The investigation kept widening.
Next was the rental duplex. Mary’s share. Robert had tried to pledge Tommy’s future share as collateral for a private business loan. It didn’t go through. But the paperwork existed.
His business was in serious trouble. Much worse than he’d ever told me. Credit card debt. A failed expansion into a second office. Jennifer’s fake company. A refinanced mortgage on that big house in Folsom.
They were drowning.
And they’d started looking at Tommy’s trust like a life preserver.
When Tommy overheard them say the money was “almost gone,” he wasn’t exactly right. Most of the trust was still there.
But they’d just tried to make a much bigger withdrawal.
One hundred and forty thousand dollars.
It hadn’t gone through yet.
After Mary died, Frank had added an extra safeguard to the trust. Any withdrawal over fifty thousand dollars required a phone call to the trustee and a security code sent to a physical token. A little key fob that I keep in my sock drawer.
The bank tried to call me to confirm.
I never got the call.
Because my phone number on the account had been changed. To Robert’s.
But Robert didn’t have my little key fob.
That was what they’d been trying to figure out, right before Christmas.
And then Detective Chen found something else on Robert’s computer.
A draft document. Never sent. Never signed.
It described me as cognitively declining. Forgetful. Confused. Possibly unable to manage my responsibilities as trustee.
I stared at that word for a long time.
Confused.
Jennifer had said it to me on the porch.
Joe, you’re confused.
It wasn’t random. It was prepared.
They’d been building a story.
If I ever accused them of taking money? I was confused.
If I ever came into the house to help Tommy? Unstable.
If I raised concerns? A grief-stricken old man.
Robert knew exactly which picture of me would make people doubt me.
He’s my son. He knows me.
That was the worst part of all of it.
He knew exactly which weakness would be believable.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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