Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN ON THE PAPER
Suarez waited until the vehicles had left.
Then he closed my front door.
“Did she threaten you?”
“She told me to ask about the third signature.”
He looked toward the dining table.
Two plates.
Two glasses.
A welcome-home dinner arranged around a marriage that no longer existed.
“Sit down, Elena.”
“I’d rather stand.”
“Then stand. But listen carefully.”
He took a document from his folder.
I recognized the format before I saw the signature.
A consulting agreement.
My name appeared at the bottom.
Above it was a company I had never worked for.
Meridian Advisory Services.
“This surfaced during yesterday’s records review,” he said.
“How much?”
“Four hundred eighty thousand dollars.”
I gripped the back of a chair.
Payments described as consulting fees had passed through an account opened under that company’s name.
I was listed as its authorized financial adviser.
“I didn’t sign that.”
“We’re examining it.”
“That isn’t the same as believing me.”
“No,” Suarez said. “It’s the same as doing this properly.”
I hated him for a second.
Then I respected him for it.
He asked whether Marco had copies of my identification.
“Of course.”
Tax records?
“Yes.”
Professional license?
I looked away.
Two years earlier, Marco had called at midnight.
He needed my credentials for a housing application, he said.
A spouse with a stable profession would help him qualify.
I had scanned everything before breakfast.
Suarez wrote it down.
“Don’t delete anything. Don’t contact anyone connected to the accounts. Find yourself a lawyer.”
“Am I a suspect?”
“You’re a complainant whose identity appears in relevant documents. That creates questions we have to answer.”
After he left, I stood in the kitchen and listened to the refrigerator hum.
My phone rang.
My mother-in-law.
I let it ring.
Then came a message.
WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY SON?
Another.
HE SAYS YOU HANDLED THE MONEY.
I sat down.
For three years, Marco had trusted me to send money.
Now he was trusting strangers to believe I had stolen it.
I called Nina Reyes, an attorney I knew through work.
She listened without interrupting.
When I finished, she said, “Don’t explain yourself to his family.”
“I have proof.”
“Good. Save it for people who have to care.”
An email arrived while we were talking.
From my employer.
Subject: Administrative Leave Pending Review.
Attached was an anonymous complaint.
May you like
The first line read:
Elena Valderama designed the payment structure herself.
