Chapter 7 - The Audit
Over the next two weeks, the full scale of Edgar and Kristina Finch’s criminal enterprise sent shockwaves through the Phoenix business community.
Nora did not waste a single hour weeping over the dead marriage. She moved into a suite at the Royal Palms Resort, turned her Paradise Valley house into a crime scene, and hired a team of fifteen forensic accountants from Deloitte to audit every financial transaction across her company’s twelve-year history.
What they uncovered was a systemic parasite operation.
Kristina had not merely been a passive accomplice; she had been the mastermind behind the financial infrastructure. Fifteen years ago, before Nora had met Edgar, Kristina had been convicted of embezzlement at a small credit union in Tucson—a charge that had been quietly expunged following a plea deal arranged by her late husband’s political friends.
Kristina had coached Edgar on how to create ghost vendors within Nora’s supply chain.
They had forged delivery receipts for sand, aggregate, and rebar that never existed, routing the payouts through four shell accounts before laundering the cash through a string of laundromats in West Phoenix.
"Total confirmed loss to Southwestern Materials is six point eight million dollars over six years, Nora," Arthur Vance, her lead attorney, said as he laid a thick leather-bound report on her desk at her corporate headquarters. "That doesn't include the legal fees, the tax recalculations, or the asset recovery expenses."
"What about the assets?" Nora asked, staring out her floor-to-ceiling office window at the sprawling fleet yard below.
"We’ve filed lis pendens notices on the Cactus Road house, the Range Rover, and three commercial lots Edgar secretly acquired in Pinal County," Arthur replied. "Heather Perkinson has fully surrendered all claims to the property. She signed a complete cooperation agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s office in exchange for non-prosecution on the money laundering charges."
"And Heather herself?"
"She’s moved back to her parents' home in Prescott with her son," Arthur said. "She has no assets left. She’s taking a job as an entry-level leasing consultant."
Nora was silent for a long moment. She picked up a silver pen, tapping it against the mahogany desk.
"Set up a restricted educational trust fund for the boy," Nora ordered softly. "Fifty thousand dollars a year, held in an independent escrow account. He shouldn't have to pay for his father’s sins or his grandmother’s madness."
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Arthur looked at her with deep respect. "You're a remarkable woman, Nora. Most people in your position would have stripped them down to the bare bone."
"I am stripping Edgar and Kristina to the bone," Nora said, her eyes flashing with cold, unbreakable fire. "The boy is innocent. Make sure the papers are drafted by Friday."
