“That’s it?” Riley asked, stunned. “No savings account, nothing with my name on it?”
“No,” Melody said, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “And you already know about the foreclosure on your home, right?”
“Yes,” Riley said bitterly. “I think everybody on Belle Isle knows about that now.”
Parrish gave Melody a stern look. “Somebody forged Riley’s name on those mortgage documents.”
“I’m sure you’re mistaken,” Melody said.
“We found a copy of it in Wendell’s office. It’s not my signature,” Riley said. “And there’s no way I’d agree to a two-million-dollar mortgage on that house. Nobody in their right mind would pay that for it.”
“She’s right,” Parrish said. “When it goes up for auction, it’ll go for pennies on the dollar.”
“I hope you’re wrong about that,” Melody said. “The bank’s appraisal was for two point one million, which is why we made the loan. Property values on the island are strong, and the auctioneer we’ve hired to conduct the sale seems to think it should bring a healthy price.”
“And the auction is this Friday?” Riley asked, biting back tears.
“Yes, the auctioneer will be selling off all of Coastal Carolina’s distressed loan portfolio, and I’m sorry, but that does include your house along with several other parcels on the island.”
She paused. “I don’t know if you were aware, but Coastal Carolina also made a one-point-nine-million-dollar loan to Wendell for the purchase of the Holtzclaw property on Fiddler’s Creek. That’s another of the assets that will be liquidated.”
She gave Riley a sympathetic smile, which Riley immediately wanted to slap off her face. “I’m so sorry, Riley. I hope you know the matter is completely out of my hands.”
“Hmm,” Parrish said, looking dubious.
Parrish extracted another document and placed it squarely on top of the death certificate. “As you’ll see, this is a list of corporations which we understand received several million dollars’ worth of real estate loans from this bank, to buy property on Belle Isle. I want to know the status of all those loans.”
“I can’t…” Melody started to object.
But Parrish was ready with yet another document. “That’s a copy of the articles of incorporation for those companies. You’ll see that Wendell made Riley an officer in each one, without her knowledge.”
Melody looked over the list of corporations. “Well, yes, the bank did do business with these companies, but I’m not aware that Wendell Griggs had anything to do with any of them.” She tapped the typed sheet she’d been given. “This man, Samuel Gordon, he’s the agent of record, and he’s the one I dealt with.”
“You dealt with the lawyer from Wilmington?” Riley broke in.
Parrish shot her a stern look.
“Yes,” Melody said cautiously. “I was vice president of lending at Coastal Carolina Bank at the time. But I had no idea Wendell was behind these companies. Are you sure of your facts?”
“We found these documents in files in Wendell’s office at Belle Isle Enterprises,” Parrish said. “And since Riley’s never met this man, I can assure you she had no idea Wendell was involving her in any of these real estate schemes of his.”
“I wouldn’t call them schemes,” Melody objected. “We made these loans in good faith to Mr. Gordon. It was unfortunate that he later defaulted on them, but we absolutely did our due diligence before writing this business.”
“Default?” Riley blanched.
“Yes.” Melody sighed. “Mr. Gordon’s credit history was impeccable, and the projects he presented us with all showed great promise for Belle Isle. Most importantly, we’re a community bank, and we believe in investing in our community. So we were devastated to hear that shortly after our deal was concluded, Mr. Gordon was diagnosed with a fast-moving cancer. The poor man was dead within weeks.” She shook her head in sorrow. “Just tragic.”
“How tragic are we talking about?” Parrish asked. “Put a number on it, please.”
Melody donned a pair of glasses, turned to her computer, and started tapping. Riley stole a glance at Parrish, who sat perfectly erect in her chair, looking positively terrifying.
“Total amount of the package came in at around nine point six million,” Melody reported.
“And what happens now, with poor Mr. Gordon deceased?” Riley asked. “Especially since your old bank was shut down?”
“Not shut down,” Melody said quickly. “None of our customers experienced any losses because their deposits were insured by the FDIC. Baldwin Community has assumed all of Coastal’s assets, and of course, its liabilities and loan portfolio.”
“That’s a pretty big loss for one little bank like this,” Parrish noted. “Forgive me, Melody, but if you were the loan officer, and those loans turned sour, I’m a little surprised you got to keep your job with the new entity.”
Melody’s face turned scarlet with indignation. “You might be a good lawyer, Parrish, but you obviously know nothing about the banking business. It happens that I was the top producing loan officer for the past three years among all of Coastal Carolina’s branch banks. I’ve summered on Belle Isle my whole life, and Baldwin’s executive committee recognized my ability to help with the transition to the new bank management.”
“You’re right, I don’t know a lot about banking,” Parrish said, maintaining her serene composure. “But I’m pretty good at doing Internet research, and before we came over here today, I did find an article in a banking trade magazine that speculated that the source of Coastal Carolina’s failure was specifically due to bad loans to those five companies, which amounted to a disproportionate amount of the bank’s total losses.”
“That’s a gross oversimplification,” Melody said heatedly. “But since we’re all friends here, I’m going to let it pass. Riley is understandably emotional and grief-stricken right now, but I’m really surprised at you, Parrish.” She glanced pointedly at her watch.
“I hate to have to ask you to leave now, but I’ve got an out-of-office meeting I need to prepare for. Are we all done here?”
“Not quite,” Parrish said. “There’s just one more thing. I was wondering why Wendell chose to suddenly close his business and personal accounts last year at Wells Fargo, where he’d banked for many years, and transfer everything over to a dinky little bank like Coastal Carolina, with only four branches, all in little Podunk towns up and down the coast.”
Melody began picking up files from her desk and transferring them into a messenger bag. She unplugged her cell phone, put it in an outer pocket of the bag, and added some pens and a calculator.
“That’s no mystery,” Melody said. “Wendell and I were in Kiwanis together. After I was named executive loan officer here, I mentioned to him that we had favorable commercial loan rates, and how much we’d love to have his business. I think he was tired of the endless bureaucracy of dealing with a megabank like Wells Fargo. As he said, he was just an account number to them. Here at our bank, he was a treasured customer.”