Chapter 14 - The Golden Binder
The preliminary hearing for the civil suit was held on a Tuesday morning. Daniel's attorney strutted into the courtroom, dropping a massive, three-inch-thick binder onto the plaintiff’s table with a loud, theatrical thud.
Daniel sat beside him, looking immensely satisfied. As Mara and I guided Claire to our seats, Daniel leaned across the aisle.
"Your sister is finished," he whispered to me, his eyes gleaming with malice. "I have the bank records proving she took the money."
I didn't answer him. I simply sat down, opened the binder his attorney had provided to Mara in discovery, and began to flip through the pages.
Daniel had tried to prove his embezzlement theory by voluntarily attaching hundreds of pages of corporate bank statements to his civil complaint. He wanted to show the judge exactly where the $300,000 had gone missing.
I scanned the columns of numbers, my eyes flying over the debits and credits with practiced speed. Then, halfway through the second section, I saw it.
I stopped, placed my finger on a specific line item, and smiled. A genuine, bright smile.
"What is it?" Claire whispered nervously.
"He just handed us the missing account," I replied softly, showing Mara the entry.
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In his arrogant rush to frame his wife, Daniel had failed to redact the destination account numbers for the missing funds. He had attached genuine, unedited bank statements to support his entirely fabricated accusations. Those statements provided the exact routing and account numbers for the shadow entity where all of his stolen money was hiding.
Daniel had just handed the executioner his own axe.
