Chapter 4 - THE LLC
The company was called Northcrest Solutions.
Generic enough to disappear into any stack of invoices.
Rachel pulled the state records.
Registered agent: Daniel Vale.
Corinne’s older brother.
Created six weeks before Laura sold the consultancy.
Dissolved eight months later.
Payments from Laura’s company to Northcrest totaled $482,600.
Close enough to the amount Laura believed was missing that nobody in the room needed the arithmetic explained.
“What did Northcrest do?” I asked.
Corinne folded her arms.
“Vendor consolidation.”
“What does that mean?”
“It coordinated outsourced operations.”
“Who owned it?”
“My brother.”
“Did you have any financial interest?”
“No.”
Rachel looked at her.
“We’ll verify that.”
Corinne gave a thin smile.
“Go ahead.”
Confidence.
That worried me more than fear.
We did verify it.
At least partly.
Northcrest’s corporate filings named only Daniel Vale.
Bank records would require legal process.
But Laura had preserved invoices.
That became our first meaningful payoff.
Northcrest billed for software migration, vendor reconciliation, and transition support during the sale.
Several invoices appeared legitimate.
Others didn’t.
One listed 1,200 consulting hours in a month.
Impossible for a company with one listed employee.
Another billed for a server conversion completed by an entirely different firm.
Laura had circled those entries in red.
Beside them:
C approved all of these.
C.
Corinne.
I looked at her.
She didn’t blink.
“You’re assuming.”
“I’m reading Laura’s handwriting.”
“She hated me.”
“She trusted you enough to make you operations manager.”
“And then blamed me when her sale accounting got messy.”
That was possible.
I forced myself to remember that.
Documents raised questions.
They did not answer every one.
Rachel found a second file behind the affidavit.
An email chain.
Laura to Corinne:
I asked Daniel directly. He says you told him the invoices were authorized.
Corinne to Laura:
Stop involving my family.
Laura:
Then explain the transfers.
Corinne:
You’ll regret turning this into something bigger than it is.
I stared at those words.
Rachel did too.
Threat?
Maybe.
Could also be angry language in a business dispute.
Still, eleven days later Laura prepared a protective filing.
Then died.
The sequence mattered.
Corinne stood.
“I’m done.”
“You’re not leaving.”
Her head snapped toward me.
“Excuse me?”
“Your belongings can be collected with Anna present. You’re not staying here tonight.”
“This is my house too.”
“It’s mine.”
Her eyes narrowed.
We had signed a prenup.
The mansion was mine before our marriage.
Corinne knew that.
“You’re throwing me out over paperwork from a dead woman?”
I looked toward the stairs.
“No. I’m asking you to leave because Maisie is afraid of you.”
That landed harder.
“You’re taking the word of a baby?”
“I’m taking the bruise on her arm.”
Corinne’s face changed.
For one second, the polished woman disappeared.
“You have no idea what that child is like when you’re gone.”
I stepped closer.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“She screams. She throws things. She—”
“She’s fourteen months old.”
Corinne stopped.
There was nothing she could say after that without exposing herself further.
Anna supervised while Corinne packed.
I watched through the security system.
Before leaving, Corinne paused at the locked cabinet.
Just one second.
Then walked away.
At 9:17 that night, Rachel called.
She had found the old sale escrow attorney.
He remembered Northcrest.
More importantly, he remembered Laura demanding a forensic review.
“What happened?”
“She canceled it.”
“Why?”
“He said someone gave her documents showing the discrepancy had been corrected.”
“Was it?”
Rachel paused.
“No.”
Laura had been convinced to stop looking.
May you like
And someone had given her false reassurance.
📖 Northcrest tied Corinne directly to suspicious payments, but Laura once stopped investigating after receiving documents that now appear false—meaning somebody had already succeeded at redirecting her before she died. 👇
