Chapter 11 - The Account in Zurich
Two days later, the morning sun poured through the tall windows of Gabriel’s home office, illuminating the newly cleared desk.
The house was clean. Marlene and Everett’s belongings were packed into cardboard boxes stacked on the curb, waiting for a court-appointed trustee to retrieve them. Amelia was downstairs with Sarah, her soft laughter echoing up the stairwell—a sound Gabriel hadn't heard in so long it felt like rain after a devastating drought.
Gabriel sat at the desk, his laptop open, on a secure conference call with Arthur Vance, Nora’s longtime estate attorney from Boston.
"The criminal charges against your mother are comprehensive, Gabriel," Vance said through the speakerphone, his voice dry and authoritative. "The state attorney is looking at aggravated child neglect, identity theft, wire fraud, and grand larceny. With your father’s sworn confession and Sarah Bennett’s testimony, she will not be getting out on bail."
"Good," Gabriel said, resting his chin in his hand. "What about the trust funds? Can we recover the money she stole from Westbridge?"
There was a long, uncharacteristic pause on the other end of the line.
Gabriel frowned. "Arthur? Are you there?"
"Gabriel... I've spent the last forty-eight hours auditing the complete financial structure of Nora’s estate, cross-referencing the USB drive Nora left in the attic with the auxiliary accounts," Vance said slowly.
"And?"
"The eighteen thousand dollars a quarter... the one hundred and forty-two thousand dollars Marlene withdrew through Oakridge Behavioral... that wasn't the trust’s money."
Gabriel’s heart skipped a beat. "What are you talking about? It came directly out of the Westbridge disbursements."
"Westbridge was an automated mirror account," Vance explained, paper shuffling audibly across his desk. "Every time Marlene submitted a forged invoice to Westbridge, the money wasn't pulled from Nora’s principal assets. It was wired automatically from an international offshore account based in Zurich, Switzerland."
Gabriel sat bolt upright in his chair. "Nora didn't have money in Switzerland. We were middle-class. She was an art teacher before she got sick."
"Nora didn't set up the Zurich account, Gabriel," Vance said, his voice dropping to a near whisper. "The Zurich account was opened three weeks *after* Nora’s funeral."
The air in the office suddenly felt arctic.
"Who opened it, Arthur?" Gabriel demanded, his throat going dry.
"The account was opened under an alias, but the biometric verification code linked to the monthly funding was tied to a domestic Social Security number," Vance said. "Gabriel... someone has been funding that auxiliary account specifically to feed Marlene’s greed, keeping her focused on Amelia while draining Nora's real estate from another direction entirely."
"Whose Social Security number?" Gabriel asked, his voice shaking.
"Your sister’s," Vance replied.
May you like
Gabriel gripped the edge of the desk. "My sister died in a car accident eight years ago."
"Then you need to explain," Vance said quietly, "why her passport was scanned at an international terminal in Miami forty-five minutes ago, traveling on a one-way ticket directly to this city."
