Chapter 7: The Thing She Still Had
Patricia read the text message that morning and set her phone down with the careful precision of someone who had just been handed exactly what she needed.
"She just sent you a threat in writing," she said.
"Yes."
"While a fraud investigation is pending."
"Yes."
Patricia almost smiled.
"Mrs.
Bennett, I want you to do nothing.
Do not reply.
Do not contact her.
Do not contact Daniel about this message.
Let me work."
"What does she mean — that she still has something?"
"I don't know yet.
But we're going to find out." She turned to her computer.
"I've been doing some background research since yesterday.
Lorraine Bennett — that's her legal name?"
"Lorraine Voss Bennett.
She took the family name when Daniel's father died.
She said it was to feel closer to Daniel."
Patricia typed.
"Did Daniel's father leave an estate?"
"A small one.
A house in Ohio.
Daniel said it sold for about ninety thousand.
That was before we married."
"And the proceeds?"
"I assumed they went to Lorraine.
Daniel never mentioned otherwise."
Patricia turned the monitor toward me.
It showed a probate filing from eleven years ago — the year Daniel and I had married.
The estate of Robert Alan Bennett.
The sole named beneficiary was not Lorraine.
It was Daniel.
"The house sold for eighty-eight thousand," Patricia said.
"According to this filing, the proceeds were to be held in a trust account in Daniel's name until distribution."
"Daniel never told me about a trust."
"No," Patricia said.
"He didn't." She turned the monitor back.
"I want to find out what happened to those funds.
It may be nothing.
It may be that he distributed them to himself years ago and simply never mentioned it.
But given the pattern of financial concealment we're already looking at—"
"You think Lorraine knows about the trust."
"I think that's what she means when she says she still has something." Patricia folded her hands.
"If she has documentation that Daniel received an inheritance he never disclosed to you during your marriage — and if she's willing to use that as leverage — she may believe it gives her a negotiating position."
"Does it?"
"No.
Because what she doesn't seem to understand is that undisclosed marital assets cut both ways." Patricia looked at me steadily.
"If Daniel hid an inheritance, that is a matter for the divorce proceedings.
It does not give Lorraine the right to occupy your property or forge your signature.
Those are separate crjminal matters."
I sat with that for a moment.
"She thinks she's protecting him," I said.
"She thinks she's protecting herself," Patricia said.
"There's a difference.
And she's miscalculated."
That afternoon, Kevin Marsh came to Patricia's office with his own attorney and gave a full written statement.
He had met Lorraine through a church acquaintance.
She had told him the title amendment was a straightforward family arrangement, that the wife — me — had verbally agreed but was traveling and couldn't sign in person.
He had accepted her word.
He had stamped the document.
He was shaking when he signed his statement.
His attorney had already negotiated his cooperation in exchange for reduced exposure.
Lorraine had used a man's trust and a church connection to commit fraud.
I drove back to the hotel and called my sister in Portland.
I had not told her any of it yet.
"Claire," she said, when I had finished.
"How long has this been going on?"
"The money transfers started fourteen months ago."
A long silence.
"Where are you staying?"
"A hotel."
"Come here," she said immediately.
"Come stay with us."
"I can't leave the city right now.
There's too much to manage."
"Then I'm coming to you." Her voice had the particular firmness she had used since we were children, when she had decided something and that was the end of the discussion.
"I'll be there Thursday."
I didn't argue.
After I hung up, I sat by the window and looked at the city for a long time.
Lorraine had sent her threat that morning expecting me to flinch.
She didn't know that Kevin Marsh had already signed his statement.
She didn't know that Patricia had already found the probate filing.
She didn't know that the county recorder's office had opened a formal inquiry.
May you like
She thought she was still ahead.
She wasn't.
