Chapter 3 - Rebecca’s Brother Had Received More Than a Million Dollars From Our Family Accounts
Gavin Shaw was forty-one.
A business consultant in Denver.
At least that was how Rebecca had described:
him.
His actual company history was:
messier.
Small advisory firms.
Real-estate deals.
One failed investment fund.
Then:
Summit Ridge.
Our accountants reconstructed:
payments.
Some were legitimate.
Important.
Gavin had provided:
consulting
to one Miller Outdoor acquisition.
Approximately $190,000 of documented work.
The remaining transfers?
Harder.
No matching:
invoices,
deliverables,
engagement letters.
Roughly:
$1.1 million
unsupported or weakly supported.
Was that automatically stolen?
No.
It meant someone needed:
answers.
Emily had started asking:
them.
Then Sarah showed me a draft memorandum Emily prepared the day before:
her death.
Potential related-party conflict — Shaw / Summit Ridge
She listed:
Rebecca’s access to family investment accounts.
Gavin’s ownership.
Missing disclosures.
Northstar transfers.
Then:
Daniel appears unaware of relationship. Need to verify whether signatures were actual informed approvals or broad portfolio authorizations.
That last sentence hurt.
Because I had signed:
documents.
Rebecca often brought me quarterly packages.
I signed after:
brief review.
Had I specifically approved Summit Ridge?
I could not:
remember.
Then my company’s controller found something.
A payment authorization for:
$310,000.
My digital signature.
Timestamp:
11:47 p.m.
A Thursday.
I was in:
Tokyo
on a supplier trip.
Could I have signed remotely?
Yes.
Did I?
Unknown.
Then another approval.
Same digital:
signature.
I was on a commercial flight during:
the timestamp.
Possible onboard internet.
Still possible.
Not proof.
Then IT recovered old authentication logs from our financial portal.
Some signatures came from:
Rebecca’s office IP address.
Why?
She said she prepared documents for:
my approval.
But the system allowed delegated execution under specific:
authority.
Did she have delegated authority?
Limited.
Not for:
related-party transfers
over $100,000.
That made several transactions:
problematic.
Then I remembered Emily’s last argument with:
Rebecca.
Emily said:
“If Daniel knew who owned Summit Ridge, these transfers would never have happened.”
Rebecca answered:
“You have no idea what Daniel approves.”
At the time I heard:
professional arrogance.
Now?
Maybe something else.
Then Sarah handed me Emily’s phone backup.
Not some miraculous secret:
recording.
Emails.
Notes.
Calendar.
One calendar entry:
Monday 9:00 — Sarah / forensic accountant
Then:
11:00 — Daniel alone. Do not include Rebecca.
She had planned to tell:
me.
Then:
3:00 — call bank re Northstar freeze
Emily was going to freeze:
transactions
the morning after she died.
Rebecca had strong:
financial motive
to delay that.
Still not proof of:
murder.
Money disappears every day without someone causing a car:
crash.
Then my investigator located an email from:
Gavin
to Rebecca.
Two days before Emily died.
She’s asking the wrong questions. If she freezes Northstar, we’re exposed on the Ridge deal.
Rebecca:
I’m handling her.
Gavin:
How?
No reply in:
email.
Then there was a text the next morning.
Rebecca to Gavin:
By Monday she won’t be able to blow this up.
That looked terrible.
Rebecca later claimed she meant:
she expected Emily and me to settle the dispute privately.
Possible.
Then came another detail.
Emily’s SUV had been serviced:
four days
before the crash.
Nothing suspicious in the repair order.
Winter tires inspected.
Brake fluid checked.
Battery replaced.
But one service employee remembered a woman coming back the next day asking whether the vehicle had:
telematics.
Who?
He could not confidently:
identify her
three years later.
Then we pulled the shop’s old appointment notes.
A name had been entered:
R. Shaw
No first name.
Rebecca Shaw.
Could be:
coincidence.
Then Sarah told me Emily had mentioned:
one more fear.
Not that Rebecca would kill:
her.
Something more believable.
Emily thought Rebecca might manipulate:
our vehicles,
travel,
or schedules
to make her look:
unstable.
Why?
Because Rebecca had already started telling people Emily was:
“overwhelmed.”
And that mattered when we discovered what happened the morning before:
the crash.
May you like
Rebecca had called our auto insurer to ask how a single-vehicle accident affected an umbrella policy.
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