Susan remembered receiving several invoices bearing customer names she could not find in the scheduling calendar.
When she questioned the discrepancy, Martin told her the jobs were emergency consultations rather than installations.
She had no reason to doubt him until a homeowner called to ask why the company had charged for a furnace never delivered.
Susan brought the question to Martin.
He promised to correct the bill and ordered her to stop taking calls about the fund.
A month later, the company bank account showed payments from the emergency fund that Susan could not match to job tickets.
She made photocopies because she worried that she would be blamed for bookkeeping errors.
When Laurel Mechanical closed, she kept the copies in a box of personal employment records.
She had never been asked about them during the original review.
The documents did not prove that Marjorie stole money.
They did show that payments moved through an account controlled by Martin and at least one other authorized signer.
Gerald Pritchard had died in 2012, leaving his family’s papers to his daughter.
Priya sought additional records through appropriate channels.
When she called me with a general update, I asked whether the investigation was becoming too broad.
She said it had already been broad for twenty years.
“People are just beginning to see the edges,” she told me.
That sentence stayed with me.
I had expected a stolen letter to point toward one secret and one guilty person.
Instead, every recovered document seemed to reveal another decision made by someone who had hoped nobody would ask for an explanation.
Chapter 16: The Grocery Bag
The postal inspector returned to our street on a rainy Wednesday afternoon.
Marcus Lee spoke separately with several residents whose mail had been reported missing.
The victims described bank statements arriving late, medical appointment notices appearing in the wrong boxes, and one birthday card that had been opened before delivery.
Some incidents might have resulted from mistakes, but the pattern justified further inquiry.
Marcus also reviewed footage from a camera installed at the corner grocery store.
The owner had provided a relevant clip after an official request.
The recording showed Marjorie entering the store carrying a grocery bag heavy with envelopes.
She purchased a pack of rubber bands and sat at a small table near the window.
For seven minutes, she sorted the envelopes into stacks.
She left with most of them still inside the bag.
The clip did not show where she obtained the mail or whether she opened it.
