Chapter 10: Consequences, Named and Specific
The financial crimes investigation moved quickly once Farro's documents were in hand.
Carol Greaves gave a full statement.
She had been documenting the shell transactions for eight months, quietly, at Ethan's request, terrified every day that Phillip would find out.
When the detectives came to her door at six in the morning, she opened it before they knocked — she had been awake, waiting, a folder of printed records already on the kitchen table.
Phillip Greaves was arrested that same morning.
He said nothing.
His lawyer said less.
Scott was formally charged three days after the night in the apartment.
The charges included fraud, conspiracy, and one count related to what had been done to Ethan — the specific legal language was precise and serious and Clara read every word of the document when Holt brought it to her.
She set it face-down on the table when she finished.
She didn't read it again.
She didn't need to.
Scott's lawyer entered a not-guilty plea.
The financial evidence made that position difficult to maintain.
By the end of the second week, there were conversations about cooperation in exchange for consideration.
Clara was not part of those conversations.
She didn't want to be.
Beatrice's situation was more complicated.
She had cooperated.
Her statement had helped locate Ethan and had confirmed the timeline of the plant, the bag, and Scott's involvement.
Her lawyer argued that cooperation should be weighted heavily.
The prosecutors argued that two years of knowing and concealing was not a passive act.
In the end, Beatrice was charged with conspiracy and obstruction.
She did not go to the apartment again.
She did not call.
Her lawyer sent a letter, once, suggesting that a conversation might be beneficial for all parties.
Clara read the letter.
She set it in the folder with the other documents.
She did not respond.
The investors — forty-one families who had placed retirement funds into the senior living project — were the part that stayed with Clara longest.
Holt connected her with the lead prosecutor on that aspect of the case, a woman named Grace Ellison who wore the same expression of controlled fury every time they spoke.
"The recovery process is going to take time," Grace told her, in the hospital corridor while Ethan was still inpatient.
"But the shell accounts were identified before they could be fully drained.
Most of it is recoverable."
"Most," Clara said.
"Most," Grace confirmed.
"We're working on the rest."
Clara thought about forty-one families.
Retirement savings.
People who had trusted a name — the Vance name, the family name, the name on the letterhead of the luxury senior living complex — and had handed over the money they had spent decades accumulating.
"Make sure they know," Clara said.
"Make sure someone tells them directly what happened and what's being done."
Grace looked at her.
"That's not usually—"
"I know it's not usual," Clara said.
"But they deserve to hear it from a person, not a letter."
Grace was quiet for a moment.
Then she nodded.
"I'll see what I can do."
She did.
Clara found out later that Grace had personally called eleven of the forty-one families.
The other thirty received calls from members of her team.
It was not required.
It was done anyway.
That mattered to Clara more than she could easily explain.
Ethan came home after twelve days.
He walked through the apartment door slowly, one hand on the frame, and Lily launched herself at him from six feet away and he caught her and held her and didn't let go for a long time.
Clara stood in the kitchen doorway and watched.
The potted plant was gone.
The corner where it had been was empty.
May you like
She had put a small lamp there instead — a simple one, warm light, nothing significant.
Just something to fill the space with something that belonged to them.
