He told me Sabrina and the man left through the south entrance around 9:10. They were standing close, his hand on her lower back. She was laughing.
"I wouldn't have thought much of it," Nolan said, "except I heard her say something when they passed the service hallway. She said, 'I just need to get through Friday.'"
Friday. The gala was Friday.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"No idea. But it sounded like she was talking about a deadline. Something that needed to happen by Friday."
I thanked him. Hung up.
"I just need to get through Friday."
Friday was the next day. I had no idea what was supposed to happen on Friday, but apparently, my condo was part of the plan.
Tuesday, I started going through Sabrina's things in the spare room. Not to punish her. To organize. She had a lot. 2 years' worth of overflow.
Found a folder in her desk drawer.
Townhouse brochures, New Albany area, $420K to $480K range. A pre-approval worksheet from a mortgage lender. Not filled out completely, but sections were highlighted. Projected monthly housing costs, numbers that didn't make sense with what I knew she earned.
Scans of old documents. My tax returns from 2 years ago, when she still had access to my laptop. My credit report summary from a financial planning session we did together.
And a draft household budget with two income columns. One column had numbers close to what I make. The other was lower, closer to her range.
But the note at the bottom said, "Temporarily at N's, low housing overhead. Target March close."
March. 2 months away.
She had been treating my condo like a free staging area. A place to minimize expenses while she built toward something else.
But the part that made my stomach drop wasn't the budget. It was the other name on the paperwork.
Rachel Hale. Sabrina's older sister.
Rachel showed up at my building Wednesday evening, unannounced. Buzzed from downstairs.
"Nico, it is Rachel. Can I come up?"
I let her in.
She didn't look defensive. She looked alarmed.
First thing she said: "Did you ever agree to cosign anything for Sabrina?"
"No. Why?"
She pulled out her phone and showed me a credit monitoring alert. Hard inquiry. Mortgage pre-approval. Her name and Sabrina's name listed as co-applicants.