Chapter 6: What Victoria Had Witnessed
I sat in Delia's car in the airfield parking lot and read the fraud file twice.
Two years ago, Raymond had been investigated for misrepresenting investment returns to a group of clients — older couples, mostly retired, who had trusted him with their savings.
The investigation had been opened after one couple filed a formal complaint.
Three other clients had come forward to support it.
Then Victoria had submitted a sworn statement saying she had personally reviewed Raymond's firm's records and found no evidence of misrepresentation.
She had described herself in the statement as a financial professional with relevant expertise.
Victoria was an interior decorator.
After her statement, the other clients withdrew.
The investigation closed.
"She lied," I said.
"Her statement contained claims about her professional qualifications that were not accurate," Delia said carefully.
"Whether she understood the full implications of what she was doing—"
"She knew what she was doing." I closed the folder.
"Raymond told her what to say and she said it.
He's been doing this for years.
The predatory petitions, the fraud, all of it.
And Victoria has been covering for him."
"That's a reasonable inference from the file.
But inference isn't evidence."
"What would be evidence?"
"The clients who withdrew.
If even one of them is willing to talk again — to say they were pressured or persuaded to withdraw — that reopens the fraud investigation.
And a reopened fraud investigation, combined with the predatory petition pattern against military widows, is a very different legal situation for Raymond."
I thought about the couple who had filed the original complaint.
Their names were in the file — Walter and June Carmichael.
Retired.
The same town.
"Are they still local?" I asked.
"I checked this morning," Delia said.
"They're still at the same address."
I looked at the airfield.
A transport was taxiing on the far runway, slow and heavy in the gray morning light.
"I want to talk to them," I said.
"Before I go to the house.
Before I do anything else."
"I can arrange that."
"And I want to know — is there anything in Raymond's petition filings that constitutes witness tampering?
If Victoria's statement was used to shut down an investigation that directly benefited Raymond, and Raymond then used his legal standing to file petitions—"
"I've already flagged it for review," Delia said.
"It's not a simple chain to prove.
But it's there."
We drove to the Carmichaels' house.
It was a small place on a quiet street — a bird feeder in the front yard, a wreath still on the door from the season.
Walter answered on the second knock.
He was in his seventies, careful on his feet, and when I introduced myself he looked at my uniform for a long moment before he said anything.
"You're Marcus's wife," he said.
"Yes."
"We were sorry to hear about him." He stepped back from the door.
"Come in."
June was in the kitchen.
She set down her dish towel when we walked in and looked at me the way people look when they have been waiting a long time for something without knowing exactly what it was.
"Raymond Holt is trying to take my house," I said.
"I read the fraud file.
I know what happened two years ago.
I know you withdrew your statement."
Walter and June exchanged a look.
"We withdrew because we were afraid," June said.
"His attorney sent us a letter.
It said if we continued with the complaint, they would countersue for defamation.
We couldn't afford a legal fight."
"Would you be willing to speak again?
Formally.
With legal protection in place."
Walter looked at his hands.
June looked at me.
"He took forty thousand dollars from us," June said.
"He told us it was invested.
It wasn't.
When we asked for the records, the records didn't match what he'd told us.
Then that woman — his wife — submitted that statement and everything stopped."
"She's my sister," I said.
June blinked.
"I know," I said.
"I know what she did.
And I'm not here to protect her."
Walter looked up.
"What happens if we speak again?"
"Raymond faces a reopened fraud investigation.
His petition against my property gets reviewed in the context of a pattern of predatory behavior.
His law license comes under scrutiny.
And the two of you have a civil claim for what he took."
June reached across the table and put her hand over Walter's.
"We'll speak," she said.
I drove to the house after that.
Delia stayed in the car.
I went to the front door alone and knocked.
Eleanor answered.
She looked at me for a moment — at the uniform, at the folder under my arm, at my face — and then she stepped aside without saying a word.
Raymond was in the kitchen.
He saw the folder.
His expression didn't change, but he set down his phone.
"I've been expecting you," he said.
May you like
"I know," I said.
"That's why I went somewhere else first."
