Chapter 11: The Woman Who Lost Everything Twice
Patricia Wells arrived at Rebecca's office the following morning carrying a canvas bag, a thick folder, and the expression of someone who had spent too many nights expecting another disaster.
She was in her early fifties, with short silver-streaked hair and a dark blue coat that looked too warm for the weather.
The investigator had arranged the meeting after learning that her identity appeared on Meridian Project Consulting, the company that had received money from the account registered under my name.
Rebecca introduced us.
Patricia sat down slowly.
“I wish I could tell you I was surprised,” she said.
“But I'm not.””
“You've heard about the company?”” I asked.
“Only yesterday. The investigator called and asked whether I'd registered it. I told him no.””
She unzipped her bag and removed a folder.
“After Derrick cost me most of my retirement savings, I started keeping copies of everything. Every email. Every statement. Every promise he made.””
She spread the papers across the table.
The first document was a brokerage statement.
The second was a series of emails.
The third was a company registration form bearing Patricia's name.
I leaned forward.
“Is that your signature?””
“No.””
She pointed to the bottom of the page.
“My real signature has a long line under the surname. This one doesn't.””
Rebecca examined it.
“Did you ever authorize Derrick to register a company for you?””
“No. I authorized him to review my investment portfolio. That's all.””
“Did you provide him with identification documents?””
Patricia nodded.
“I sent a copy of my driver's license and a tax statement when he said he needed them to assess my eligibility for a private investment.””
My stomach tightened.
The same explanation he'd given Vanessa.
The same documents he'd used against me.
Patricia watched my expression.
“He told you that, too?””
“Yes.””
She leaned back.
“Then he was using the same playbook.””
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then Patricia opened the folder to a page marked with a yellow tab.
“There's something else. About a year ago, Derrick promised that if I invested another forty thousand dollars, he could recover the money I'd already lost.””
I frowned.
“You invested more?””
“I did.””
Her voice was flat.
“My husband had died two years earlier. I had a retirement account, a small life insurance payout, and a house I'd nearly finished paying off. Derrick said I could generate enough income to stop working full-time.””
She looked down at her hands.
“He showed me spreadsheets. He showed me charts. He told me he'd identified a temporary market inefficiency that could produce a substantial return.””
“What happened?””
“The first statements looked good. Then he said the positions needed more time. Then he said the brokerage was restructuring. Eventually, he stopped providing full statements.””
I remembered Vanessa's words.
The accounts were being audited.
Patricia continued.
“When I asked for my money, he told me I'd triggered an early withdrawal penalty. He said I'd lose even more if I complained to regulators.””
“Did you believe him?””
“I wanted to.””
She gave a small, bitter smile.
“It's embarrassing to admit that. I thought I was being careful. I asked questions.
I read the documents. I checked the numbers. But I trusted him because he always had an explanation ready.””
I looked at the pages scattered across the table.
“He used that trust to keep you invested.””
“Yes. And when I stopped sending money, he offered to help me recover the losses through a consulting company.””
“Meridian?””
She nodded.
“He said it was a new structure designed to protect clients from market volatility. I refused to sign anything. A few weeks later, I started receiving letters about a company I'd supposedly established.””
Rebecca wrote something down.
“Did those letters mention any debt or financial obligations?””
“Not at first. They were mostly notices about registration and tax reporting. Then I received a letter from a vendor claiming that Meridian owed money for consulting services.””
My chest tightened.
“What kind of services?””
“Financial analysis and account management. The invoice was for nearly twenty thousand dollars.””
“Did you hire them?””
“No.””
“Did you pay?””
“No. I disputed the invoice.””
Rebecca asked for copies.
Patricia slid them across the table.
The vendor's name was Northstar Asset Recovery.
I stared at the page.
The same company connected to Derrick's scheme.
The invoice listed Meridian as the client and Northstar as the service provider. It described account reconciliation, asset recovery, and financial restructuring.
The amount was $19,850.
At the bottom was a signature authorizing the services.
Patricia's name.
Again, it wasn't hers.
Rebecca examined the invoice.
“This may help establish how these companies were used, but we need the underlying contracts and transaction records.””
Patricia nodded.
“I have more.””
She removed a USB drive from her bag and placed it on the table.
“Derrick sent me a financial model last year. He said it explained how the recovery program worked. I kept it because I thought it might help my lawyer.””
Rebecca didn't plug it into her computer.
Instead, she photographed the device and asked the investigator to arrange a secure examination.
“What does the model show?”” I asked.
“Transfers between companies,” Patricia replied.
“At first, I thought they were projected transactions. Then I noticed the figures matched amounts that had appeared in my statements.””
She opened a printed page.
Several columns listed company names, transfer dates, amounts, and projected distributions.
Hall Capital Strategies.
Northstar Asset Recovery.
Meridian Project Consulting.
Marcus Bennett Holdings.
I felt sick.
Our names appeared in a neat sequence.
Patricia's company was listed as an intermediary. Mine appeared two rows later.
A transfer of $43,500 was recorded between the two.
The transaction date matched the bank's preliminary records.
I pointed to the next column.
“What does this abbreviation mean?””
“Recovery allocation,” Patricia said.
“That's what Derrick called it.””
Rebecca studied the document.
