The church became a crime scene within minutes.<\/p>\n
Uniformed officers sealed the doors.<\/p>\n
Another team searched the basement, offices, storage rooms and grounds.<\/p>\n
The person who entered had escaped through a rear corridor before police closed the perimeter.<\/p>\n
That was bad enough.<\/p>\n
Worse was the realization that the intruder had known the drive existed.<\/p>\n
Detective Bennett questioned Alicia first.<\/p>\n
Not gently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho knew you had it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBruce.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLisa?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRuth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMark?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly after I called him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett turned to Mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho did you tell?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother. Samuel. You.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel answered the same.<\/p>\n
So did I.<\/p>\n
That left Bruce.<\/p>\n
Or someone listening.<\/p>\n
Karen arrived forty minutes later.<\/p>\n
She examined the tracker found in Alicia's bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may explain how someone followed her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly if it was transmitting and someone monitored it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan you determine that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForensics can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia sat with both arms wrapped around herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI told you Daniel would know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou also told us you didn't know how.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThink harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark stood by the broken rear-office window.<\/p>\n
He had barely spoken since the drive disappeared.<\/p>\n
Finally he turned.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou kept another copy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know you.\u201d<\/p>\n
She laughed bitterly.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently you don't.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
He approached the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don't hand over your only leverage before you know what you're getting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia stared.<\/p>\n
Mark continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said you wanted money yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that drive was your only copy, you'd have demanded a deal before putting it on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett watched her carefully.<\/p>\n
I did too.<\/p>\n
Alicia's silence answered before her mouth did.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is it?\u201d Mark asked.<\/p>\n
She looked away.<\/p>\n
Samuel whispered, \u201cThere is another copy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett sat across from Alicia.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia rubbed her forehead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made three.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne was the drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCloud storage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett's expression sharpened.<\/p>\n
\u201cCredentials?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI deleted the account.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDeleted doesn't necessarily mean gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThird?\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia did not answer.<\/p>\n
Mark closed his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their house.<\/p>\n
The place Alicia had left after emptying the joint account.<\/p>\n
Bennett asked, \u201cExact location?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hid it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the attic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark frowned.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don't have an attic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe access panel above the twins' closet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought that was ductwork.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt opens into a crawlspace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark almost laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course it does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia explained.<\/p>\n
Inside the crawlspace sat a small fireproof box.<\/p>\n
Documents.<\/p>\n
Cash.<\/p>\n
Backup drive.<\/p>\n
A notebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat notebook?\u201d Bennett asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cPayments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The room became still.<\/p>\n
\u201cDaniel?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFoster?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLisa?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRuth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBruce?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot payments. Ownership splits.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOther cases?\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett asked the obvious question.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did you keep it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia looked at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I never trusted Daniel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark laughed without humor.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou trusted him enough to help steal Mom's property.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI trusted the deal. Not him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat sentence doesn't help you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett arranged a warrant request immediately.<\/p>\n
Because Mark co-owned the residence and consented to police entry, part of the process became easier, but Bennett still insisted everything be documented properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't want evidence challenged later because we were impatient.\u201d<\/p>\n
By early afternoon, we were back in our county.<\/p>\n
I did not go to Mark's house.<\/p>\n
Bennett refused.<\/p>\n
This time I agreed.<\/p>\n
Mark went with officers.<\/p>\n
Alicia remained in protective custody while investigators decided what to do with her.<\/p>\n
Samuel and I returned to his office.<\/p>\n
For the first time since this began, his reception area felt hollow.<\/p>\n
Daniel's office door stood open.<\/p>\n
His name had been removed from the glass.<\/p>\n
I stopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel looked at the empty rectangle where the lettering had been.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff asked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes it help?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
He led me into his office.<\/p>\n
A photograph of Samuel and Daniel at some legal association dinner stood on a shelf.<\/p>\n
Samuel noticed me looking.<\/p>\n
He picked it up.<\/p>\n
For a moment, I thought he might throw it away.<\/p>\n
Instead he placed it facedown in a drawer.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvidence?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cCowardice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't want to look at him.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was honest.<\/p>\n
We sat.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if Daniel knew Raymond was investigating him?\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel looked toward the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cI've been asking myself that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould that be why Raymond created the separate envelope?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould Daniel have known about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't see how.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone knew we found it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The anonymous caller.<\/p>\n
The photograph at the church.<\/p>\n
Raymond should have left it alone.<\/p>\n
Samuel rubbed his forehead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI keep returning to something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRaymond told me once that someone had been inside his workshop.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMonths before he became seriously ill.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stared.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told you that?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you never told me?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was nothing obviously stolen. He thought teenagers might have entered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid he change the lock?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCould Daniel have been looking for those notes?\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel looked miserable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don't know.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to stop saying that as though uncertainty excuses not asking.\u201d<\/p>\n
His head lifted.<\/p>\n
The sentence came out harsher than I intended.<\/p>\n
But I did not retract it.<\/p>\n
Samuel nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou're right.\u201d<\/p>\n
