Chapter 18 - THE JOINT ACCOUNT
David didn’t answer immediately. He picked up a rag and slowly wiped his hands, buying time to study his wife’s face.
“Dr. Evans wanted it adjusted,” David lied smoothly. “Said the friction was causing her knee pain.”
Claire visibly relaxed, her shoulders dropping an inch. “Oh. Good. She was complaining about it aching this morning. Did you fix it?”
“I’m working on it.” David gestured to his open toolbox. “Have you seen my digital caliper?”
Claire looked genuinely confused. “Your what? The little measuring thing? No. Why would I touch that?”
She turned and went back into the house, the laundry basket propped against her hip. David watched the door click shut. Her confusion had looked perfectly real. But people lied. He had seen customers lie about how they wrecked their transmissions every single day.
He pulled out his phone and opened their joint banking app.
He scrolled back through the last three months of transactions. The $6,000 trust deposit arrived on the first of every month. But as he looked closer, he noticed something he had never paid attention to before.
Every month, exactly two days after the deposit, a transfer of $1,200 was sent to an external account labeled C.M. H.
Claire’s maiden name was Claire Marie Hayes.
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David locked his phone. His wife was siphoning money from their daughter’s disability, and the brace was keeping the money flowing.
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