Chapter 3
The first recipient agreed to speak the next morning.
Maria Russo was sixty-two and lived in a modest townhouse outside Joliet.
Salvatore did not go.
Rebecca insisted his presence would intimidate her.
He hated the logic.
It was correct.
Rebecca went with forensic accountant Daniel Mercer instead.
They returned with bank statements.
The foundation’s official records showed an $18,000 payment.
Maria’s bank account showed $7,500.
She had signed paperwork acknowledging $18,000.
But the signature had been collected before the amount was filled in.
“Who gave her the form?” Salvatore asked.
Daniel answered.
“Marina.”
Marina’s attorney immediately objected when Rebecca raised it later.
“She delivered documents. That does not mean she altered them.”
True.
A second recipient remembered Edmund attending the approval meeting.
A third remembered Marina telling her that taxes and administrative fees reduced the amount.
The foundation paid qualified assistance grants.
There should not have been a sixty-percent administrative reduction at the recipient level.
Daniel began reconstructing the money.
The missing amounts did not disappear directly into Edmund or Marina’s personal accounts.
They flowed first into a vendor called:
North Bridge Family Services.
Salvatore had heard the name.
Barely.
“They handled emergency relocation,” Marina said.
Daniel looked at her.
“For almost half a million dollars?”
“We used outside contractors.”
“Who owns North Bridge?”
“A private service provider.”
“Name.”
Marina hesitated.
Her attorney told her not to answer until records were obtained formally.
That afternoon Daniel pulled public filings.
North Bridge was owned by a holding company.
The holding company was managed by a lawyer who had represented Edmund for years.
That looked bad.
Not conclusive.
Salvatore looked at Edmund.
“You want to explain before I keep paying people to explain for you?”
Edmund’s voice stayed hard.
“I approved vendors. I did not inspect every invoice.”
“You were senior adviser.”
“I am sixty-nine years old, Salvatore. I signed what staff put in front of me.”
Marina’s eyes moved toward him.
Again.
A glance most people would miss.
Salvatore did not.
Rebecca noticed too.
Later, after Edmund and Marina left under written preservation agreements, Rebecca said:
“Your uncle is either lying or telling you the most important fact we have.”
“What fact?”
“That he signed what staff put in front of him.”
Salvatore looked toward the door Marina had used.
“You think she ran it.”
“I think we don’t know yet.”
He hated that answer.
But the ledger contained something else.
Several questionable payments were approved under Gabriella’s credentials.
Daniel checked the dates.
The first occurred on a Monday afternoon.
Salvatore remembered that Monday.
Gabriella had been receiving chemotherapy at Northwestern.
He had sat beside her for five hours.
She had barely stayed awake.
Yet the foundation system showed her user account authorizing three payments from the estate office.
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First clue.
Gabriella’s name had been used while Gabriella was physically somewhere else.