He opened an old calendar on his computer.<\/p>\n
\u201cRaymond mentioned the workshop in June.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYear?\u201d<\/p>\n
He told me.<\/p>\n
Six months before his death.<\/p>\n
Daniel had already been at the firm for several years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere was Daniel that month?\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel searched old billing records.<\/p>\n
His expression changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe handled a zoning matter two streets from your property.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo he had reason to be nearby.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot proof.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
But another coincidence had moved closer to pattern.<\/p>\n
At 3:20, Bennett called.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey found the box.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel put her on speaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the drive?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe notebook?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything else?\u201d<\/p>\n
A pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCash.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow much?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForty-eight thousand dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel looked at me.<\/p>\n
Mark had told us the joint account held almost nothing.<\/p>\n
Alicia had hidden forty-eight thousand in the ceiling above her children's closet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did it come from?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don't know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIs Mark there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot good.\u201d<\/p>\n
I understood.<\/p>\n
Money had become proof that the marriage he thought he lived inside was partly fictional.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan I speak to him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe'll call later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe notebook appears significant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow significant?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInitial review shows names, dates and percentages.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMine?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does it say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Pages turned on her end.<\/p>\n
\u201cHAYES \u2014 40 A \/ 40 B \/ 20 C.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alicia.<\/p>\n
Bruce.<\/p>\n
Crescent.<\/p>\n
Ownership shares.<\/p>\n
Then another line.<\/p>\n
\u201cDD \u2014 75K total on close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniel would receive seventy-five thousand if my property transferred.<\/p>\n
Samuel swore.<\/p>\n
\u201cFoster?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFifteen thousand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor my case?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUnclear. There are initials beside several payments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLisa?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTen thousand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRuth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
That was the price assigned to becoming me.<\/p>\n
Bennett continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are older entries.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMargaret?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
My chest tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does it say?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMC \u2014 resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only that.<\/p>\n
Resolved.<\/p>\n
No number.<\/p>\n
No explanation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Harold Greene?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHG \u2014 complete.\u201d<\/p>\n
The language was colder than the spreadsheet.<\/p>\n
People reduced to initials.<\/p>\n
Transactions reduced to completion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne name is marked active.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cEleanor Price.\u201d<\/p>\n
I stood so quickly my chair hit the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel stared at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour Eleanor?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett repeated.<\/p>\n
\u201cEleanor Price. Address listed on Kilburn Road.\u201d<\/p>\n
I almost laughed with relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat isn't her.\u201d<\/p>\n
My Eleanor's surname was Watkins.<\/p>\n
Samuel exhaled.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent person.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the relief lasted only seconds.<\/p>\n
Because somewhere there was another Eleanor.<\/p>\n
Another older person whose name sat in Alicia's notebook beneath the word active.<\/p>\n
\u201cAddress?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bennett gave it.<\/p>\n
Samuel searched property records.<\/p>\n
Eleanor Price, age seventy-nine.<\/p>\n
Widow.<\/p>\n
Owned fourteen acres beside a proposed highway expansion.<\/p>\n
My skin crawled.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes she know?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPolice are contacting her now.\u201d<\/p>\n
I sat again.<\/p>\n
This was what Alicia meant.<\/p>\n
Twelve names.<\/p>\n
Properties somebody wanted.<\/p>\n
The investigation widened immediately.<\/p>\n
Bennett said the backup drive would be imaged overnight.<\/p>\n
The notebook would remain evidence.<\/p>\n
Alicia's cash would be traced.<\/p>\n
Then she added something else.<\/p>\n
\u201cDorothy, one page contains your name outside the Lakeview entries.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does it say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
\u201cD.H. \u2014 leverage through M.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMark.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLikely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beneath it:<\/p>\n
If M fails, capacity route.<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
First my son.<\/p>\n
Then my mind.<\/p>\n
Those were the two doors into my life.<\/p>\n
Daniel's people had planned to use whichever opened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFinal note says: R prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRuth?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruth had been prepared before I refused anything.<\/p>\n
My impersonator existed before the need for impersonation.<\/p>\n
That meant forgery had never been an emergency solution.<\/p>\n
It had been a backup plan.<\/p>\n
Samuel looked at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey expected resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thought of the pocket call.<\/p>\n
Alicia had sounded certain.<\/p>\n
She'll sign.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey expected obedience.\u201d<\/p>\n
My phone rang.<\/p>\n
Temporary number.<\/p>\n
Only a few people had it.<\/p>\n
Mark.<\/p>\n
I answered.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom.\u201d<\/p>\n
His voice sounded broken.<\/p>\n
\u201cI'm here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI found something the police didn't understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the attic box. An envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDid you give it to Bennett?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was inside?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA photograph.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOf what?\u201d<\/p>\n
He swallowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad.\u201d<\/p>\n
My chest tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNear the end. He looks sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is he?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cParking lot outside Dr. Foster's office.\u201d<\/p>\n
I gripped the desk.<\/p>\n
\u201cRaymond knew Foster?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think so.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything written?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBy whom?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does it say?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark read slowly.<\/p>\n
Foster knows Daniel is using capacity letters. Says he wants out. Meeting Friday.<\/p>\n
I stared at Samuel.<\/p>\n
Raymond had not merely suspected Dr. Foster.<\/p>\n
He had spoken to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen was the photograph taken?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark gave the date.<\/p>\n
Four days before Raymond was hospitalized for the final time.<\/p>\n
Samuel stood.<\/p>\n
\u201cDorothy.\u201d<\/p>\n
I already understood.<\/p>\n
If Foster had wanted out six years ago, why was his signature appearing on false assessments now?<\/p>\n
Either he never escaped Daniel\u2014<\/p>\n
or somebody had been using his name too.<\/p>\n
The church became a crime scene within minutes. Uniformed officers sealed the doors. Another team searched the basement, offices, storage rooms and grounds. The person who entered had escaped through … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chapter-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8038,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988\/revisions\/8038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechapterstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}