Chapter 14 The Timeline

After letting Chris know that I would be right down, I got up and ran a brush through my hair, then splashed water on my face in an attempt to chase away the remnants of my unsettling dream.

Grabbing my phone from the charger, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. Chris and Sherry were passing the white cartons back and forth, filling their plates with their favorites. As the delicious smell of the food hit me, I realized I was truly hungry for the first time in days. Once I filled my own plate and joined them at the bar, Chris told me that Melissa had called him after she'd been unable to reach me. She had received the request and authorization for release of information from the police, who had also informed her of David's death.

"I assured her that you were fine, but that David's death had triggered some questions about some of your investments. I also told her I couldn't say more at this time due to the investigatiuon. She wasn't happy, but she understands. She is really worried about you though, so I told her you would call as soon as you were able to," he said, then took a bite of his chow mein.

"Thanks. I have a few voice mail notifications, but I haven't listened to them yet." I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and pulled up the voice mails, listening to Melissa's message then deleting it. The next one was from the funeral director, then Randall, and finally, my dear sweet brother-in-law Scott.

"OK, so there's a message from Randall that was pretty much the same as Melissa's. He's concerned about me and freaking out over the police search at the firm and the questions they asked. The funeral director called.They got David's body picked up and things are a go for Friday. The last one was from Scott, asking if the coroner released his body today and if the funeral will still be on Friday. He didn't bother asking how I'm doing," I said, rolling my eyes. Sherry grunted around a mouthful of her teriyaki chicken, and I smiled at her feral response.

I took a quick sip of my iced tea. "I need to decide what to do about the visitation and funeral," I sighed. "The last thing I want to do is listen to a bunch of people telling me what a good man he was, and how much he'll be missed.But if I cancel it I would need to explain why, and I can't do that since the police don't want me to say anything about the investigation."

"There's no rule that you have to be at the visitation.Let Scott deal with it. We can just tell him that you are too distraught to be there," Chris said.

"Or go and turn it into a celebration that the bastard's dead," Sherry suggested with a snarky grin. "You can wear red, and we can get some of those noisemakers you blow on New Year's Eve, maybe a little confetti to toss on the casket."

I laughed and promptly choked on a bite of my fried rice, then spent the next several seconds trying to clear a few stray grains of rice from my airway. By the time I finished coughing, Chris was pounding on my back and Sherry was looking quite pleased with herself.

"I think maybe I'll go with Chris's suggestion, but your idea does sound more entertaining," I grinned at her and took another bite of rice. Chris offered to deal with "motherfucking Scott" for me, and I nodded, not wanting to inhale more rice if I tried to speak. He shot off a quick text to Scott and finished the last of his food.

By the time Sherry and I had finished and the kitchen was cleaned up Chris had a movie pulled up for us to watch.

"It's about the mafia, in honor of the Flanagan's," he said with a grin, and I laughed. I picked up one of the small decorative pillows from the couch and threw it at him. He grabbed it mid-air and tucked it behind his head as he leaned back in the recliner.

"Irish mob, Italian mafia. There's a difference," I lectured with mock sternness.

Sherry gave me a teasing look. "And what exactly are those differences?"

"I don't really know exactly , but I remember hearing a story when I was a kid about my Grandpa Flanagan shooting a guy in the foot for getting it wrong," I retorted, arching an eyebrow at her.

Sherry just stared at me slack-jawed, not even blinking, and I held her stare as long as I could before cracking."Oh my God, Sher, I'm kidding!" I said, laughing.

"Shit, did you see her face?" Chris asked, howling, and pointing at his wife.

Sherry rolled her eyes and huffed, trying to hold back a smile. "That wasn't funny, Lila."

A still-chuckling Chris said, "Oh, yes it was."

Sherry decided at that point that we needed a pitcher of margaritas, and I thought that sounded like a damned good idea. By the end of our second pitcher, we were barely able to stand upright and make it up the stairs. I fell into bed and slept until dawn. Waking up with a hangover was worth getting a full night's sleep without dreams of David.

The next morning, after a long shower followed by Tylenol and copious amounts of coffee and toast, I was feeling almost human again. Judging by Sherry's moans and the gray tint to Chris's skin when they walked into the kitchen an hour later, they weren't faring quite as well. I left them to their misery and went into the dining room.

I turned on my laptop and picked up the notepad I'd left lying there from the last time. I wanted to go over my accounts again to prepare myself for the meeting at the police station this afternoon. A few hours later, I had added several more pages worth of notes regarding dates and transactions that were suspect. Combined with the mortgages that were taken out against my properties, there was almost $5 million dollars unaccounted for since we'd gotten married - and that didn't include the lavish spending on cars, designer clothes, trips, or his damned watch collection.

