Chapter 3 - Account 7742
Jared called the bank from the kitchen.
Lauren paced near the door while Oscar sat with a yellow legal pad he kept beside the refrigerator.
The bank representative verified Jared’s identity and confirmed the payments had been authorized from a joint household account.
“Can you tell me the beneficiary?” Jared asked.
“I can tell you the receiving institution and the name attached to the transfer instruction.”
Lauren stopped pacing.
The representative read the name.
“North Harbor Family Services LLC.”
Oscar wrote it down.
Jared looked at Lauren. “What is that?”
“A private care-management company.”
“Website?” Oscar asked.
Lauren hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“Phone number?”
“They worked through referrals.”
Oscar nodded once. “Address?”
Silence.
Jared asked the bank representative when the transfer instruction had been created.
“June seventeenth, three years ago.”
Oscar looked up sharply.
That date was nine days after Diane Blake’s final medical bill had been paid.
Jared ended the call and searched the company name.
Nothing useful appeared. No website. No reviews. No employee page. Only an Illinois business registration with a mailing address in a downtown office tower.
Oscar took the phone and zoomed in.
“Suite 1810.”
Lauren looked toward the window.
“You know it?” Jared asked.
“No.”
Oscar did.
He had audited a client in that building twelve years earlier. Suite 1810 had been a mailbox-and-forwarding service used by hundreds of small companies.
He told Jared.
Lauren snapped, “That doesn’t prove anything.”
“No,” Oscar said. “But it tells me somebody wanted an address that looked expensive without actually being there.”
Jared searched the state filing.
The registered agent was listed as Martin Vale.
Lauren’s face changed.
This time, she could not hide it.
Jared noticed.
“Who is Martin Vale?”
“No one.”
Oscar leaned back. “People who are no one don’t make you forget how to breathe.”
Lauren grabbed her handbag.
“I’m leaving. We can talk when everyone is calmer.”
Jared stepped between her and the door.
“No. You’re going to tell me who he is.”
Lauren stared at him for a long moment.
Then she said, “Martin handled some financial matters for my mother.”
Oscar wrote that down too.
“What kind of matters?”
Lauren’s phone rang inside her bag.
She ignored it.
It rang again.
May you like
Jared saw the name on the screen before she turned it over.
MARTIN.
