Chapter 5: What Patricia Knew
Patricia Osei picked up on the first ring.
"Mrs.
Allen," she said.
"Thank you for calling back."
"You said you have documents," I said.
Ellen sat across from me with a legal pad, pen already moving.
"I worked as Vanessa's personal assistant for fourteen months.
I left the position in March.
The reason I left—" A short pause.
"I was asked to do things I wasn't comfortable with."
"What kind of things?"
"She had me forward emails.
From your husband's work account to a private address she controlled.
Financial summaries.
Project revenue reports.
A valuation document on the property at Linden Drive — your home address.
I didn't understand what I was doing at first.
By the time I did, I had already done it several times."
"She was building a file," I said.
"She was building a case," Patricia said.
"For the property claim.
She told Marcus the LLC structure would look cleaner if there was documentation showing he had been managing the asset as a business investment.
She coached him on the language to use."
Ellen underlined something on her pad and turned it toward me.
*This is evidence of coordinated fraud.*
"Patricia, why are you coming forward now?"
Another pause.
Longer this time.
"Because I saw the LLC filing in the public registry last week.
And I saw your name wasn't on it.
And I thought about what I had helped them do." Her voice didn't waver, but it thinned.
"I have copies of everything I forwarded.
I saved them before I resigned.
I didn't know what I was going to do with them.
But I knew I might need them."
"Can you send those to my attorney?"
"That's why I called."
I gave her Ellen's secure email address.
Patricia read it back carefully, twice.
"One more thing," Patricia said.
"There's a meeting scheduled for Thursday.
Marcus and Vanessa and the Wilmington attorneys.
They're planning to present you with a revised version of the transfer agreement — one with a small cash settlement included, to make it look like a negotiated arrangement."
"How small?"
"Thirty thousand dollars."
The house alone was worth four hundred and sixty.
The portfolio another two hundred.
"They were going to offer me thirty thousand dollars to sign away everything," I said.
"They thought you'd take it quickly if you felt you had no other choice."
I looked at Ellen.
She had stopped writing.
Her expression was very still.
"Patricia," I said, "are you willing to provide a formal statement?"
"Yes," she said.
"I already wrote one.
It's in the email."
We ended the call.
Ellen set her pen down.
"The forensic accountant I mentioned," she said.
"I'm calling him this afternoon, not Friday."
"Good."
"And Diane — Marcus cannot know that we've spoken to her.
Not yet.
If he knows we have the forwarded emails and the statement, he'll move before we can secure the full picture."
"He's going to call me again today," I said.
"I know." Ellen looked at me carefully.
"Answer it."
"You want me to talk to him."
"I want you to let him believe last night went badly and you're upset but not mobilized.
Can you do that?"
I thought about the candle on the anniversary table.
The way he'd refilled his wine glass while I stood outside on the phone with Carol.
"Yes," I said.
"I can do that."
My phone was already ringing.
Marcus.
I picked it up.
"Hey," I said, and kept my voice exactly the way he would expect it.
Tired.
A little hurt.
Not yet dangerous.
"Diane." He exhaled.
"I'm glad you answered.
I think we need to sit down and talk through this properly.
Without lawyers."
"Okay," I said.
A beat of silence.
He hadn't expected agreement that quickly.
"Tonight?" he said.
"Tonight," I said.
"Come home for dinner."
After I hung up, Ellen looked at me for a long moment.
"He'll come in thinking he still has time," she said.
"He does think that," I said.
May you like
"That's the point."
What neither of us knew yet was that Marcus wasn't coming to dinner alone.
