Chapter 5 - What Allison Signed
The reimbursement certification was two pages.
Allison had signed electronically eighteen months earlier.
The relevant question:
Are any vendors, subcontractors, project managers, or payees related to, controlled by, or financially affiliated with an occupant or beneficiary?
She checked:
NO.
CSD Project Services had received $74,600 in that reimbursement cycle.
Derek owned it.
“Why?” I asked.
Allison sat in Eleanor’s conference room staring at her hands.
“Derek said it was just a technical disclosure.”
“That means nothing.”
“I know.”
“Did you know he owned CSD?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know Northbridge didn’t?”
“I thought the property manager did.”
“That is not what the form asked.”
“I know.”
I hated how often she said that.
Then:
“Did you receive any money?”
“No.”
Eleanor asked:
“Did CSD funds pay household expenses?”
Allison hesitated.
“Some of Derek’s income came from CSD.”
That meant indirect benefit.
Not necessarily criminal conspiracy.
But relevant.
Then other falsehood:
The capacity letter.
Allison signed that too.
Two documents.
Different years.
Same pattern.
Derek says sign.
Allison signs.
Then goes quiet.
I said:
“You’re thirty eight.”
She flinched.
“I know.”
“I am trying very hard not to treat you like a child because he treated me like a servant.”
Tears rolled.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry is not information.”
She nodded.
Then told us everything she knew.
Derek’s business began failing about eighteen months earlier.
Two major clients delayed payments.
He borrowed against a line of credit.
Then a second.
He invested in a small redevelopment partnership near South End.
The project stalled.
Interest accumulated.
He told Allison:
Temporary cash flow.
Then:
A tax lien threat.
Then:
Personal guarantee.
Then:
Joint home? There was no owned home. Condo not theirs. So he couldn't collateralize.
He asked Allison to borrow against her future trust interest.
Northbridge refused.
A remainder expectancy under an irrevocable spendthrift structure was not freely assignable.
Derek found a private lender willing to lend if Allison produced confirmation she was expected to receive substantial assets.
She refused.
Then Derek produced a letter himself.
Allison saw it once.
On Northbridge letterhead.
It stated:
Allison Collins held a vested beneficial interest estimated above $70 million, “available upon incapacity or death of the current primary beneficiary.”
That was false.
The amount wrong.
The availability wrong.
The incapacity trigger wrong.
“Who signed it?” Eleanor asked.
“Someone named Samuel Grant.”
Eleanor’s face hardened.
Samuel Grant was the trust protector.
He had not signed any such letter.
“Do you have a copy?”
“No.”
“Did Derek use it?”
“I think so.”
“How much did he borrow?”
“Eight hundred fifty thousand.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did you sign?”
“No.”
“Did he?”
“As guarantor through his company.”
“Who lender?”
“Granite Peak Capital.”
Private commercial lender.
Then:
“What collateral?”
“His business assets and claimed future consulting receivables.”
Not trust assets.
Good.
But the forged letter may have induced lender based on Allison’s expected wealth.
Fraud.
Then why capacity petition?
If I were declared incapacitated, Derek believed Allison could access more trust money.
He wanted to make the false lender letter become closer to true.
Not legally.
But he believed pressure could force discretionary distribution to avoid “family hardship.”
Then one more issue.
Granite Peak loan balance now:
$1.12 million with accrued interest and penalties.
Derek’s other business liabilities:
Around $720,000.
Total exposure:
Nearly $1.84 million.
Allison had personally guaranteed only:
$320,000 bank line.
Still serious.
Then my pneumonia.
When I was hospitalized, Derek saw opportunity.
Allison admitted:
He visited my Asheville house once while I was in hospital.
Why?
“To pick up mail.”
I stared.
“I never asked him.”
“No.”
“What did he take?”
“I don’t know.”
Eleanor asked:
“Any trust correspondence?”
Maybe.
Northbridge had mailed the age seventy notice preview six weeks earlier to Asheville.
I never saw.
Could Derek have taken it?
The courier envelope at condo was a second mandated delivery after first went unanswered.
Now we had another problem.
Mail interference.
Not proven theft yet.
Then Allison said:
“He came home with a blue folder.”
“What was inside?”
“I didn’t look.”
“Where now?”
“One of the boxes he took.”
Of course.
Then:
“Did he ever ask you to sell my Asheville house?”
“Yes.”
“What did you say?”
“You would never.”
“What did he say?”
“If she loses capacity, somebody will.”
Not him.
No power.
But again, he believed incapacity was a door.
I asked Eleanor:
“Does anyone have power of attorney for me?”
“Yes. Your durable financial power of attorney names Northbridge as agent only if activated by written physician certification. It has never been activated. Allison is successor agent for personal matters, not current financial control.”
“Derek?”
“No.”
Good.
Then police called.
They had reviewed Allison’s revised statement and hospital photographs of my bruising.
The district attorney authorized a warrant for Derek on assault charges.
Not attempted murder.
Not elder kidnapping.
Assault.
He would be allowed to surrender through counsel.
Miles Gentry arranged it.
Then Eleanor’s assistant entered.
“We received a call from Granite Peak.”
“They know?”
“They received preservation notice from Northbridge after we learned of possible forged trust letter.”
“And?”
The lender produced the letter.
Samuel Grant’s signature was fake.
But something else was attached.
A notarized statement from Allison.
Her real signature.
She stared at the page.
“I never signed that.”
For the first time, Allison was looking at a forged signature bearing her own name.
May you like
Derek had stopped merely persuading his wife to sign false documents.
He had begun signing for her too.
