The money trail was documented with bank records that Delores couldn't dispute. The detective told Beverly, carefully, that they were approaching a point of action. Beverly told me, equally carefully, that the court date on Preston's lawsuit was now set for early June, six weeks out. Given the counterclaim for malicious prosecution and the motion to dismiss, she expected either a dismissal or a settlement offer before the hearing. "What if they offered to settle?"
I asked her. What do you want?" "I want this on record," I said. "I don't want a confidential settlement where none of this can be discussed. I want whatever happens to be public."
Beverly smiled. I could hear it over the phone. "Then we don't accept confidentiality clauses. We let them offer. We counter with terms that keep the record open."
There was one more piece in play that I hadn't mentioned to anyone outside of Theo and Randolph. A few weeks earlier, going through old HOA meeting minutes from before Delores's presidency, I'd found something that made the entire situation even more complicated for her. The original HOA charter, drafted in 2006 when Cedarbrook Estates was built, contained a provision that the developer's attorney had inserted as standard boilerplate. In the event of financial fraud or criminal misappropriation by any board officer, the HOA retained the right to place a lien on the offending officer's property within the community. Delores owned a home in Cedarbrook Estates.
The HOA, her HOA, could potentially lien her house. Let me tell you about the week before everything broke open. Delores made one final move. It was the most aggressive thing she'd done, and it was also the clearest sign that she knew the ground was disappearing under her feet. She contacted Preston's attorney and authorized a revised settlement offer.
They would drop the lawsuit with a mutual confidentiality clause, and Delores would personally resolve the outstanding HOA fine issues in exchange for my agreement to withdraw all audit requests and counterclaims. In plain language, she wanted me to sign a document that would bury everything. Her fraud, the investigation, the malicious prosecution counterclaim in exchange for making a lawsuit she never should have filed go away. She was trying to buy silence. Beverly called me when the offer came in.
We both stayed quiet for a moment. "That offer," Beverly said finally, "tells us everything we need to know about her state of mind." "We decline," I said. "Obviously, but Garrett, there's something else." The investigation is at a point where our declining this offer may accelerate their timeline.
The detective had told Beverly informally that they had enough for charges. The question was sequence. They wanted to make sure civil proceedings didn't complicate criminal evidence. Our declining the settlement and proceeding to the June court date kept the legal pressure on from our side while the criminal process ran its track. I spent those last days doing something oddly peaceful.