Betrayal - Fern Michaels [111]
“Or else what, Mommy? You’ll tell on me for making up all those lies about Uncle Alex? Lies that you made me tell. No, don’t answer that, Mommy.”
“Go home, Sara. I want you to spend some time with your father today.”
“But what about me? What am I supposed to tell Josh?”
“Tell him to keep his pecker in his pants for a while, that’s what you can tell him. Now get out of my sight. I’ve got to clean up another mess.”
Sara inhaled, then exhaled. Her breath slapped Debbie in the face like old tuna.
“Go home and shower, Sara. Brush your teeth. I’ll be there in a while.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
After Sara left, Debbie felt like she’d been caught in a whirlwind. She should have had her tested years ago. She had to be borderline retarded to act the way she did.
Debbie had received a letter from the bank. Her home was going into foreclosure. Someone was screwing with her. She was going to find out who, and when she did, she would make that person wish they’d never laid eyes on her.
Kate knew that, in good conscience, the only thing for her to do was confess what she’d done. She called Coleman and asked him to come to her apartment. It would be easiest to explain things if he was there.
Coleman arrived ten minutes early.
“So this is where you’ve been hiding.”
“I guess you could say that. I think it will be easier for you to understand what I’m about to say if I can show you a few things. Follow me.”
Kate took him to the small room she’d converted into an office. “Sit down.” She directed him to a kitchen chair she’d brought in earlier. She sat next to him in her desk chair.
“I told you I wanted to ruin the Winter family.”
“That’s only natural after what they put you through. I’ve heard my share of stories from people, Kate.”
She typed her password in and logged on to the Internet. She took the disc from her minisafe and inserted it into the computer. A few strokes later, she brought up the information she wanted Coleman to view.
“Knowing I couldn’t do physical harm to either of the two, I thought about Debbie. Money has always been her top priority. Even over the girls. She came from a poor family. She spent most of her high school years working in a deli her mother owned. I guess because she was subjected to—I wouldn’t call it poverty by any means, but the blue-collar life of her mother, I think she longed for wealth and the status she assumed it would bring. I’m speculating here, so bear with me. After I came to my senses, I decided the best way to hurt the Winters was financially.”
She whirled around in her chair, allowing room for Coleman to get a bit closer to her monitor. “This is what I’ve been learning the past five years.”
Kate allowed him to read the financial reports on the screen. “After working with the IRS for all that time and taking all the courses I could, I can get into just about any system. Banks, schools, credit card companies. Pretty much anything.”
She waited for Coleman to comment. Nothing. She went on with her story.
“I hacked into Debbie’s bank and emptied both of her accounts. She’s now forty-three thousand dollars overdrawn. The bank obviously believes she took the money herself. It was an Internet transaction. I’m sure the bank manager thinks Debbie was lying when she told him she hadn’t a clue what was happening to her money. Said she was going to sue the bank.”
“How did you know this?”
“I knew about when Debbie would learn of her accounts being overdrawn. The Sun Bank calls their clients first thing if the account is in the red. Debbie’s been a good customer, so they called her, I’m sure. Knowing how they work, I was at the bank opening a new account when she came storming in. She was furious. I guess you could say I laughed all the way from the bank.”
Kate watched Coleman, gauging his reaction.
“I’m listening, Kate. Go on.”
“I hacked into the credit card companies’ databases. Deb had several cards, all with balances, but nothing terribly high. I maxed out all the cards and put a hold on all the accounts. I learned