Chapter 4
Staff interviews revealed that Garrett’s treatment of Miriam had changed months earlier.
Not dramatically.
Small things.
He stopped including her in foundation lunches.
He told assistants to route questions through him instead.
He referred to her accounting process as “old-school bookkeeping.”
He asked two junior staff members whether Miriam sometimes forgot details.
Both answered no.
One later admitted Garrett seemed disappointed by the answer.
Evelyn’s behavior was less subtle.
She criticized Miriam’s clothes.
Her apartment.
Her decision to drive the same seven-year-old sedan instead of accepting a family car.
Once, at lunch, Evelyn asked why Alessia allowed “someone dressed like a church secretary” to represent the foundation.
Miriam had laughed it off.
Alessia had not been present.
She learned about it now.
The event planner, Courtney Mills, remembered another unusual request.
Two days before the gala, decorators planned to place a tall floral wall near the decorative fountain.
Garrett objected.
“Why?” Naomi asked.
“He said it blocked the architecture.”
Courtney looked embarrassed.
“That fountain is not good architecture.”
Even Alessia smiled slightly.
“Then why did you move it?”
“Because he insisted.”
Courtney continued.
“The security coordinator warned that the flower wall would also block one of the ballroom cameras.”
Alessia’s expression changed.
“What did Garrett say?”
“That was another reason not to use it.”
Naomi wrote something down.
“Did he normally care about cameras?”
“Not that I know of.”
Another clue.
Not proof.
But a strange preference for visibility from a man who later begged that footage be preserved.
The audit produced something more tangible.
Lawson Event Strategies led to a Delaware company.
That company led to a family trust.
Beneficiary:
Evelyn Lawson.
Garrett’s mother.
Alessia stared at the report.
“How much?”
“About six hundred and forty thousand dollars in foundation and gala-related payments over eighteen months.”
Miriam inhaled sharply.
Ellen raised a hand.
“That does not automatically mean six hundred and forty thousand was stolen. Some services may have been real.”
“What services?”
“We’re checking.”
Alessia looked toward Miriam.
Her mother had found four suspicious invoices.
She had been closer to the truth than anyone knew.
That gave Garrett motive to want her gone from the books.
Still, Alessia kept returning to the fountain camera.
May you like
Financial fraud explained silence.
It did not explain spectacle.
