Nora leaned back in her chair, her fingers steepled. “So, what do you want to do, Helen? We can go to the police with this. It’s an open-and-shut case.”
I shook my head. “And turn this into a public spectacle? Watch my only daughter be tried and convicted? See the name I spent my life building dragged through the mud? No. That’s not going to happen.”
“Then what?”
I took a deep breath, feeling a strange, cold calm wash over me. “You told me Rachel and Derek are in financial trouble. I want to know exactly how deep.”
Nora opened a drawer and pulled out a thick folder. “I already requested a full financial investigation after our call last night. The results came in this morning.”
I opened the folder. As I turned the pages, a bleak and pathetic picture formed: maxed-out credit cards, high-interest loans from predatory lenders, a luxury car with overdue payments, a mortgaged apartment about to go into foreclosure. A life of glittering ostentation built on a foundation of quicksand.
“They’re bankrupt,” I stated, closing the folder. “They’re desperate.”
“Exactly,” Nora confirmed. “And when you mentioned putting most of the money into a foundation, that was the trigger.”