Chapter 9 - The Man at the Bank
Walter Briggs had managed my mother's trust for eleven years.
He attended her funeral.
He sent flowers when Owen was born.
He knew exactly when the firstborn clause activated.
That meant he had known the money existed long before Melissa did.
David dug into old bank records.
Four months before Owen turned ten, Walter contacted Grant.
Not the other way around.
Walter had been moving small amounts out of dormant trust subaccounts for years.
Never enough to trigger review.
Owen's tenth birthday activated an automatic audit.
Walter needed the primary beneficiary removed before the audit started.
Grant needed money.
Melissa had access to my house.
I stared at the transaction list.
"How much did Walter take?"
"At least nine hundred thousand."
"And Grant?"
"About two hundred fifty thousand in consulting payments."
I looked at Melissa.
"How much did you get?"
"Nothing."
David slid over a bank statement.
Bellweather Family Management had paid her forty thousand dollars.
She went quiet.
"Nothing?"
"It was for expenses."
"What expenses?"
"Lawyers."
"To remove my son?"
Her eyes filled.
I was done listening.
That afternoon, police arrested Walter at the bank.
Grant was still missing.
Then my phone rang.
Owen's school.
My heart stopped before I answered.
"Mr. Bennett, Owen is safe," the principal said quickly. "But a man tried to sign him out."
"Who?"
"He presented identification for Grant Keller."
I was already grabbing my keys.
"He isn't authorized."
"We know. Your alert came through this morning."
"What happened?"
"He left when our security officer asked him to wait."
The school sent me exterior camera footage.
The man was not Grant.
Same height.
Same dark hair.
But not Grant.
David enlarged the image.
I knew that face too.
It was Peter Sloan.
Walter Briggs's assistant.
The person who had handled every annual trust statement my family received.
May you like
Then David pointed at the passenger seat of Peter's car.
A blue leather notebook sat beside him.
