Chapter 8 - The Account That Wasn't Mine
Nora changed every lock before noon.
My mother called to apologize for signing Lucas's statement, but the conversation ended badly when she insisted he must have misunderstood what was happening.
I was tired of explanations that always protected him first.
I told her Chloe's safety came before our family's comfort and ended the call.
Then Denise called with news about the bank transfers.
The money from my checking account had moved to a payment service before disappearing into an account connected to a company named Northline Advisory.
I knew the name.
Lucas had once brought home a silver coffee mug with Northline printed on its side.
He said it belonged to Elliot's consulting firm.
At the time, I'd used it to hold Chloe's colored pencils.
Now it seemed every ordinary object in my house had another meaning.
Denise advised me to report the unauthorized transfers through the bank's fraud process and preserve the documents.
She also explained that the financial issues might be connected to other matters without being proof of them.
I was beginning to learn how to live with that distinction.
At the station, Detective Reed showed me a still image from a garage security camera near our building.
It showed a dark sedan entering shortly after I'd left for the hospital.
The driver wasn't Lucas.
It was Elliot Bell.
The time mattered because Lucas had told me he was already home when he sent his first message.
If Elliot had entered the garage, someone might have been helping Lucas remove or change records.
Reed did not tell me what investigators had recovered.
She asked whether Elliot had ever been alone in the apartment with Chloe.
I thought carefully.
He'd attended parties, watched football with Lucas, and helped move furniture once.
I couldn't remember him babysitting.
But there was an afternoon in September when I'd gone downstairs to receive a grocery delivery and returned to find Elliot in our kitchen.
Lucas had introduced his surprise visit as a business discussion.
Chloe had been coloring in the living room.
The memory wasn't proof of anything.
It still made me shiver.
Two days later, our medical insurer called about a request to change Chloe's listed primary subscriber information.
The request had been made online using credentials associated with Lucas.
I gave the insurer the details of our situation and asked how to protect the records from improper changes.
The representative transferred me to a supervisor.
The supervisor read a note that made me sit upright.
“Mrs. Morgan, there's also a pending request for an itemized copy of services from the last ninety days.”
Morgan was my married name.
I'd barely heard it spoken without Lucas attached to it.
“Who made that request?”
“The request identifies your husband as the authorized parent.”
I looked at Denise across the table.
Lucas wasn't merely trying to learn what the doctor had said.
He was trying to map the medical record before I could protect it.
Denise asked the insurer to preserve the request log and follow its verification procedures.
Before hanging up, the supervisor hesitated.
“Mrs. Morgan, you should also know an address was added to the account yesterday.”
She read it aloud.
It was a suite in a commercial building near the airport.
I recognized that address too.
May you like
It was the building where Elliot kept Northline Advisory's offices.
