
Vanessa pushed past me.
“Those belong to my company.”
Grace placed the folder behind the counter.
“They concern Mr.
Hale’s accounts.”
“I hold his power of attorney.”
“Your authority has been suspended pending review.”
“You cannot do that.”
“I did it twenty minutes ago.”
Vanessa pointed at Rosa.
“This woman is manipulating an elderly man for money.”
Grace looked at the unopened check in Rosa’s hand.
“Mrs.
Alvarez, did you authorize seven deposits into VJM Household Management?”
“No.”
“Did you endorse any of the checks?”
“No.”
Grace turned her monitor toward us.
“The endorsements were identical.
Even the pen strokes.”
Daniel leaned closer.
“They were copied.”
“From the first authorization you signed,” Grace said.
“The same image was placed on every check.”
Vanessa’s eyes flashed.
“Daniel created that authorization.”
“At your request,” he replied.
“Prove it.”
A voice came from behind us.
“I can.”
Sophie stood inside the doorway, holding her phone.
At nineteen, she had her father’s quiet eyes, but there was nothing uncertain in them now.
Daniel hurried to her.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Grandma Celia called me.” Sophie looked at Vanessa.
“And Mom left me six messages telling me to delete this.”
Vanessa reached for the phone.
Sophie pulled it away.
“What is on it?” I asked.
“A recording from last Christmas.
I was studying in the pantry because everyone was arguing.”
She pressed PLAY.
Vanessa’s voice filled the branch.
“Use Rosa’s signature from the first form.
Dad never checks the account until January.”
Daniel’s recorded voice followed.
“No more checks.
I mean it.”
“Then I’ll show Henry the authorization you signed.
He’ll believe you took all of them.”
“You said the money was being held for Rosa.”
“I said what you needed to hear.”
Sophie stopped the recording.
Daniel gripped the counter.
“You told me it went into a retirement account for her.”
Vanessa’s expression did not change.
“A private recording proves nothing.”
“It proves you lied to both of us,” Sophie said.
“You’re a child.”
“I’m old enough to know why you wanted it erased.”
Vanessa turned to Rosa.
“How much do you want?”
Rosa stared at her.
“Excuse me?”
“Twenty thousand?
Thirty?
Say you authorized the transfers, and this ends tonight.”
Celia stepped between them.
“You are trying to bribe her in front of a bank security manager.”
“I am settling a misunderstanding.”
Rosa held out the unopened envelope.
“You took sixty thousand dollars from me.
But the money is not the worst thing you took.”
Vanessa rolled her eyes.
“Here comes the speech.”
“You made me believe a man I respected had thrown me away seven times.”
Vanessa’s smile disappeared.
“You made me ashamed to sit at his table,” Rosa continued.
“No amount of money repairs that.”
Grace’s phone lit up.
She read the message and locked her screen.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Our review found transfers beyond Rosa’s checks.”
Vanessa backed toward the door.
Grace faced me.
“Two hundred and forty thousand dollars is missing from the Eleanor Hale Memorial Care Fund.”
I stared at Vanessa.
That fund paid for home care for older people who had no families.
May you like
Grace lifted the folder Paula had brought.
“And these instructions would have emptied what remained before midnight.”