After a quick lunch, we headed to the police station.Mike met us in the lobby and led us to a small conference room. There was a projection screen on one wall, and a large whiteboard on another. Large, framed photographs of the city, and portraits of the mayor, police chief and what appeared to be high-ranking officers were hung on the other two walls. James was there, along with three other people. He introduced us to Andy first, then Raj and Maggie, who were accountants working under Andy.

We all took a seat, and I noticed a tray of bottled waters and snacks had been placed in the middle of the conference table. It was much different that I had imagined, and I said as much to James as he settled in next to me in the padded chairs.

"What were you imagining?" he asked.

"I guess I watch too much TV.I was expecting a dingy room with metal folding chairs and two-way mirrors."

Mike barked out a laugh. "Nah, those are the special accomodations reserved for the bad guys."

" Alleged bad guys," James corrected with a rare display of humor.

After that, the mood in the room turned serious as Mike cleared his throat and began speaking.

"I would like to make sure we all have an understanding as to the basic timeline of events, before Andy shares the details of his findings so far. Feel free to interject if I get anything wrong."

He ticked things off on his fingers as he spoke. "Three years ago, you got married and your mom gave you and David a condo in Maui as a wedding present. David went behind your back and took out a loan against it for $1.2 million with his brother's help. A year later, you got your trust fund and gave him money to buy into a partnership at the firm with Randall. You also bought your current house and added David on the deed because he was your husband and you trusted him." He paused to look at me, and I nodded my agreement with everything so far.

He continued, "So, David started spending money like it was water, both from the Maui mortgage and from your joint checking account. You started buying real estate under Montgomery Properties LLC, which David was not a part of. After you voiced objections about his lavish spending, David decided he needed an alternate source of funds since you were watching the joint account a little more closely. He and Scott decided that since they couldn't get to your investments or trust funds directly, they would create shell companies. They presented fake invoices for work performed on the LLC properties, then forged your approval for payments. He also started embezzling from his firm. He padded his expense reports, then started his pattern of shell companies and fake invoices. Scott wasn't part of that deal, from what we can tell so far. By the beginning of this year, David had run through the original $1.2 mil, and had Scott falsify mortgage documents again, to take out $1.6 million against your house.At some point, David had begun slipping you sleeping pills, knowing that you didn't react well to them.He used that to manipulate you into signing things and giving him access to more money. He also used it to manipulate you emotionally, and to basically gaslight you."He looked around the room at all of us, then settled his gaze on me again.

"Am I getting this right so far?" he asked.

"Yes, I said quietly, trying to remain calm in the face of this list of crimes committed against me by the man I had loved for almost eight years.

Mike sighed and gave me an apologetic look. "Then seven months ago, you suffered a miscarriage, which David was concerned may have been caused by the pills he was using to drug you."

"I think his concern actually stemmed from worrying that he would get caught if the sleeping pills showed up in the blood work at the hospital, rather than any true concern for our baby or me," I interrupted bitterly, "but continue."

Mike merely nodded in understanding and started again. "David was concerned about the pills and decided to stop giving them to you as often for a while. He used your natural depression over the miscarriage to spread rumors that you were unstable and that he was worried about you. He started giving you the sleeping pills again sparingly to strengthen his attempts at making you believe you had a problem. He met Vanessa Caldwell six months ago and began an affair a month later. He eventually pulled her in on the embezzlement at work, although we aren't sure she was aware of the full extent of it." He reached across the table for a bottle of water, taking a big gulp of it before continuing.

"In July, he had you sign documents under the influence of his sleeping pills, adding him to the deed of a condo on Meridian Street, which he then promptly mortgaged for almost $600,000, with help from Scott and Vanessa, who pretended to be you at the mortgage closing. He allowed Vanessa to move into the condo rent-free as a gift to her.At the beginning of August, you traveled to Chicago to oversee the care of your mother, who passed away three weeks later."

"Does anyone have any questions so far?" he asked.

I shook my head, but Chris spoke up to ask, "And you believe that all of that money was spent on gambling and drugs, plus funding his luxury lifestyle?"

Mike nodded, "Yes, aside from legitimate transactions for the monthly mortgage payments and property taxes, which we assume were done purely to keep the mortgages from being discovered. The rest of it seems to have been spent paying Scott for his help - and his silence - extensive gambling, occasional cocaine and prescription drug abuse, as well as other women."

