Victor Asked Me To Release Money He Had Already Spent

Victor came to the meeting in a pale blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

He had always dressed that way at our dinners, as if he had just stepped away from useful work.

Now he sat across from me in a conference room while his lawyer opened a folder.

"The condo transaction can be canceled," the lawyer said. "The deposit can be returned under the contract. My client needs cooperation concerning the preserved funds."

Mara had already obtained an order preserving identifiable disputed money. The deposit could not be returned to Victor for free use while our civil case continued.

"Returned where?" she asked.

"To an agreed account."

"An independent account pending settlement?"

The lawyer nodded.

That much was useful. I could agree to keep money safe.

Victor leaned toward me.

"I never meant for you to lose anything."

"You received one hundred twelve thousand eight hundred dollars."

"There were plans behind that money."

"Where are the leased machines?"

He looked at his lawyer.

"We're not here to conduct testimony," the lawyer said.

"Then let's discuss the deposit," Mara answered.

The $60,000 went into an account controlled under the court order. I signed the limited agreement after Mara explained every line. It did not release any claim.

For once, Victor needed my signature on a page I had actually read.

At the door, he held out his hand. I picked up my folder instead.

"You don't have to hate me," he said.

"I have orders to finish this afternoon."

I meant that. I wanted my hours back as much as I wanted the money.

Celeste did not attend. Her lawyer sent a written response to the emails. She said the signature instruction concerned putting together a draft for my later approval.

The draft had reached escrow as a signed agreement. Payments had followed it for thirty months.

Mara asked for the message requesting my later approval.

There wasn't one in the produced records.

My deposition came next. I sat under plain lights and answered questions for hours. When I didn't remember a date, I said so. When a receipt could answer, I asked to see it.

"Did your wife ever do anything helpful for your business?" Victor's lawyer asked.

"Yes. She arranged freight and helped with billing."

"You benefited from that work?"

"Yes."

"Then you owe her compensation."

Mara objected to the way he put the question. I waited until she told me I could answer.

"Her work belongs in the divorce accounting," I said. "It doesn't explain why Victor received my royalties through a company with no leased equipment."

The court reporter asked me to repeat the company name.

I did. Slowly.

On a Friday evening, Celeste came up the mountain again. I met her outside the gate. Ferns along the fence held drops of rain, and my shop lights showed warm behind me.

"We were good once," she said.

"We were."

"I made things easier for you. You hated selling. You hated dealing with people."

"I liked dealing with people who let me finish a sentence."

She looked toward the workshop.

"You can still have this. We can settle quietly."

"The figures are in the files. Send an offer through Mara."

"Must every word go through a lawyer now?"

"The ones about money do."

She began to cry. I believed some of the tears. That did not make the amendment real.

I gave her a clean tissue through the gate.

"I won't tell you it all meant nothing," I said. "But I won't pay for it twice."

After she left, I swept the bench and checked the next cradle's corner clearance. A mount needed two thin shims. I added them, closed the case, and ran the drop indicator test.

The next morning, Ruth called.

"Celeste says this is a misunderstanding about retirement money."

"The records don't show that."

"She asked us to help you see reason."

I stared at the little bird beside my drill press.

"Please don't carry messages between us."

"All right," Ruth said. "And I'm sorry I laughed at dinner."

"Thank you for saying it."

I told Mara about the call. She did not suggest a public fight. She added accurate correction of Celeste's business claims to the settlement terms we would request.

Four months after I first opened Owen's review, the civil case had bank records, sworn testimony, the original packet, and the examiner's findings. Escrow's compliance review also confirmed that its required verification had been skipped.

Then two offers arrived on the same afternoon.

The escrow company offered to pay $18,000 toward my documented audit and legal costs.

Celeste and Victor offered to repay the missing royalties if I accepted a broad statement that no one had done anything wrong.

Mara put that page in front of me.

I drew one careful line through it.

Then Mara's phone rang. Victor's lawyer wanted to know whether I would sign before his offer expired at five.