Chapter 7 - DENVER
“Tell me everything.”
We sat at my kitchen table until three in the morning.
Natalie told me about Denver.
She and Ryan had bought a small rental property eight years earlier.
When their marriage began falling apart, Ryan convinced her to sell.
He said they needed cash to clear debts.
The property sold for nearly half a million dollars.
After taxes and the remaining mortgage, there was about $420,000.
Ryan transferred it into an account Natalie believed belonged to their marital estate.
It didn’t.
“Why didn’t you check?”
I regretted the question as soon as I asked it.
Her eyes narrowed.
“Why didn’t you check your home equity account?”
Fair.
I looked away.
“That was cheap.”
“No,” she said. “It was accurate.”
Silence stretched between us.
Then she softened.
“That’s how men like Ryan survive. They don’t depend on stupidity. They depend on trust.”
That sentence stayed with me.
The next morning, Detective Harris returned.
Ryan had been arrested for violating the protection order, unlawful entry and suspected evidence tampering.
The passport was recovered.
So was a flash drive hidden in his jacket.
“What was on it?”
“Encrypted.”
“Can you get into it?”
“We’re trying.”
Monica arrived with worse news.
Ryan’s attorney had filed a motion claiming I had knowingly participated in the home equity loan.
“What?”
“He says you signed the documents.”
“I didn’t.”
“He also claims the money was used for marital expenses.”
“What marital expenses cost a hundred eighty thousand dollars?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
I felt like screaming.
Monica continued.
“There’s something else.”
I laughed once.
“Of course there is.”
“Ryan claims you knew Natalie was still legally married to him.”
I stared at her.
“That doesn’t even make sense.”
“It doesn’t need to make sense yet. It needs to create doubt.”
Natalie leaned forward.
“So he’s blaming Claire.”
“He’s blaming everybody.”
That afternoon, the bank gave investigators records showing where the money had gone.
Most of it flowed into Cole Development Group.
Megan’s money had gone there too.
Then the company sent payments to a second business.
Northstar Consulting.
Who owned Northstar?
A man named Daniel Reed.
Ryan’s college roommate.
Detective Harris found him in Arizona.
He agreed to talk.
By evening, we were on a video call.
Daniel looked exhausted.
“When did you last speak to Ryan?” Harris asked.
“Two days ago.”
“What did he say?”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“He told me everything was falling apart.”
“What does Northstar Consulting do?”
“Nothing.”
My skin prickled.
Harris leaned closer.
“Explain.”
“It’s a shell.”
“Who created it?”
“Ryan.”
“Why is your name on it?”
“Because I’m an idiot.”
That was becoming a theme.
Daniel admitted Ryan had paid him to move money through business accounts.
“How much?”
“Maybe six hundred thousand over three years.”
Natalie made a choking sound.
Harris asked, “Where did it go?”
“Some overseas.”
“Where?”
“Cayman accounts. Mexico. I don’t know all of it.”
“Why didn’t you report him?”
Daniel looked directly into the camera.
“Because he told me the money belonged to his wife.”
Natalie said, “Which wife?”
Daniel went pale.
May you like
Then he said something none of us expected.
“He told me his wife was dead.”
