Chapter 4 - Claire Left A Folder Behind
I remembered Claire’s spare key.
She had one to my house.
Or she had until midnight, when the locksmith replaced every lock.
Police asked whether she might have left anything inside.
I wanted to say no.
Then I remembered the guest room.
Claire had stayed with us three weeks earlier after a pipe burst in her condo.
I opened the closet.
Behind a suitcase was a blue accordion folder.
Claire’s handwriting covered the tab.
EVELYN — IF TOM LIES.
Evelyn was me.
Inside were copies of investment statements.
Thomas’s consulting company.
Payments from Mar Azul Holdings.
Transfers through shell companies in Ohio, Florida, and Mexico.
At first I thought Thomas had been hiding money from me.
Then I saw Claire’s notes.
She had been tracing the payments.
Not receiving them.
One page read:
Tom says someone used his credentials.
Do not tell Evelyn until I know whether he’s lying.
My anger changed shape.
Claire had hidden something from me.
That remained true.
But perhaps not an affair.
Another document showed a $120,000 payment into Thomas’s consulting account six months earlier.
Thomas had reported it as a project fee.
Claire circled it.
Beside the amount she wrote:
CLIENT DOES NOT EXIST.
Marcus looked at me.
“Mrs. Bennett, when did your husband begin consulting independently?”
“About a year ago.”
That was also when he became secretive.
Late calls.
Locked office.
Weekend travel.
I had interpreted it as distance.
May you like
Maybe some of it was.
But now the police were looking at my marriage as a financial crime scene.
