Chapter 10 - The Seattle Connection
Early Saturday morning, I placed a secure, encrypted call to Eleanor Price from my private study.
"Eleanor," I said, my voice cutting straight to business without pleasantries. "I need your firm to run a title and asset trace on a commercial waterfront parcel in Seattle, dated thirty years ago under the name *C.H. Enterprises*."
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line, the sound of keyboard clicking echoing faintly.
"Seattle waterfront?" Eleanor asked, her tone sharpening with immediate professional interest. "Rebecca, that’s prime real estate. The Port of Seattle authority has been trying to acquire those commercial docks for urban expansion for the past five years. Valued conservatively, a parcel like that is easily worth fifteen to twenty million dollars."
"My mother left me a letter," I explained, sliding the faded documents across my desk. "According to her, my father absorbed her exclusive family inheritance thirty years ago to fund his initial business ventures. The Lake Tahoe villa was purchased using the recovered equity of those exact funds."
Eleanor went completely silent for several seconds. When she spoke again, her voice was a mix of awe and predatory delight.
"Good God," she whispered. "Charles didn't just steal a four-million-dollar house... he sat on top of an undisclosed multi-million-dollar inheritance that legally belonged to your mother's estate—an estate of which you are the sole primary beneficiary."
"Can we claw it back?" I asked calmly.
"Claw it back?" Eleanor let out a sharp, exhilarated laugh. "Commander Hayes, we aren't just going to claw it back. We are going to initiate a full federal asset recovery action that will completely liquidate every remaining asset Charles holds, including his personal bank accounts, his secret offshore holdings, and any remaining corporate shares he thinks he hid from the court."
"Execute it," I ordered. "File the motions immediately."
May you like
"Consider it done. I'll have my Seattle associates draft the emergency injunctions by noon today. Your father is about to find out what a real military-grade legal offensive looks like."
***
