Chapter 6 - THE MONEY HIS MOTHER SAID NEVER EXISTED
Judith Price was seventy-two and lived in a brick ranch outside Apex with three cats, two bird feeders, and a filing system more reliable than several corporate departments Olivia had managed.
She had been Carter Precision’s bookkeeper from 1996 to 2014.
When Olivia called, Judith did not sound surprised.
“I wondered when one of you children would finally ask.”
“Ask what?”
“What happened after Thomas died.”
Olivia drove to Apex with Rebecca the next morning.
Judith put coffee in front of them and returned carrying a banker’s box.
“I kept personal copies of things I thought Robert might need.”
Rebecca raised an eyebrow.
“That would violate several modern document-retention policies.”
Judith shrugged.
“It was 2001. We were still faxing payroll.”
Inside were photocopies of cancelled checks, handwritten ledger notes, and correspondence between Robert Carter and a bank trust officer.
Judith pointed to two account numbers.
“These were the boys’ trusts.”
“Daniel says he never knew they existed.”
“I believe him.”
Olivia looked up.
“Why?”
“Because Robert found out too late that Elaine wasn’t giving them statements.”
Judith produced a letter.
Robert had written to Elaine in 2004.
Elaine,
The funds belong beneficially to Daniel and Mark. I am increasingly concerned by the withdrawals described as housing expenses. Please provide documentation requested by the bank.
Olivia read the next page.
Elaine had responded.
Robert,
You have no right to interfere with how I raise my sons.
Judith tapped the table.
“Robert interfered anyway.”
“How?”
“He asked the bank for an accounting.”
“Could he do that?”
“He had funded the trusts and remained an oversight party under a side agreement Thomas signed.”
Rebecca nodded slowly.
“That would explain the missing Mercer file.”
Judith handed Olivia another page.
There were distributions for tuition.
Medical bills.
School expenses.
Then larger withdrawals began.
$38,000.
$61,500.
$92,000.
And one transaction for $415,000.
The description read:
TRUSTEE REIMBURSEMENT — RESIDENTIAL STABILITY.
Olivia stared at it.
“What does that mean?”
Judith gave a humorless laugh.
“It means Elaine wrote herself a check.”
“For four hundred fifteen thousand dollars?”
“She bought a property.”
“What property?”
“Robert never figured that out.”
Rebecca asked, “Why didn’t he remove her as trustee?”
“He tried.”
Judith’s face tightened.
“Elaine threatened to tell Daniel and Mark that Robert had killed their father.”
Olivia froze.
“The warehouse accident?”
Judith nodded.
“Thomas died during an overnight equipment inspection. Robert had approved the inspection schedule. Elaine said she would tell the boys he sent Thomas into an unsafe building to protect company profits.”
“Was that true?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because OSHA investigated. A contractor had bypassed a lockout procedure. Robert wasn’t even in North Carolina that night.”
Olivia rubbed her forehead.
“Then why would Dad care what she told two boys?”
“Because guilt doesn’t need logic.”
Judith looked at her.
“Your father spent the rest of his life believing Thomas would still be alive if they hadn’t built that company.”
The simple villain Olivia had begun constructing in her mind shifted.
Elaine had not invented pain.
She had weaponized it.
Olivia asked, “What happened to the trust?”
Judith opened another folder.
“Daniel’s was nearly empty by the time he turned twenty-one.”
“And Mark’s?”
“Same.”
“Where did the money go?”
“I told you. Property, transfers, something called EJM Holdings.”
Rebecca immediately wrote the name down.
Olivia recognized the initials.
Elaine Judith Mercer.
A company registered to Elaine.
The amount of money lost would have been worth millions today if left invested.
Olivia pictured Daniel at nineteen, working nights at a grocery store while attending community college because, according to him, his mother could not help with tuition.
That did not excuse what he had done.
It made something else uglier.
Elaine had raised both sons to hate the man who tried to protect money she herself had taken.
Judith closed the box.
“There’s one more thing.”
She walked to a locked desk and returned with a photocopy of a cashier’s check.
$415,000.
Payable from Daniel Mercer Trust.
The endorsement on the back transferred the money to EJM Holdings.
Below Elaine’s signature was a handwritten approval.
ROBERT H. CARTER.
Olivia stared at her father’s name.
Rebecca leaned closer.
“That changes things.”
Judith nodded.
“If the signature is real, your father may have approved the biggest withdrawal.”
May you like
Olivia looked again.
The handwriting looked exactly like Robert’s.
