Chapter 5 - RICHARD REED'S VERSION
Richard Reed arrived at the school with an attorney before police finished interviewing Ashley.
Expensive suit.
Measured voice.
Perfect manners.
He denied knowing anything about the street incident.
Ashley said she and Jake were only trying to retrieve a phone Margaret had “stolen.”
False.
Jake initially agreed.
Then changed his story.
He said Margaret had threatened Ashley.
No witness supported it.
Police treated the handbag attack seriously.
Not armed robbery.
No weapon.
But attempted theft and assault.
Then Richard requested a meeting with Margaret.
She refused.
He sent a letter through counsel.
It said Laura’s allegations had been investigated years earlier.
No criminal misappropriation found.
The foundation had broad discretion over donor-restricted and unrestricted funds.
Margaret showed it to Emily.
Emily frowned.
“So he’s saying Mom was wrong?”
“Partly.”
That bothered Emily.
She wanted villain certainty.
Margaret would not give it.
Then an independent accountant reviewed Laura’s copies.
Some transfers were legal.
Poorly disclosed, but legal.
Others were not.
Specifically:
three scholarship accounts had restrictions requiring funds to be used only for students meeting income qualifications.
Yet expenses benefited donor families.
One reimbursement:
$18,400 for a summer academic program.
Student:
Ashley Reed.
Age at time:
twelve.
Emily stared.
Ashley had benefited directly.
Did Ashley know?
Probably not at twelve.
Then another payment:
private admissions consultant.
Another:
international youth conference.
The fund name on all three:
HARRIET COLE ACCESS SCHOLARSHIP.
Created for low-income first-generation students.
Ashley Reed was neither.
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Richard’s problem was no longer just old accounting.
His daughter’s résumé had been partly subsidized by money intended for children like Emily.
