He lifted the metal lid and took out a thick document sealed inside a yellow envelope with red wax across the flap.

The paper rustled as he cut through the red wax with a small brass letter opener.

“Walter knew about Victoria’s spending habits long before he got sick,” Vance said, laying three sheets of financial audit reports in front of me.

“Four years ago, she opened four private lines of credit in Richmond.

She lost two hundred and ten thousand dollars on unlisted real estate options in under six months.”

I stared at the black numbers stamped at the top of the audit sheet.