Chapter 5 - The Corporate Fall
As the deputies dragged a kicking, screaming Evan out through the front door and into the back of a police cruiser, Daniel Cho unzipped his secondary briefcase.
He pulled out a tablet and set it on the dining table right next to Gloria’s unfinished roast beef.
"Now, Mrs. Vance," Daniel said, turning his attention to the trembling woman standing against the wall. "Let’s discuss your eleven-month stay in this residence."
"I... I am an innocent bystander!" Gloria wept, dabbing her face with a silk napkin. "I didn't lay a finger on Emily! I was just visiting my son!"
"You weren't just visiting, Gloria," I said, walking over to the table and tapping the tablet screen. "You were living like a queen on stolen company funds."
A series of financial spreadsheets illuminated the screen, highlighted in bright red.
"Over the past nine months," Daniel explained, pointing to the columns, "Evan Vance issued a corporate 'Executive Hospitality' card to you. Under corporate policy, this card was strictly reserved for client entertainment for Hartwell Dining Group."
Gloria gulped, her eyes darting nervously.
"According to the bank statements," Daniel continued, "you used this corporate card to spend $42,000 at luxury boutiques, $18,000 at high-end day spas, $15,000 for private yoga instruction in the guest suite, and $65,000 for a cosmetic surgery procedure in Miami last spring."
"It... it was all business expenses!" Gloria lied frantically. "I was representing the company brand!"
"You hold no title, no employment contract, and no legal affiliation with Hartwell Dining Group," Daniel said coldly. "This constitutes unauthorized conversion of corporate assets, grand larceny, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud."
"I didn't know!" Gloria wailed, dropping to her knees on the rug. "Evan gave me the card! He told me his mother-in-law gave him unlimited funds! He told me the money was ours!"
"Ignorance of the law is not a legal defense, Mrs. Vance," Daniel replied. "A formal criminal complaint for grand theft has already been filed with the District Attorney’s office. A civil freeze has been placed on all bank accounts bearing your name."
Gloria stared at the tablet in utter horror.
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Every dollar she had accumulated, every credit card in her leather purse, every luxury she had bragged about to her country club friends—gone in less than twenty minutes.
"You have ten minutes left to leave this property, Gloria," I said, leaning down until I was at eye level with her. "If you are still on this lawn when the timer hits zero, the deputies outside will arrest you for criminal trespass and grand theft."
