Chapter 8 - What Investigators FoundThe following week was exhausting. Investigators interviewed bank employees, nursing facility staff, Preston, me, my parents, and eventually the notary. Security cameras at the facility recorded Dad and Mom walking Grandma into the lobby at 12:41 p.m. — Dad carried her suitcase, Mom spoke with the receptionist. At 12:58, both exited through a side entrance. Neither returned.
The admissions coordinator had written a note after Mom stated that Grandma experienced "progressive confusion" and could no longer manage everyday life independently. Grandma's recent cognitive evaluation directly contradicted that.
The notary became the critical link. Foster initially insisted Grandma had personally appeared before him. Then investigators showed him proof she'd been at a physical therapy appointment across town on the date the deed was supposedly notarized. His story changed — he admitted my father had brought the document in already signed, explaining his mother was recovering from surgery and couldn't travel. Foster had notarized it as a personal favor, insisting he had no knowledge the signature was unauthorized. That decision put his professional license at risk.
Two weeks later, he turned over his journal and emails. One message from Dad read: She won't understand the paperwork anyway. Just need this completed by Friday.
That sentence eliminated any possibility of viewing this as desperate improvisation rather than deliberate planning.
The most painful discovery came from his company's financial records. The eighty-three thousand dollars pulled from Grandma's accounts hadn't all gone to payroll. Almost twenty-seven thousand went to personal credit-card balances. Nine thousand covered payments on Mom's SUV. Six thousand paid a vacation deposit they later canceled. The rest went toward supplier balances and overdue taxes.
When Genevieve showed Grandma the breakdown, she was silent for nearly a minute. Then she asked, "Did Marcus know?"
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"No," Genevieve said.
Grandma nodded once. That question affected me more deeply than anything else. She could recover from losing money. What she struggled to accept was no longer knowing how far the betrayal reached.
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