They Called Me a Fraud I’ll Prove It Was a Crime novel · Chapter 3 of 3
Chapter 3: The Man Downstairs
Sadie's building, Charlestown. Owen knocks at ten at night with the pledge file and a bottle he doesn't open. They go through the page line by line. His phone rings: the board has voted to hand the claim to Hale Ridge unless she produces the original.
He knocked at ten.
Three times, even, no hurry.
I knew it was him because nobody else in that building knocks like a landlord.
I opened the door in sweatpants and a Yale sweatshirt that wasn't mine.
Owen stood in the hall with a folder under one arm and a paper bag in the other.
"Ms. Lowell."
"It's ten o'clock."
"I know what time it is."
"You live one floor down."
"I know where I live."
He held up the bag.
"I brought wine. I'm not going to drink it."
"Then why'd you bring it."
"Because my mother raised me to bring something."
I stood back and let him in.
There was a pizza box on the counter and a laptop open on the couch.
Owen looked at the laptop.
"That the trust accounts?"
"Yes."
"You've been at it since the board meeting."
"I've been at it since I got home."
He set the bag on the counter and didn't open it.
He put the folder on the coffee table.
Then he sat on the edge of the couch like a man who'd been taught not to get comfortable in other people's houses.
I sat in the chair across from him.
"Go ahead."
He opened the folder and laid the pledge flat in its sleeve.
"Sixty million dollars," he said.
"Payable from the Lowell Family Trust to Corwin Group on completion of the tower."
"Guaranteed against the trust's general account. Dated September second."
"I've read it."
"Read it again."
He pushed it across.
I picked it up.
The paper was my father's stationery, the heavy cream stock with the embossed mark in the corner.
The date box at the top said September 2.
The signature line at the bottom said Sadie Lowell.
It was my handwriting. Looped S, the tail on the y that I never learned to fix.
I put it back down.
"Line by line," Owen said.
"Fine."
"Paragraph one. The trust pledges sixty million to Corwin Group."
"In consideration of the development of the Ocean Avenue tower."
"Paragraph two. The pledge is secured against the trust's general account."
"Yes."
"Paragraph three. If the tower isn't completed by June thirtieth, the pledge is called."
"And the trust pays within thirty days."
"Paragraph four. Notice of default goes to the trust's counsel of record."
I stopped.
"Read that again."
"Notice of default goes to the trust's counsel of record."
"Who's the trust's counsel of record."
Owen turned the page over and looked at the footer.
"Hale Ridge Partners," he said.
The radiator in the corner ticked.
"He's the claimant," I said.
"He's the counsel of record on the page he's claiming on."
"I noticed."
"How long has Hale Ridge been the trust's counsel."
"I don't know."
"Find out."
"I intend to."
He went back to the page.
"Paragraph five. The pledge is executed by the signatory on behalf of the trust."
"That's me."
"Paragraph six. Witnessed by K. Vance."
"Kelsey."
"She's a witness on the page."
"She handed me the clipboard."
"She's a witness on the page," Owen said again.
He wrote something in the margin of his own notes.
We went through the rest.
Seven, eight, nine. The arbitration clause. The venue clause, Suffolk County.
The clause that said any dispute would be heard by a panel appointed by the trust's counsel.
"Every road on this page runs through Hale Ridge," Owen said.
"He wrote it."
"Somebody wrote it."
"He writes everything in navy blue ink and he presses too hard."
"You can feel it on the back."
Owen turned the page over and ran his thumb across the back.
He didn't say anything.
He didn't have to.
His phone rang.
It was on the table between us, face up, and the screen said BOARD LINE.
He answered on the third ring.
"Flaherty."
He listened for a while.
I watched his face, which is not a face that gives much.
I watched his jaw, which gives more.
"Understood," he said.
More listening.
"Friday."
More listening.
"I'll tell her."
He hung up and set the phone face down.
"Say it," I said.
"The board met at eight tonight. Emergency session, four members."
"And."
"They've voted to hand the claim to Hale Ridge."
"Hand it how."
"Pay it. The trust pays the sixty million."
"Hale Ridge takes it as the injured party and the tower gets built."
"On what grounds."
"On the grounds that your evidence is a wedding license."
"That's not evidence of anything."
"It's evidence you were at a wedding. That's what I told them."
"That's what they said back."
I stood up and walked into the kitchen.
I put my hands flat on the counter.
"Friday," I said.
"Friday."
"Friday of what."
"Friday of this week."
"That's four days."
"Three."
I turned around.
"And if I produce the original pledge page."
"Then the board holds the claim. They don't pay. They open a review."
"And if I don't."
Owen picked up his folder and stood.
"Then the trust pays sixty million out of the general account."
"The guarantees get withdrawn and the shortfall comes out of the beneficiaries."
"The teachers."
"The teachers."
He walked to the door.
He picked up the paper bag on his way past.
"You're not going to drink that," I said.
"No."
"Why'd you bring it."
"Because I didn't want to show up empty-handed to tell you your life is on a clock."
He put his hand on the door.
"Ms. Lowell."
"What."
"The original pledge page. Do you know where it is."
"No."
"Does your mother."
"I don't know."
"Then find out tonight."
He opened the door.
"Owen."
He stopped.
"Why are you doing this."
He looked at me for a second.
For that second he wasn't a risk officer.
He was a man in a doorway at ten thirty at night holding a bottle he wasn't going to open.
"Because if you did it, I want to be the one who proves it."
"And if you didn't, somebody in that building is doing it right now."
His phone rang again in his pocket.
He took it out and looked at it and didn't answer it.
It kept ringing, and then it stopped.
Then it started again.
He answered it standing in my doorway.
"Flaherty."
He listened.
His eyes came up to mine and stayed.
"Say that again," he said.
He listened.
"When."
He listened.
"Then it's already gone."
He hung up.
"Who was that," I said.
"The board's counsel."
"What did they say."
Owen put the phone in his pocket.
"Hale Ridge has filed a motion to call the pledge early."
"The board votes on it Friday."
"On what grounds."
"On the grounds that the trust is in default as of tonight."
"Default of what."
"Of the pledge's own terms. They're saying the trust already breached it in January."
"January."
"The money movement. The shortfall."
"They're saying the trust took the money out before the tower was finished."
"That's not what happened."
"Then prove it."
"I'm trying."
"With what."
I didn't have an answer.
Owen stood in the doorway with the bag in his hand.
He looked at me the way he had looked at me across the board table that morning.
"The original," he said.
"If you don't have it by Friday, the trust's guarantees are gone."
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