The Mourning Mail (final release candidate #7)

Chapter 19

Once everyone had enjoyed a good laugh and I'd recovered what I could of my dignity, I returned to my questions.

"So, what did Seaver finally get out of gaming his investors?"

"The net effect was that he promoted the nominal value of that land to an obscene level. Almost a hundred million dollars," Darrell answered, rubbing the belly of the Schnauzer now lying on his back in the restauranteur's lap. "The last transaction transferred ownership into a shell corporation. Its filings show Theresa having fifty-one percent control. Because he'd destroyed his reputation, James Seaver wanted the cachet of the Woodson name. I've paid my dues to be known around here for being business-savvy and legitimate, or I've certainly tried my best."

"So Seaver has to marry Theresa to gain control over her if he's allowed her sway over any of the negotiable assets...," I mused.

"As a practical matter, yes," Darrell replied. "The doctor created a completely BS story around this shell company. He claimed a secret deal with General Dynamics to research hypersonic weapons. He explained the urgency by claiming the U.S. was way behind the Russians and the Chinese in developing the technology. Why San Diego? Because the Navy base was right here for operational testing on its ships. The secrecy? Of course, everything had to be hush-hush or foreign agents would sabotage the facility or the work."

"An answer for everything. So, what was James Seaver's end game in all of this?" I asked.

"The idea was to over-leverage the real estate with bank loans based on its inflated value. Seaver would take in a final round of investor money. Then, he'd cash out with a fire sale of the company's unleveraged assets, leaving Theresa holding the bag," Darrell replied. "Pretty simple once he got the land value up where he wanted it."

"So obviously, something didn't work out because Seaver's still here and hasn't yet flown the coop," I said.

"Exactly. In California, family law courts don't consider an inheritance part of the marital estate if it goes to just one party in the marriage. In other words, the inheritance remains the property of the inheriting person. So, I'd ordinarily have had no claim on what her father left her in Theresa's and my marriage. But that's true only so long as the parties keep everything related to the inheritance separate from marital property."

"So once James Seaver had his hooks into Theresa, game over. You couldn't stop her from giving her father's money to Seaver if you'd wanted to, right?" I asked.

"You'd think," Darrell answered. "But when they got impatient and borrowed money from our marital estate against her inheritance, that broke the separation. Now the inheritance becomes community property. Had she not had an affair, and I not filed for divorce, I wouldn't have known or cared about going after her inheritance. It's not like I needed the money," Darrell said, spreading his hands, palms upward, and looking around the room.

"At that point, I assume her affair with the doctor is driving everything she's doing—him using her," I said.

"Yes. Seaver kept Theresa focused on the perceived slights she saw coming from me, even though Seaver's mistakes were creating her problems. Theresa was furious to learn her inheritance was now joint property during the divorce. I suspect she did everything she could, with plenty of the doctor's help, to hide assets and destroy paper trails."

"So, your loan to her gets him the land, but he doesn't have the funds he needs for the rest of the con?" I asked.

"Precisely. I hire a private investigator because I suspect Theresa of cheating, and his report leads to the divorce. That in turn mucks with Seaver's plans, tying up his assets," Darrell said. "Purely by coincidence, she'd gotten her father's inheritance settlement before I filed for the divorce. So, she had to repay the loan from the inheritance proceeds."