Chapter 7 - EIGHT TRANSFERS
The tablet recording changed the criminal investigation, but it did not erase Thomas’s conduct.
Prosecutors verified the file’s creation time, device history, and cloud backup. They interviewed the cousins who appeared in the background.
Two claimed Robert was joking.
One said Helen often exaggerated.
Maddie refused to speak without her parents.
The recording established planning, but defense and prosecution disagreed about what Robert meant by “once he hits me.”
Miriam explained the limits.
“It supports provocation. It supports a plan to record you. It does not automatically justify kicking him.”
Thomas knew.
He also knew his parents had predicted him accurately.
That knowledge burned.
The forensic accountant traced the eight transfers.
Mark had created false supporting invoices.
Helen emailed him event names and amounts.
Robert approved them as manager of Reed Family Events.
Money then covered Maple Ridge expenses and interest on a bridge loan.
The bridge lender was Halcyon Development’s financing affiliate.
Halcyon was not merely buying the property.
It had kept Maple Ridge afloat while positioning itself to acquire the land cheaply if the family company defaulted.
Thomas asked whether Halcyon knew the invoices were false.
There was no proof yet.
Mark continued denying involvement.
Then investigators found a deleted message from Helen on his company phone.
Robert says Thomas will never review venue invoices. Use his normal signature page.
The message had been sent before the first transfer.
Mark’s lawyer contacted Miriam.
Mark wanted protection before speaking.
He admitted creating invoices and applying Thomas’s scanned signature.
He claimed Helen threatened to expose thirty-eight thousand dollars he had taken from a dormant vendor account years earlier.
Mark had repaid part of it, but the theft remained.
He helped Helen because she held proof that could end his career.
His confession explained the transfers.
It did not excuse them.
Thomas felt no satisfaction.
Mark had worked beside him for seven years. Thomas had trusted him to find errors Thomas was too busy to examine.
That failure belonged partly to Thomas.
He had confused delegation with absence.
The guardianship evaluator issued an interim report recommending that the children remain with Thomas. The report found no evidence that he abused them or failed to provide stable care.
It also noted concerns about his impulsive conduct, public confrontation, and unauthorized entry into Maple Ridge.
Helen’s petition remained active.
At school, Rebecca found the kick video playing on another child’s phone.
A boy asked whether her father hated old people.
She shoved the phone away.
The teacher sent both children to the principal.
Thomas did not accuse the school of failing her. He listened while Rebecca admitted she wanted to break the phone.
“I understand,” he said.
“That doesn’t mean I should do it?”
“No.”
“You did.”
The honesty of the question hurt.
“Yes.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Then why do I have to control myself when you didn’t?”
“Because my mistake should not become your permission.”
She did not forgive the answer immediately.
That evening, Maddie arrived at Leah’s house, where Rebecca attended a supervised cousin visit approved by the evaluator.
Maddie was seventeen, old enough to understand that deleting video files after police arrived could matter.
She handed Rebecca a folded note instead of speaking.
Rebecca gave it to Thomas.
Grandma told us to record only after you got angry. She said Grandpa needed to look helpless. She said Monday’s vote would solve everything.
Before officers could arrange a formal interview, Maddie’s parents took her phone and told police she had invented the note under pressure from Rebecca.
The family was closing around her.
But the note introduced a new connection.
The party occurred on Saturday.
The Maple Ridge sale vote was scheduled for Monday.
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Robert and Helen had not simply wanted Thomas arrested.
They needed him discredited before a specific deadline.
