Fraud in the Family

Susan Allison is a Manhattan stock broker, about to leave work for a weekend at her family estate on Shelter Island. She takes a call from Dr. Raymond Sinclair, and is pulled into an IRS investigation. The doctor is implicated in a tax fraud involving Edwards and Sinclair Realty, a company part owned by Susan’s ailing father, and managed by her underachieving brother in law.

Susan follows the doctor’s instructions and pays the IRS, but the doctor’s story is so strange that she decides to call her CPA firm. Tim Harris, CPA, advises Susan to investigate immediately. At the end of a hectic weekend of brilliant accounting, Harris accuses bookkeeper Pam Poteat.

Pam is the syrupy smooth senior accounting clerk at a New York City property management company owned by Sinclair and by Grover and Irene Holcomb. The Holcombs are thieves, who ordered their employee Pam to steal millions from the doctor, and from Susan’s family. What the Holcombs don’t know is that Pam was a double thief.

The Holcombs are forced to fire Pam, who immediately flees New York. She returns home to North Carolina, but worries that Dr. Sinclair’s problem will become her problem. She fears criminal charges, and travels north to hire a former co-worker to act as her New York spy.

Forensic professionals hired by Susan Allison and her attorney-friend, Judy Roseman expose years of sophisticated deception and brazen thievery. Judy hires attorneys to sue the Holcombs, who respond by hiring their own colorful litigator. Everyone marvels at Pam, as her troublesome skills provide a primer on small business fraud.

The attorneys are glad to do battle over money, until the IRS reappears to investigate more tax fraud. The Holcombs attorneys hurry to devise an exit strategy that will keep their clients out of jail. The IRS is once again relentless, but even they underestimate Pam’s survival skills.