RICHARD: "Yes."
ISABELLA: "But I wasn't."
RICHARD: "Not according to the correspondence we have so far."
She turned the page.
A record of an attempted notification appeared in the file. It had been marked as completed, but there was no evidence that the letter had actually been delivered.
ISABELLA: "Where was this sent?"
Richard pointed to the address.
It was the Montgomery estate.
ISABELLA: "I wasn't living there."
RICHARD: "The address had not been updated in the estate records."
ISABELLA: "They knew where I lived."
Richard nodded.
RICHARD: "There are messages showing that you had provided your current contact details."
Isabella looked at the date.
The notification had been prepared several months after she had moved into her own accommodation. It should have been sent to her directly.
Instead, it had been marked as delivered to an address where she no longer lived.
ISABELLA: "Who marked it as completed?"
Richard examined the bottom of the page.
RICHARD: "The initials belong to the administrative office. We will need the employee records to identify the person who processed it."
Isabella put the paper down.
The pattern was becoming harder to dismiss.
Someone had known where she lived. Someone had prepared a notification. Someone had recorded that it was completed, even though she had never received it.
She moved to the next folder.
The medical records contained invoices from hospitals, private care providers, and specialist appointments. Several payments matched the amounts shown in the protected fund's bank statements.
Others did not.
Richard opened a spreadsheet that had been prepared by the examiner.
RICHARD: "These are the payments we have been able to verify so far."
Isabella looked at the entries.
RICHARD: "These are the transfers that remain unexplained."
The unexplained section contained multiple transactions, some of them substantial.
ISABELLA: "Are these the payments that went to Alexander's company?"
RICHARD: "Some of them. Others went through intermediary accounts."
ISABELLA: "How much has been confirmed?"
Richard looked at the summary.
RICHARD: "The amount traced to accounts connected to Montgomery Strategic Holdings is now higher than the initial estimate."
Isabella felt her chest tighten.
ISABELLA: "How much higher?"
Richard turned the page toward her.
The figure represented more than two hundred thousand dollars in total transfers when converted from the original accounts.
Isabella stared at it.
She had expected a few questionable payments. She had not expected a sum that large.
ISABELLA: "And the money was supposed to pay for Father's care?"
RICHARD: "Part of it was. The fund also covered the maintenance and preservation of Harbor House."
ISABELLA: "What happened to the money after it reached the company?"
RICHARD: "That is what the financial examiner is tracing."
He opened another folder.
The company records included payments to contractors, transfers to other business accounts, and several transactions that appeared to have no direct connection to the property's stated purpose.
There were also payments described as management fees.
Isabella examined the names.
One of them was unfamiliar.
Another belonged to a company she remembered seeing in Alexander's promotional material.
ISABELLA: "Why would the protected fund pay this company?"
RICHARD: "We do not yet have a legitimate explanation."
ISABELLA: "Was it connected to Harbor House?"
RICHARD: "That is what we need to determine."
The conference room door opened.
A woman in her fifties entered carrying a laptop and a set of printed reports. Richard stood and introduced her as Margaret Ellis, the independent financial examiner.
MARGARET: "Admiral Montgomery, I'm sorry we are meeting under these circumstances."
ISABELLA: "Thank you for reviewing the records."
MARGARET: "I have reviewed the initial statements. There are several areas that require further examination, particularly the transactions involving the family business."
She sat down and opened her laptop.
MARGARET: "I want to be clear that a transfer appearing unusual does not automatically establish wrongdoing. We need to identify the original source, the receiving account, the stated purpose, and whether the relevant authorization existed."
Isabella nodded.
MARGARET: "However, there are inconsistencies between the protected fund's stated purpose and several of the payments made from it."
She displayed a transaction timeline.
MARGARET: "The first group of transfers appears to have been made for legitimate expenses. The second group is more difficult to explain. Several payments were processed under broad administrative descriptions, but the supporting invoices do not match the amounts."
ISABELLA: "And the money sent to Montgomery Strategic Holdings?"
MARGARET: "Those transactions require particular attention. The receiving company recorded them as investment advances, but the corresponding agreements are incomplete."
RICHARD: "Do we know whether any repayments were made?"
MARGARET: "We have identified a small number of transfers back to related accounts. However, those payments do not appear to repay the original advances in full."
Isabella leaned forward.
ISABELLA: "Could the money have been moved through several accounts to make it harder to trace?"
Margaret looked at the transaction map.
MARGARET: "That is one possibility we are examining. The funds moved through more than one account, and some transactions were made within short periods of time."
Richard pointed to a group of entries.