Chapter 10 - The Child on the Ledger
For a minute, nobody spoke. I thought of another little girl somewhere, carrying a backpack and wondering why the adults in her life were afraid.
Detective Vega asked Caleb to forward the original voicemail. Then she explained what the new detail might mean.
"We can't assume the second account belongs to a child who was harmed," she said. "But we can check who opened it and whether any identity was used without permission."
The former fund employee, June Alvarez, met investigators the following day. She had been the bookkeeper who first questioned missing benefits. Dad had dismissed her for "poor judgment" after she refused to approve a payment to Sable Services.
June agreed to speak with Mom in a conference room at the legal aid center. I sat nearby with Beth.
"I thought you signed because you were part of it," June told Mom. "I was wrong. I saw your face that night. I should've asked whether you were safe."
"We were both afraid of him," Mom replied.
June brought copies of her written complaints and an email confirming she'd reported the transactions to the fund's outside auditor years earlier. She didn't have secret access to the bank. She had saved what the company had legally sent her.
"He told everyone the fund was broke," June said. "Families skipped rent while he bought himself a cabin by the lake."
She showed Mom a photograph of the cabin. Mom made a small sound.
"That's where he took me last summer," she said. "He said it belonged to a friend."
"Would you be able to describe the rooms?" the detective asked.
Mom nodded. "He kept a locked metal case under the stairs."
The detectives would decide whether they had grounds to search it. I was told to stay out of it.
Then Mom leaned toward the photograph and touched a window on the second floor.
"That room," she said. "He used to make phone calls there."
"To whom?" Beth asked.
May you like
Mom looked at me, suddenly frightened again.
"He told someone he could get the second child whenever he wanted."
