Then he sighed.
“We’ve identified roughly two-point-four million dollars in distributions, loans, charitable reimbursements, consulting fees, and property purchases that appear connected.”
My mother went pale.
“Two million?”
“Two-point-four so far.”
“And the eighteen million?”
“Frozen.”
She blinked.
“Frozen?”
“Continental Transfer Services flagged inconsistencies after you called them directly last month. That is almost certainly why Mr. Hale became desperate.”
Nancy looked at me.
“I never called them.”
Brooks frowned.
“You didn’t?”
“No.”
Silence.
He reopened the file.
“This record shows a phone call from your number on June seventeenth.”
“I was in Annapolis with my sister that week.”
“Who had access to your house?”
We already knew the answer.
Ryan.
But if Ryan had been impersonating Nancy, why had the call triggered a fraud review?
Brooks read the notation.
“Caller failed identity verification.”
Something had gone wrong.
One incorrect answer.
One security question Ryan had not anticipated.