“We'll need an accountant or forensic examiner to interpret the model. We shouldn't assume these figures represent completed transactions simply because they're listed here.””
“Of course,” Patricia replied.
“But there's a reason I kept this.””
She turned to the last page.
At the bottom was a handwritten note.
*If an account is challenged, move the balance through the next registered entity before the review completes.*
No one spoke.
Rebecca took a photograph.
“Do you recognize the handwriting?””
Patricia nodded.
“Derrick wrote it on a printout during one of our meetings. He told me it was a standard procedure for separating operating funds from investment capital.””
I felt my jaw tighten.
“He knew the accounts were going to be challenged.””
“He anticipated questions,” Rebecca said.
“Whether that note proves he intended to evade an investigation will depend on the context and the other evidence.””
Patricia looked at me.
“I'm sorry your name is in there.””
“You didn't put it there.””
“Neither did I put my own name on Meridian.””
She said it without bitterness.
That somehow made it worse.
We spent another hour reviewing her documents. Patricia identified several emails in which Derrick had promised to recover her losses, and Rebecca arranged for the investigator to obtain the originals.
Before Patricia left, she turned toward me.
“There's one thing you should know about Derrick.””
“What?””
“He doesn't always take the money directly. Sometimes he leaves just enough in an account to make it look legitimate.””
I thought of the $4,500 left in my company's account.
“What happens to the rest?””
“From what I saw, the money gets moved through another entity. The paperwork makes it look like a fee, a consulting payment, or a loan repayment.””
“Can you prove that?””
“I can show you the transactions that happened in my accounts. The investigators will have to trace the rest.””
She stood and put on her coat.
“I know what you're thinking,” she added.
“You're wondering whether any of the money can be recovered.””
I nodded.
“I've wondered the same thing every day for a year,” she said.
“I can't promise you'll get it back. But you need to stop thinking of this as one missing account. It's a chain of transactions. Every link matters.””
After she left, Rebecca contacted the investigator and requested a coordinated review of the company registrations, invoices, and transfer records.
By early afternoon, we'd established several new leads.
The company registered in my name had received funds from Hall Capital Strategies.
It had transferred a substantial amount to Meridian.
Meridian had been billed by Northstar.
Patricia denied authorizing Meridian's registration or its transactions.
And the same device appeared in the electronic filing records for both our companies.
The pattern was becoming harder to dismiss as a series of unrelated administrative mistakes.
At 2:48 p.m., the investigator called.
“The bank has confirmed that the $43,500 transfer from Marcus Bennett Holdings to Meridian was processed through an account opened using electronic identification verification.””
“Whose identity was verified?””
“Patricia's identity documents were submitted. However, the verification process did not establish that Patricia personally completed the application.””
“Can you trace the login?””
“We have a preliminary device identifier. We're comparing it with records from the other accounts.””
I glanced at Rebecca.
“Is it Derrick's device?””
“We're not making that attribution yet. The device appears in multiple submissions, but ownership and actual use must be established.””
I understood.
Every time we found a connection, there was another question waiting behind it.
At 4:10 p.m., Patricia called me directly.
“I found something else in the email archive.””
“What is it?””
“A message from Derrick sent the day before Meridian was registered.””
She read it aloud.
“'Once the new entity is active, the previous losses can be classified as operational expenses. The clients won't see the underlying transfers unless someone requests a complete ledger.''”
I felt my stomach tighten.
“Did you reply?””
“No. I never saw it until I searched the archive this afternoon.””
“Send it to Rebecca.””
“I will.””
Before hanging up, Patricia hesitated.
“Marcus, there was another person Derrick mentioned during our meetings. Someone who helped him prepare the company paperwork.””
“Who?””
“An accountant. I never met him personally, but Derrick called him Peter.””
I looked at Rebecca.
“Do we know anyone named Peter connected to the accounts?””
She shook her head.
I asked Patricia for the exact wording of the emails and whether she'd kept any attachments.
She promised to send everything.
At 5:02 p.m., Rebecca received the archived message and its attachment.
The file was a spreadsheet titled Entity Setup Schedule.
It listed dates for company formation, account activation, and planned transfers.
Beside Marcus Bennett Holdings was the date of my business trip.
Beside Meridian Project Consulting was Patricia's home address.
At the bottom of the sheet, someone had typed a note:
**Primary contact: P. Wells. Secondary authorization: M.
Bennett. Supporting witness: E. Cole.**
Ethan.
My stomach dropped.
The document suggested that his role extended beyond processing a questionable guarantee.
But before Rebecca could forward it to the investigator, another message arrived from Patricia.
*I found Peter's full name in the original email. It's Peter Lang, the accountant who prepared my tax return two years ago.*
Rebecca looked up.
“Did Derrick have access to your tax records, Patricia?””
“Yes,” she replied when Rebecca called her.
“I sent him the returns when he asked for the investment assessment.””
I stared at the schedule.
An accountant.
Tax returns.
Company registrations.
Electronic authorizations.
Every piece seemed to lead to another person who'd handled our private information.
Then Rebecca noticed the final column.
It contained a list of future transfers.
The first two had already occurred.
The third was scheduled for the following Monday.
May you like
The receiving account belonged to a company none of us recognized.
And the amount listed beside it was $112,000.
