Chapter 10 - The Second Account
The second account was held at a credit union in Maryland and funded through a series of transfers disguised as refunds.
Its statements pointed to a remarkable split in the family conspiracy.
Evan had diverted money into his company.
Gloria had diverted different money into her personal account.
Neither appeared to trust the other.
Rebecca warned that we still lacked complete records and that assumptions could poison a case as effectively as lies.
We documented the deposits without declaring them stolen until we knew their source.
I went back to work for a scheduled briefing and discovered how strangely ordinary the world remained.
Ships still needed maintenance.
Young officers still needed guidance.
A storm front still mattered more to a sailor on watch than my family disaster.
I performed my duties, delegated what I could lawfully delegate, and returned to the hospital after sunset.
Dad had been reading the old letters from storage.
They were the letters he'd written me and never mailed.
One began, Claire, I heard about your promotion and wished I could have been there.
Another asked whether I still loved the family.
I told him he should have sent them.
"Your mother said the Navy wouldn't deliver them," he replied.
I shook my head.
"They would have found me."
He gave a small, exhausted smile.
"I know that now."
For the first time in years, we spoke about the childhood before everything became a struggle over his illness.
He remembered teaching me to swim at five.
I remembered him staying awake all night while I studied for the academy entrance tests.
We had lost enough time to fill an ocean.
Near midnight Rebecca called with the most troubling account detail yet.
The second account had recently paid the premium on a large life insurance policy.
The insured person was my father.
The beneficiary was Gloria.
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And someone had requested an accelerated medical review immediately before the gala.
