Chapter 3
Chad’s version of events arrived through his attorney.
He denied threatening Leo.
He claimed he had found the boy climbing around dangerous glass furniture without supervision and tried to remove him from the room.
According to Chad, Leo panicked.
The baseball bat had been lying near the billiard area.
Chad picked it up to move it away.
The glass table broke accidentally.
Claire read the written statement aloud.
Jackson stared at her.
“He raised it over my son’s head.”
“That is what Leo appears to have experienced.”
“I saw the bat in his hand.”
“Yes.”
“He told me to walk away.”
“Yes.”
Claire continued reading.
Chad also denied knowledge of the steel case beneath the poker table.
That interested Jackson more.
“He didn’t ask what was inside?”
Claire looked at the statement.
“No.”
“He doesn’t know investigators found a case?”
“His attorney knows we recovered evidence from the room. We did not describe it.”
Jackson leaned back.
“So he denied knowing about a case nobody told him existed.”
Claire stopped.
Then read the sentence again.
Chad’s attorney had written:
Mr. Bellandi has no knowledge of any concealed cash, betting ledger, recording equipment, or other alleged contraband purportedly recovered from the game room.
Claire looked at Jackson.
“Interesting.”
“Recording equipment?”
“There wasn’t any.”
“Exactly.”
The prepaid phone did not qualify as recording equipment.
Neither Jackson nor Claire had mentioned a ledger publicly.
Only a sealed evidence recovery.
Chad knew—or guessed—far more than he should.
Still not proof.
The forensic review continued.
The cash totaled $186,000.
Most bills were ordinary circulated currency.
But bank straps around several bundles carried teller marks.
The money had been withdrawn four days earlier from an account belonging to Bellandi Social Holdings.
That company managed two private dining clubs and an event venue.
Chad had operational authority over all three.
Jackson looked at the withdrawal authorization.
“What was the stated purpose?”
Claire answered.
“Vendor settlement.”
“Which vendor?”
“No vendor listed.”
“Who approved?”
“Chad and finance manager Peter Weller.”
Peter was already being interviewed.
He said Chad told him the money was needed to settle an old private-event obligation that could not be paid by check because the vendor’s banking details were being updated.
Stupid.
Possible.
Not normal.
The ledger created a bigger problem.
Several entries corresponded to real private poker nights historically held by Bellandi relatives.
Jackson knew about them.
Years earlier, he had attended some.
The games were supposed to be social and relatively modest.
The ledger made them look like a systematic cash gambling operation running through the estate.
Under Jackson’s personal control.
Claire pointed to a date.
“Where were you June seventeenth?”
Jackson thought.
“Boston.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“You gave a hotel speech.”
Claire confirmed it on her phone.
The ledger showed Jackson personally authorizing a $72,000 settlement in the game room that same night.
First problem with the ledger.
A record designed to incriminate Jackson included an event that could not have happened the way it claimed.
Claire closed the book.
“Either somebody is terrible at bookkeeping…”
May you like
Jackson looked at the cash.
“…or somebody expected nobody to check until it was too late.”
