Chapter 7 - Rachel’s Real Estate Deal
Rachel worked for Wynn Residential, a midsize development company based outside Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Charles Wynn was fifty-one, polished, politically connected, and known for aggressive property deals.
I had met him twice.
I never liked him.
That meant nothing.
Lots of people disliked their spouse’s boss.
What mattered were records.
The townhouse Rachel bought had originally belonged to one of Wynn Residential’s holding companies.
She purchased it below market value.
Substantially below.
Why?
Rachel called it an employee opportunity.
The paperwork suggested something else.
Wynn’s company had transferred the property after Rachel helped close several land acquisitions.
My attorney referred me to appropriate financial professionals rather than inventing a theory.
The review showed Rachel had received unusually large “performance bonuses” around the same period.
Then those bonuses flowed into the LLC.
That could have been legitimate.
Until we found one parcel acquired by Wynn Residential near Fort Liberty.
The seller was an elderly widow.
Purchase price: $310,000.
Wynn resold development rights connected to the parcel months later for much more.
Again, not automatically misconduct.
Then I saw the seller’s name.
Margaret Bell.
I knew her.
She was the widow of Sergeant First Class Thomas Bell.
A man from my unit who died three years earlier.
I remembered helping her move furniture after the funeral.
Rachel knew her too.
“What does Margaret Bell have to do with this?” I asked.
The answer came from Rachel herself.
“She was going to lose the property anyway.”
That sentence bothered me.
“Why?”
“Tax issues.”
“Did she understand what she signed?”
Rachel became defensive.
“Yes.”
My lawyer later learned Margaret had complained after the sale.
She believed Rachel had presented the transaction as part of a veteran-family assistance program affiliated with Wynn.
No such program existed.
And suddenly Rachel’s questions about military death benefits looked different.
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Maybe she hadn't been planning for my death.
Maybe she had been using what she knew about military families to make money from other people’s grief.
