Chapter 12 - Richard’s Dirty Hands
For three days Damon believed the worst thing he could imagine.
That Richard had been part of it.
The forensic accountants urged patience.
The account that received $900,000 was indeed controlled by Richard, but ownership alone did not reveal purpose.
Damon barely slept.
He had just reconstructed his father in his mind as the man who had chosen him despite biology.
Now that image threatened to crack again.
Felicity found him in the kitchen at four in the morning.
“You’re doing what I did,” she said.
“What?”
“Deciding what a document means before you know.”
He looked at her.
She continued.
“You told me fear wasn’t evidence.”
Damon gave a bitter smile.
“Dad wrote that.”
“You repeated it.”
He poured coffee.
“What if he was taking money too?”
“Then he was.”
“You can say that?”
“Yes.”
“He defended me.”
“That doesn’t make him incapable of doing something wrong.”
Damon looked at her.
It was perhaps the first truly honest thing their marriage had held in years.
Two days later Nora found the explanation.
Richard had used the $900,000 to purchase distressed debt owed by one of the project entities.
Why?
To prevent Rivergate from defaulting.
He had injected the money back into the company six weeks later.
Every dollar was documented.
No personal profit.
The transfer Vincent highlighted was real.
The implication was false.
“He wanted you to find something suspicious,” Nora said.
“To make me doubt Dad.”
“And distract us.”
“From what?”
She opened another spreadsheet.
“Silver Oaks.”
Silver Oaks was a senior-living development completed eight years earlier.
Its landscaping and infrastructure contracts included one of the same vendors used at Hawthorne.
Carrow Site Services.
Investigators traced Carrow to a nominee owner.
The nominee was Vincent’s college roommate.
Payments: $3.1 million.
Verified work: approximately $1.7 million.
Difference: $1.4 million.
The total suspected diversion now exceeded eight million dollars.
But Nora found something stranger.
Carrow had transferred $300,000 to a charitable foundation.
The Margaret Hale Foundation.
Damon stared.
“My mother’s foundation?”
“Yes.”
“Why would Vincent send stolen money there?”
Felicity frowned.
“Was Richard on the board?”
“No,” Damon said. “Mom created it.”
“Who became trustee after she died?”
Damon knew before he checked.
Vincent.
The foundation funded literacy programs and women’s shelters.
For years Damon had praised Vincent for continuing Margaret’s work.
Now records showed Vincent had routed questionable funds through the charity, then directed payments to “consultants.”
One consultant was legitimate.
The other was a company owned by Vincent’s girlfriend at the time.
Damon felt physically ill.
“He used my mother’s name.”
Felicity touched his hand.
For a moment he let her.
Then his phone rang.
Claire.
Felicity’s sister.
“Damon, is Ivy with you?”
He frowned.
“Yes. Why?”
“I just got a weird call.”
“What kind?”
“A man asking whether Ivy still takes piano lessons on Thursdays.”
Damon stood.
“Who?”
“He wouldn’t say.”
Felicity went white.
Damon’s pulse accelerated.
“Did you tell him anything?”
“Of course not.”
He immediately called the school and piano teacher.
No one was authorized to release Ivy except Damon, Felicity, Claire, or pre-approved caregivers.
Then Damon called Vincent.
Helen would have disapproved.
He did not care.
Vincent answered.
“If anyone contacts my daughter again—”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Someone asked about Ivy’s schedule.”
“Not me.”
“If you involve her—”
“Damon.”
Vincent’s voice was suddenly cold.
“I have never threatened Ivy.”
Damon stopped.
Something in the answer sounded genuine.
“Then who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who else is involved?”
Silence.
That was the question.
Not what else.
Who else.
Until now Damon had assumed Vincent acted largely alone.
But shell companies required nominees.
False invoices required cooperation.
Files had disappeared from corporate archives long after some employees changed jobs.
Vincent could not have done everything himself.
That evening outside counsel sent a list of people tied to Hawthorne vendors.
One name appeared in two companies.
Gerald Pierce.
Former Hale Development procurement director.
Retired six years ago.
Damon remembered him.
More importantly, Felicity did too.
“He was Vincent’s closest person inside finance,” she said.
“Where is he now?”
“Florida, I think.”
Nora checked public records.
Gerald Pierce was not in Florida.
He had returned to Kentucky three months earlier.
May you like
Three weeks before Richard died.
And according to the visitor log recovered from Hale Development’s old reception system, Gerald had visited Richard’s office the day before Richard suffered his fatal heart attack.