He shot me a quick glance. "Part of Andy's discoveries include a number of payments to high-end escort services while he was on various business trips, and dozens of transactions at the Park Regency hotel downtown. I spoke with the night clerk there and showed her David's picture. She recognized him right away, and I gotta tell you, she was not a fan of his. She had noticed his wedding ring on his first few visits and did not approve of the fact that he checked in with - as she put it - a different woman on his arm every time."

I made another mental note about the STI testing and reached for a bottle of water. I sipped it slowly, hoping it would stay down. The way my stomach was rolling, I wasn't sure that would be possibe.

James spoke up next. "Between the texts on David's cellphone, the texts we retrieved which had automatically uploaded to iCloud, and the numerous videos, we have proof that David and Scott were both involved with gambling, much of it illegal in nature. We have proof that Scott supplied David with what he claimed was cocaine, Viagra not prescribed to him, and what we belive to be amphetamines on occasion. We have proof that David drugged you without your knowledge or consent. We have proof that he emotionally abused you by coercive control - gaslighting - which in and of itself is not recognized as a criminal act in this state, although it is recognized as such elsewhere."

"OK, I'm going to let Andy take over now to detail the evidence we've gathered as far as the financial crimes."He turned to the other man, who walked over to a laptop sitting at the end of the table. He tapped a few keys, anda spreadsheet flashed up on the projection screen.

"My team and I have been working almost around the clock to sort through as much of this information as possible, since we were concerned that David's death might be connected. While it now appears his death was accidental, we do have definitive proof that David's financial crimes include mortgage fraud, theft, forgery and embezzlement."

James interjected, "David is unfortunately beyond our reach, but Scott and Vanessa are not. As his accomplices, they will be held responsible."

I breathed a sigh of relief that they wouldn't get away with it as Andy started to go over the information on the spreadsheet, which he said was the one David had on his laptop. It was very detailed, listing dates and amounts of money received, as well as the source - the real estate account, joint account, or the mortgages.

One of the earliest notations was for $1 million. The description listed is as "additional funds from partnership buy-in". Andy pulled up a bank statement on the screen as well and pointed out a withdrawal I'd made from my trust fund for $3.4 million. He then pulled up a copy of the partnership contract that Randall and David has signed, showing a buy-in amount of only $2.4 million.

"I spoke with David's partner, Randall, to confirm that David paid a sum of $2.4 million to buy forty percent of the business. Yet, you withdrew $3.4 million and gave it to David at that time. Was the extra one million a gift?"

I was stunned. With all that I had discovered, that hadn't even occurred to me. "No," I said shakily. "I was told it was $3.4 million, and that's what the contract David gave me said."

Chris agreed. "Even though contract law is not my specialty, I did glance over it as their friend before I recommended a business lawyer to handle it for them. I remember the amount as $3.4 million as well."

Andy nodded and tapped several keys on his laptop."I'm updating the spreadsheet we created to reflect that."

He went over the rest of David's spreadsheet with no additional surprises for me. He pulled up another one, which he said was David's accounting of his embezzlement from the firm. It totaled $149,000, small change in the comparison to what he'd stolen from me, but certainly not insignificant to the firm.

The third and final of David's spreadsheets was a record of his gambling wins and losses. The losses outweighed the winnings by far.

I looked around the room in amazement as his stupidity. "Can anyone explain to me why on earth David kept such detailed records, spreadsheets, videos - evidence of actual crimes - on his laptop of all places?" I scoffed in disbelief. "I mean, if I were some kind of criminal mastermind, I think I would have picked a better hiding spot at least. Good God, the man was an idiot on top of being a liar, a cheater, and a thief.

Sherry, Chris, and Mike all chuckled. James cracked a smile, and all the accountants just looked really uncomfortable.

James offered his opinion. "From what I've observed, Lila, David was incredibly arrogant - probably a clinical narcissist, if I had to guess. He simply refused to believe he would ever fall under suspicion because he thought he had the perfect plan. He thought he was above reproach and became complacent in that knowledge. His ego was bigger than his brain, to be quite blunt about it."

"So, he was a dumbass douchebag...sounds about right," Sherry agreed with a scowl. I chuckled bitterly. Yep, that was my best friend all right. She rarely sugar-coated anything, and this was no exception.

Her comment actually got a small laugh out of James, which made me chuckle again.

Andy continued reviewing spreadsheets and the various bank account statements going back three years. I shared my notes, which matched his findings, and he had found quite a few additional things that I had missed, of course.By the time he was finished and we added in the $1 million skimmed from the partnership buy-in, we had proof that David had stolen just under $6 million dollars from me.