Chapter 10 - The Box
The safe deposit box belonged to the trust.
That was the first good news.
The second was that First Federal Commercial Bank still had access logs.
The bad news was everything else.
Leah obtained the records Monday afternoon.
Darrell had entered the box once.
March 7.
Tamika had entered with him.
Jada stared at the authorization sheet.
“She went too.”
Renee looked furious.
“Of course she did.”
Tamika came to Leah’s office again.
This time nobody had to ask her to bring the truth.
It was already waiting on the table.
“Why were you in the box?”
Tamika looked at the access record.
“Darrell wanted to see whether there were additional assets.”
Jada stared.
“Additional assets?”
“He said if the trust had investments, we could use them as temporary collateral.”
“We?”
Tamika closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“No. What was in the box?”
“The original trust agreement. Grandpa’s property documents. Some old savings bonds.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
Renee leaned forward.
“Daddy had municipal bonds.”
Tamika nodded.
“Those.”
“Were they still there when you opened it?”
“Yes.”
“Are they there now?”
“I don’t know.”
Leah stood.
“We are going to find out.”
They drove to the bank together.
Jada had imagined safe deposit rooms as something from old movies.
Dark vaults.
Heavy doors.
Men in suits whispering about diamonds.
The actual room had fluorescent lights and beige walls.
A bank officer named Mr. Greene verified the trust documents and Leah’s authorization.
He brought the box into a private viewing room.
Renee took a breath.
“Open it.”
Jada watched Tamika.
Her mother’s hands were trembling.
Inside were folders.
Isaiah’s original trust.
A property deed from a house he had sold years earlier.
Three envelopes.
And an empty brown sleeve marked:
U.S. TREASURY SECURITIES — JADA.
Renee sat back.
“No.”
Jada stared at the empty sleeve.
“How much?”
Renee touched the handwriting.
“Daddy had twenty-five thousand in Treasury notes when he died.”
Tamika covered her mouth.
Jada looked at her.
“You told me everything was still there.”
“It was.”
“When?”
“When we came in March.”
“Then where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
Renee turned on her sister.
“Who had the key?”
“Me.”
“And?”
“Darrell knew where I kept it.”
Renee stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
“Are you serious?”
“I didn’t know he took it.”
“Stop saying you didn’t know like ignorance is innocence.”
Leah interrupted.
“Renee.”
“No.”
Renee pointed at the empty sleeve.
“She gave this man access to every lock Daddy built.”
Tamika’s face crumpled.
Jada felt something colder than anger.
“Could Darrell cash Treasury securities that belonged to the trust?”
Leah looked at the bank officer.
Mr. Greene shook his head cautiously.
“Depends on how they were registered.”
Renee lifted the sleeve.
“They were paper?”
“Possibly older notes converted or redeemed through TreasuryDirect. We need serial information.”
Leah photographed everything.
Then she found a statement tucked beneath the original trust agreement.
TREASURY DIRECT HOLDINGS SUMMARY.
Value at previous year-end: $24,870.
Jada laughed once in disbelief.
“So now it’s a hundred seventeen thousand.”
Tamika stared.
“What?”
“Ninety-two from the account. Almost twenty-five from here.”
“We don’t know that Darrell took those.”
Jada looked at her.
“Who else?”
Tamika had no answer.
Outside the bank, Jada sat on a low concrete wall.
Cars moved past.
Renee paced.
Tamika stood several feet away.
Nobody spoke to her.
After ten minutes, Tamika approached Jada.
“I’m going to leave him.”
Jada looked up.
Tamika’s voice shook.
“I should have done it before.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“You should have done a lot of things before.”
“Yes.”
Jada watched her mother cry.
“I don’t want you to do it for me.”
Tamika blinked.
“What?”
“If you leave him because I’m angry, then next month you’ll blame me.”
“I would never.”
“You already blamed my future for being available.”
Tamika flinched.
Jada continued.
“Leave because you understand what he did. Leave because you understand what you did.”
Tamika wiped her face.
“I do.”
“No.”
Jada shook her head.
“You understand the consequences. That isn’t the same thing.”
Tamika stood silently.
Renee’s phone rang.
Leah.
They had separated after the bank visit so Leah could begin tracing the Treasury records.
Renee answered.
“What?”
Her expression changed.
“What do you mean, redeemed?”
Jada stood.
Tamika went pale.
Renee listened.
“When?”
Another pause.
“To what account?”
Renee slowly looked at Tamika.
Then at Jada.
She ended the call.
“The Treasury notes were redeemed March eighth.”
Jada’s stomach dropped.
“Where did the money go?”
Renee’s voice was almost too controlled.
“A joint account.”
“Whose?”
“Tamika and Darrell’s.”
Tamika shook her head immediately.
“No.”
Renee held up the phone.
“Yes.”
Tamika looked terrified.
“I never approved that.”
Jada stared at her.
The distinction mattered.
For the first time, money had been moved without Tamika claiming she had signed.
Leah sent the account image seconds later.
The redemption amount was $24,912.64.
The authorization used Tamika’s electronic signature.
Tamika took one look.
“That isn’t mine.”
Renee laughed bitterly.
“You forged mine. Now he forged yours.”
Tamika sank onto the wall.
Jada looked at her mother.
The cruelty of it was almost symmetrical.
Tamika had violated someone else’s signature to save Darrell.
Then Darrell had violated hers to take more.
Jada should have felt vindicated.
Instead she felt exhausted.
“Call Leah.”
Renee did.
Jada stared at the number.
$24,912.64.
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Darrell had crossed another line.
And unlike the earlier withdrawals, Tamika was no longer the only person who might have committed a crime.
