“Ms. Reed, if you turn those documents over, I can promise you that the neither the IRS nor the FBI will be pursing legal action for any laws you broke obtaining them.” Myers leaned forward again with a friendly smile on his face that did not look natural on him.
“Officers can’t lie, right?” I narrowed my eyes and looked at Vergara. Her face remained blank.
“They can…” Myers let his voice trail off.
“But we aren’t,” she finished.
I decided to trust them and gathered up everything I had found. As they skimmed through the documents, their smiles grew.
“Ms. Reed, these documents from Mr. Landon’s computer— these have not been altered at all?” Vergara looked up with an excited glint in her eyes.
“No…” I said slowly, confused.
“Was your employer aware of what Mr. Landon was doing? Did you ever report these findings?”
“No, honestly, I knew they didn’t look right but I don’t actually understand what exactly they show he did wrong. I wasn’t even sure they were worth keeping until I showed the forensic accountant Melanie hired.”
“If this goes to trial, we will need to call on you for testimony. Do you understand?” Vergara asked.
“I understand.”
39-Ben
One minute, I was walking into court ready to sweet-talk my way out of a no-contact order and request that the divorce be delayed until after the birth of my child—the next, I was sitting in a cell waiting for Frank to figure out how much it was going to cost me to go home.
I had been completely blindsided by Melanie hiring her own forensic accountant. The one Frank hired had spent the last month trying to clean up my financial breadcrumbs and fabricating a court-worthy one for us to present today. All for nothing.
I had also been blindsided by Melanies’ little secret. How the hell had I missed that she had been working the whole time... building an empire, not just 'helping out a little'?
I couldn’t help but wonder how much she had been making and how the hell she had helped her father turn the business into a small chain.
Was she funding it with my money?
I wouldn’t have cared, but I would’ve wanted her to at least discuss it with me.
It IS what I do for a living after all.
Sort of. I invested in stocks, not startups… but still, it took the same basic skillset of being able to recognize a winning idea.
Frank assured me that he’d have me out in a few hours, but I was pretty sure it was going to cost me a lot. I was grateful that the forensic accountant had suggested that we move some of the funds into the retainer account to make them look more legitimate and keep the funds accessible in case our joint account got frozen. I still wasn’t sure what the status was on my hidden accounts.
How many had her guy found?
· · - ·?· - · ·
“What do you mean they froze them ALL?” I gaped at Frank.
“Her guy was good… they even found the account that you put in your dad’s name.” He admitted sheepishly.
“Fuck!” I threw my glass at the wall and then sank to the floor on my knees. “I’m going to lose everything…” I whispered as the severity of the situation became clear to me.
“It’s not looking good.” He admitted.
“What if I sign the papers now?”
“It’s too late for that. The judge already turned over the documents to the State Attorney General. Odds are they’ll pass it along to the IRS.” Frank chugged his glass and set it down on the table with a thud. “The retainer account is good; I pulled out five thousand more than what your fee was today and brought that for you in cash. It should help hold you over for a few weeks.”
“Weeks?” I scoffed. I hadn’t had to worry about sticking to a budget since I graduated from college.
