Chapter 10 - The Price of Pride
Andre called the police.
Not because a crime had clearly been committed against Jordan.
A duplicate key and an unsettling note were disturbing, but not necessarily illegal.
Still, attorney Laura Greene wanted documentation.
An officer took a report.
Jordan answered questions.
Rachel photographed the envelope.
Andre said Calvin’s name aloud.
That hurt more than he expected.
Afterward, the officer advised them to document any further contact and consider having their attorney send a written demand that Calvin communicate only through counsel regarding company matters.
When the front door closed, Andre sat on the stairs.
Jordan had never seen his father look old.
Not tired.
Old.
“Dad?”
Andre stared at his hands.
“When Calvin was thirteen, our mother left.”
Jordan sat beside him.
Rachel remained near the doorway.
Andre continued.
“Not my mother. His. Dad had remarried after my parents divorced. Calvin’s mom disappeared with some guy. Hardly called.”
Jordan listened.
“I was nineteen. I moved back home for a year because Calvin stopped going to school.”
Rachel had heard parts of the story before.
Never like this.
“I cooked. Drove him to basketball. Went to parent conferences even though I wasn’t his parent.”
Andre laughed sadly.
“Dad worked sixty hours a week.”
Jordan said, “So you raised him.”
“For a while.”
Andre looked toward the kitchen.
“I think somewhere in my head, he stayed thirteen.”
Rachel sat on Andre’s other side.
“That explains why you protect him.”
“It doesn’t excuse it.”
“No.”
Andre nodded.
“No.”
The next day Dana found the first major break.
The $96,000 equipment lease had been deposited into the company operating account.
Within forty-eight hours, $88,000 was transferred to Northline Procurement.
Northline sent $80,000 to CH Development.
Calvin’s company.
Andre stared at the flow chart.
“Why would he make it this obvious?”
Dana answered, “Because nobody was looking.”
Rachel watched Andre.
He looked physically ill.
Dana continued.
“The transactions were spaced across separate systems. Your operating bank saw a vendor payment. The lender saw an equipment lease. Your accountant received summarized records prepared by Calvin’s department.”
“And I signed the annual reports.”
“Yes.”
Andre lowered his head.
Rachel touched his arm.
He pulled away.
Not from her.
From himself.
“This is my fault.”
“No,” Rachel said.
“I didn’t steal.”
“That matters.”
“I signed things I didn’t read carefully enough.”
“That also matters.”
Andre nodded.
Dana appreciated Rachel’s distinction.
“Both statements can be true.”
They still needed more evidence before accusing Calvin of fraud.
Some transfers could theoretically have explanations.
CH Development might have legitimately supplied services.
So Laura sent Calvin a formal preservation letter and requested records.
His attorney responded two hours later.
Calvin denied misconduct.
He also made an allegation.
Andre had allegedly authorized the transfers verbally.
Andre read the letter twice.
“He’s saying I knew.”
Rachel’s stomach dropped.
Dana asked, “Did you?”
“No.”
“Could there be recordings, emails, texts that look ambiguous?”
Andre thought.
Calvin often sent quick messages.
Need approval for vendor move.
Andre sometimes replied:
Fine.
Or:
Do what you need.
His face changed.
Dana saw it.
“That’s the price of informal management.”
Andre stood.
“The price of trusting family.”
“No,” Dana said. “Those are different things.”
Andre looked at her.
She tapped the records.
“You can love family and still require controls.”
Rachel absorbed that sentence too.
That night Andre returned Jordan’s phone after reviewing the recent contacts with him.
Gaming remained off-limits.
Jordan did homework in the dining room.
Andre sat across from him reviewing bank statements.
Rachel worked beside them.
Nobody spoke much.
Yet for the first time in weeks, they occupied the same table without hiding what they were doing.
At ten, Jordan packed his school bag.
Then he hesitated.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“If Uncle Calvin did this... are you going to have him arrested?”
Andre leaned back.
“That’s not my decision.”
“You could choose not to report him.”
Rachel looked at Andre.
Jordan continued.
“Would you?”
Andre thought about thirteen-year-old Calvin.
Then the $74,000 he had taken from family savings.
Rachel sleeping in the guest room.
Jordan crouched behind a filing cabinet while Calvin entered the warehouse.
The anonymous note.
“No.”
Jordan studied him.
Andre’s voice was quiet.
“Protecting someone from consequences isn’t always love.”
Rachel looked at her husband.
Andre met her eyes.
He knew the sentence applied to more than Calvin.
It applied to Jordan.
To himself.
To the entire family.
Then Dana called.
“I found another account.”
Andre put the phone on speaker.
“What account?”
“An old company reserve account.”
“What about it?”
“It was closed three years ago.”
Andre frowned.
“So?”
Dana’s voice became grim.
“According to the ledger, it should have contained four hundred and nineteen thousand dollars.”
Nobody spoke.
Andre looked at the handwritten number on the default notice.
His father’s old employee number.
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It had not been a random note.
It had been a clue.
