Chapter 5 - The Execution of the Audit
I pressed the remote button a third time.
The screen shifted to a blue financial ledger bearing the official seal of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission:
SEC FORENSIC AUDIT — FAIRCHILD CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
UNAUTHORIZED ASSET LIQUIDATION: $6,200,000
PRIMARY DEFRAUDED PARTY: MUNICIPAL PENSION TRUST (MAYOR WILLIAM VANCE)
PRIMARY EXECUTING OFFICER: MARCUS FAIRCHILD
Mayor Vance read the screen.
The silver-haired mayor stood up from his chair so fast his heavy dining seat overturned, crashing loudly against the hardwood floor. His face turned a dangerous, dark crimson color as he pointed a shaking finger straight at Marcus’s chest.
"You..." Mayor Vance rasped, his voice trembling with blinding, lethal rage. "You liquidated six million dollars of my municipal pension fund to cover your crypto losses?!"
"Mr. Mayor! Wait! I can explain!" Marcus stammered, backing away toward the sideboard, his hands raised in absolute terror. "It was a short-term liquidity bridge! The returns were coming next month! I was going to replace the funds—"
"District Attorney Reed," Mayor Vance roared, turning to the prosecutor sitting beside him. "Execute a commercial freeze on every asset in this house immediately! Call the State Police!"
District Attorney Reed pulled his cell phone from his suit jacket, dialing a three-digit extension. "Chief Vance? Send four units to the Fairchild residence in Oakridge immediately. We have active grand larceny, security fraud, and evidence tampering in progress."
Vivian let out a choked, strangled cry, her knees giving out completely as she collapsed onto the velvet carpet, clutching her pearls, weeping hysterically.
"Marcus... Marcus do something!" Vivian sobbed, reaching up toward her son. "Tell them it's a mistake!"
Marcus didn't touch his mother. He looked at me, his eyes bloodshot, wide with a pathetic, terrifying desperation.
"Claire..." Marcus whispered, stumbling toward my end of the table, his hands shaking. "Claire... please... you're my wife! You can't do this to our family! We can fix this! I'll buy you a new tea set! I'll get your mother's silver back from Chicago!"
I reached into my clutch, pulled out my platinum wedding band, and laid it flat on the white Irish linen tablecloth right beside my untouched dessert fork.
"You didn't marry a quiet scholarship girl to protect, Marcus," I said softly, every word dropping like a stone into a deep well. "You married an auditor. And your lease on this estate has just been terminated."
The heavy double oak front doors of the mansion burst open.
Four uniformed State Police officers, led by two SEC investigators, stepped into the grand foyer, their boots echoing loudly across the marble floor.
"Marcus Fairchild? Vivian Fairchild?" the lead officer announced, pulling out two blue legal folders. "You are under arrest for Grand Larceny, Securities Fraud, Conspiracy, and Evidence Tampering."
As the steel handcuffs clicked locked around Marcus’s and Vivian’s wrists, Beatrice and the remaining dinner guests scrambled out through the side terrace doors, terrified of having their names linked to the morning headlines.
May you like
Marcus wept hysterically as he was led past the overturned dining chair, while Vivian shrieked obscenities at the police officers, her burgundy silk gown dragging through the spilled wine on the carpet.
I picked up my leather handbag, walked past the shattered tea set in the sunroom, and stepped out onto the front porch into the cool, clean night air.
