Chapter 16 - The Truth on the Tape
Lena finally agreed to speak to Agent Harris in a secure setting.
She did not want publicity, and I respected that.
With her permission, investigators shared a limited account of what her testimony meant for the property case.
Lena said she had discovered dangerous warehouse practices and financial discrepancies while working for Carter Tidewater.
She reported her concerns to Grandpa, who encouraged her to retain copies.
Price had threatened her and attempted to retrieve the records.
My father knew of the threats but initially chose to protect the business rather than report them.
That decision exposed Lena to danger and allowed the misconduct to continue.
Grandpa later arranged for Lena to move to a safer location.
On the night of the fire, she had already left the warehouse.
Lena did not know who ignited it.
She would not pretend otherwise.
But she possessed a recording of Price discussing a plan to destroy selected records while preserving inventory that could be moved and resold.
The audio did not conclusively establish responsibility for the fire.
It did justify further investigation.
The investigators told us that multiple people were now cooperating.
Dad was among them.
He had admitted authorizing false entries and accepting improper transfers after the fire.
He also admitted his testimony about paying the farmhouse taxes was false.
When Rebecca told me, I sat motionless for a minute.
I had waited most of my life to hear my father admit he was wrong.
Now the admission felt small compared with the years he had stolen.
At the next hearing, Rebecca submitted a stipulation from Dad's counsel conceding I had paid the farm's documented taxes.
Harbor Crest continued to fight the trust's restrictions, claiming it had acted without knowledge of the dispute.
Then Harris called with another discovery.
Technicians had recovered deleted files from the barn laptop.
One described a transaction planned for the day after Grandpa's death.
The transaction redirected trust income toward a company controlled by Price.
Dad had authorized the transfer.
But a later amendment increased Price's share.
That amendment bore my mother's signature.
She had not merely followed Dad's orders.
At some point she had negotiated terms of her own.
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And the signature dated from two years after she claimed she had learned of the fraud.
