The Bookkeeper Brought A Roof Bill To The Ownership Hearing
Part 6 · 4 min read ·
June came to the courthouse with her lawyer on Thursday.
She wore the same coat she had worn during the lockout. This time, she held a folder with both hands.
No muffins. No honey.
Her lawyer had arranged to produce her retained work records and make her available in our civil case. Nobody promised that telling the truth there would erase what she had done elsewhere.
Tessa explained that before we entered the room.
“I know,” June said.
Alden sat behind his lawyer at the other table. He nodded to me as if we had met at a hardware store.
Then Tessa placed the escrow packet on the table.
He stopped nodding.
The hearing concerned continued control of the shop, the attempted sale, and the records. It was not the criminal case Lorraine's referral might bring.
I kept reminding myself of that. I wanted everything settled before lunch. The court had its own work to do.
Noor testified first.
She described the signed instructions, the two earlier installments, and the final $42,000. The total was $126,000, just as our agreement required.
“Was there a condition left unmet at release?” Tessa asked.
“No.”
“Could deleting a local payment file undo that release?”
“No.”
“Did Mr. Vick receive notice?”
“Yes. His delivery record is attached.”
Alden's lawyer asked whether Noor had watched him spend the money.
“No,” she said. “Spending it was not a closing condition.”
I pressed my fingers against my knee to keep from smiling.
Then June took the witness chair.
She admitted using her account to delete the payment folder and its exports. Alden had asked her to make the shop's records show an unfinished buyout.
“I knew he'd been paid,” she said. “I reconciled the deposit notice.”
Tessa showed her a message from her retained business email.
Alden had written: Remove the final-payment set. If it stays open, I still have leverage.
June had answered: Done.
The judge read it without speaking.
Alden's lawyer asked whether the missing folder could have been restored from a backup.
“Maybe,” June said.
“Then the records weren't necessarily lost forever?”
“No.”
Tessa stood when he finished.
“Did anyone tell Piotr there was a backup before they changed the locks?”
“No.”
“What were you asked to make him believe?”
June took a breath.
“That he couldn't prove he'd paid.”
The judge marked the email as an exhibit. I watched the clerk put its number in the corner. That little number would stay with it after everyone left the room.
My hands were warm now. I laid them flat on the table.
“Why did you agree?” Tessa asked.
“I had helped prepare the fund invoices. He said if Piotr paid again, we could put the money back before this got bigger.”
“What happened to the fund money?”
June's lawyer conferred with her. Then June answered.
Her records showed $34,000 paid from Vick Property Care toward a roof on Alden's private rental building. The remaining $2,400 had gone to her for preparing and covering the false bills.
The roof contractor's invoice named the building address. It was nowhere near our shop.
The fund's reviewer had received copies through counsel and would check them independently.
“I called it extra bookkeeping,” June said. “It wasn't.”
She looked at me then.
“I'm sorry.”
I nodded so she knew I had heard. I did not tell her it was all right.
Alden's lawyer handed Tessa another document during a break. It was a lender's receipt from his client, offered to support his claim that he had been under severe financial pressure.
It showed a $42,000 payoff Tuesday on a personal bridge loan.
My final buyout payment had gone to that debt. The fund still needed its $36,400 back. Selling the signs, or making me pay again, had been his answer.
Pressure explained the amount. It did not give him title to Bev's sign.
When the hearing resumed, Alden said he had stayed manager until we reached a further understanding.
Tessa opened the closing package to the manager resignation and the company's signed consent accepting it.
“What further understanding does this require?” she asked.
He looked toward June.
She stared at her hands.
The judge continued the order giving me control and barred Alden from acting for the company. He ordered production of the remaining records and set a separate hearing on the removal of the crates after service.
He also warned that breach of his orders could bring personal consequences beyond damages.
Outside, Alden caught up with me near the elevators.
“You could have just paid me,” he said.
Noor stepped beside me.
“He did,” she said.
The elevator opened. I got in with my lawyer and the woman who had kept my papers safe.
Before the doors closed, Tessa's phone rang.
She listened, then covered the mouthpiece.
“His property lender wants copies of the public filings. Apparently that building is already for sale.”