Chapter 16 - Four Minutes to Stop a Million Dollars
The note changed everything. Naomi found the old authorization in archived board records: a limited emergency-spending delegation signed two years earlier, valid for storm shelter supplies and nothing else. It had expired. Maren had attached a scan of it to the Westvale transaction as if it still gave her unrestricted power.
"An old signature doesn't become new permission because somebody copies it," Naomi said.
She worked through the night preparing an emergency petition. By morning, she had statements from three unpaid contractors, the forged resolution, Westvale's registration records, and the bank's scheduled-payment notice. Detective Brooks supplied a sworn statement about the assault investigation and the missing footage.
At two forty-five, a judge heard the request by video. I testified from the hospital with Dean beside me. Maren's attorney argued the transfers were legitimate business decisions and that Laurel Mercer was retaliating against her husband's family.
"You are saying this is personal," the judge said to him. "But the petition includes thirty-one families waiting for repairs. Where is the independent accounting?"
The attorney had no independent accounting.
The judge issued a temporary order preserving the disputed funds while the matter could be examined more fully. Naomi sent the signed order to the bank's legal department immediately.
At three fifty-six, we still had no confirmation.
"They're processing it," Naomi said over speakerphone.
At three fifty-eight, my stomach twisted so badly I thought my stitches might tear. I watched the minute change on the wall clock.
Then the bank called. The scheduled transfer had been stopped. Approximately $1.2 million remained frozen while investigators traced the earlier withdrawals.
Dean put both hands over his face.
I was too exhausted to cheer. I kept thinking about Mrs. Alvarez, still in the motel room with her grandson's breathing medicine beside the bed.
"What about the rest?" I asked.
Naomi hesitated. "More than half a million was already spent. We may recover it, but not today."
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Then her phone rang again. The caller was Detective Brooks.
"Laurel," she said, "Jonah Pike has agreed to speak. He told us who ordered him to take your phone. But he also says the attack wasn't something Maren decided in the moment."
