Chapter 8 - The Box She Needed
Diane didn't answer calls.
Police went to her house.
She wasn't there.
Her car was gone.
So was the gray archive box.
Ryan stood inside his father's old office that evening while company attorneys changed passwords and revoked every authorization carrying Diane's name.
The power of attorney she used was genuine.
That surprised us.
Ryan had signed it three years earlier when he underwent emergency surgery.
“I forgot it existed.”
His attorney studied the document.
“It should have expired after your recovery.”
“Did it?”
“No.”
One sentence made the authority indefinite.
Ryan stared at it.
“I never agreed to that.”
The attorney examined the initials beside the sentence.
“Are these yours?”
“No.”
Another alteration.
Another forgery.
By midnight, Diane's control over company systems was suspended.
But the missing records worried Samuel more than anything else.
“That box contained original ledger sheets.”
“How do you know?” Ryan asked.
“Because your father showed them to me before I left.”
“What was on them?”
Samuel looked toward me.
Then back at Ryan.
“Payments to an entity called North Pine Holdings.”
Ryan frowned.
“I've never heard of it.”
“Your father hadn't either.”
Samuel opened an old photograph on his phone.
It showed a ledger.
North Pine Holdings appeared seven times.
Ryan enlarged the image.
Beside one payment was a handwritten note from his father.
D?
Ryan whispered, “He suspected Mom.”
Samuel nodded.
The company attorney searched state records.
North Pine Holdings had been created seventeen years earlier.
The registered owner wasn't Diane.
It was a woman named Evelyn Price.
Ryan froze.
“Who is that?”
His voice sounded strange.
He already knew.
“My mother's maiden name was Price.”
The attorney continued searching.
Evelyn wasn't Diane.
Evelyn was Diane's younger sister.
Ryan looked stunned.
“I haven't seen Aunt Evelyn since I was twelve.”
“Why?”
“My mother said they had a falling-out.”
Samuel leaned back.
“Then maybe it's time you found out what the fight was about.”
It took us less than an hour to locate Evelyn.
She lived in Charleston.
Ryan called.
A woman answered after six rings.
“Hello?”
“Aunt Evelyn?”
Silence.
“It's Ryan.”
The call nearly ended.
Then Evelyn whispered, “How did you get this number?”
“I need to ask you about North Pine Holdings.”
Silence again.
Longer.
Finally, she said, “Your mother told me this day would come.”
Ryan gripped the phone.
“What is North Pine?”
Evelyn's answer stunned all of us.
“It was never my company.”
“Then whose was it?”
“Your mother's.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
Evelyn continued.
“And if she's destroying records now, she's not just protecting herself.”
“Who is she protecting?”
Evelyn took a shaky breath.
May you like
“Your father.”
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