Chapters (48)
- Cover
- Praise
- About the Author
- Also by Tricia Stringer
- Title Page
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Author’s Note
- Acknowledgements
- Excerpt
- One
Bree tugged out the little book. It was slim and well worn. Her mother had jotted down the usernames and passwords for every online shop, business and rewards program she’d ever subscribed to. Bree began to flip through the pages of notes in her mother’s neat print with the occasional hardly legible entry in between. Her dad used the little book as well but she could see nothing that looked like it referred to Granny. She flicked to the back and there it was, her grandmother’s new account details. She kept looking and found other entries: Mum’s share portfolio, Dad’s share portfolio, and then finally jammed between the password for Nespresso and one for Myer was the details of Granny and Pa’s joint account. She turned to Kate.
“It’s here.” She minimised the spreadsheet on the computer screen and brought up the internet browser.
“You’re not going to log into Granny’s account?”
“Why not? She won’t know and at least we’ll be able to see if the money’s still there or not.”
Bree opened the shortcut to their online banking page and typed in the number and password for Granny and Pa’s joint account.
The screen opened up and they both leaned forward.
“It’s empty,” Kate said.
Bree opened the transaction history. It only showed the last month, the money going in and then the money going out. Beside her Kate gasped. The transfer out went to an account in the name of C L Daly.
“Aunty Connie.” Kate’s voice was a whisper.
Bree extended the dates for the transaction history to include the last year and there it all was in black and white. Each month a payment had gone in and had accumulated untouched until three months ago when the whole amount had been transferred to C L Daly. Since then, a few days after the money was paid in it was transferred to Connie’s account.
“How could Mum and Dad have missed this?” Kate asked.
“Maybe they haven’t missed it. Maybe they know about it.” Bree tried to remember what they’d overheard her dad and Granny talking about last Sunday morning when they’d all listened outside the kitchen door. “Granny was talking to Dad about Connie wanting more from the property.”
“Well, these bank transfers look like she’s getting it.”
They looked at each other. “We could stop the payments,” Bree said.
“Not without talking to Dad first. There might be some explanation we don’t know about.”