Chapter 12 - FINAL SERVICES
The phrase stayed in Daniel's mind all night.
FINAL SERVICES.
It could mean legal work.
Security work.
Debt collection.
Or something much worse.
At 6:30 the next morning, Brooks called to say the cashier's check had not yet been deposited.
"Can you flag it?" Daniel asked.
"The bank is cooperating under legal process."
"That's not an answer."
"It means if someone presents it, we will know."
Daniel understood.
They were setting a quiet alarm.
Dana arrived with breakfast and a stack of motions.
The emergency asset freeze had been expanded to include North Bridge and the newly discovered insurance-linked trust.
Victoria's attorneys objected within an hour.
They claimed Daniel was using his military status to intimidate an elderly parent.
They claimed Elena had manipulated financial records.
They demanded access to the house.
"They already have the house," Daniel said.
Dana looked at the filing.
"Victoria is arguing the house is partly under her control because of loans she supposedly made to you."
"She never loaned us money."
"I know."
"Then why does she have documents?"
"Because apparently everyone in your family has a printer."
Elena actually laughed.
It was brief and shocked, as though the sound had escaped without permission.
Dana smiled.
"There she is."
Elena's smile disappeared, but not completely.
By midday, Brooks had located the notary whose stamp appeared on the insurance application.
The notary denied meeting Daniel or Elena.
He reported his stamp stolen seven months earlier.
He had filed a police report.
The report was taken by Deputy Thomas Keene.
Daniel stared at the copy.
"He had access to the stolen-stamp report."
"Yes," Brooks said.
"Did the stamp ever get recovered?"
"No."
"So Keene knew exactly what was available."
"That is one interpretation supported by the timeline."
Daniel gave her a look.
"You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Making obvious things sound polite."
"You'll appreciate it when defense counsel tries to call everything speculation."
Brooks had another development.
The cashier's check to Keene had been presented at a credit union twenty minutes earlier.
The teller delayed processing because the amount triggered review.
The man presenting it used Keene's driver's license.
But he was not Keene.
"Who was he?" Elena asked.
"We don't know yet."
"Camera?"
"Yes."
A still image arrived.
The man wore a cap and sunglasses.
He was shorter than Keene.
Elena leaned toward the screen.
"That's the person from the green truck."
Daniel agreed.
Same height.
Same build.
Same slightly forward posture.
Brooks said investigators were tracing his vehicle.
He had arrived in a white sedan with stolen plates.
He left when the teller asked him to wait.
The check remained at the credit union.
"So somebody else was supposed to collect Keene's payment," Dana said.
"Or cash it for him," Brooks replied.
"Or make it look like he got paid," Daniel added.
Everyone looked at him.
Daniel continued.
"What if Keene is being framed too?"
Elena shook her head.
"He lied for them."
"I know."
"He watched Ricardo hurt me."
"I know."
"He searched my car."
"I know."
Daniel leaned forward.
"But that doesn't mean Victoria and Ricardo wouldn't sacrifice him."
Dana nodded slowly.
"That is plausible."
Brooks agreed.
"We are considering it."
The possibility complicated everything.
Keene could be an accomplice and a target.
He could have helped construct the scheme and then become disposable.
Or he could still be hiding with Ricardo.
At 2:15 p.m., that question partially answered itself.
A highway patrol officer found Keene's SUV abandoned near an industrial park.
The driver's door was unlocked.
His phone was inside.
There was blood on the steering wheel.
Elena covered her mouth.
Daniel stared at Brooks's message.
"How much blood?"
"Not enough to conclude anything."
"Was he injured?"
"Unknown."
"Ricardo?"
"Unknown."
"Weapon?"
"None found."
Dana looked at Daniel.
"Do not start filling gaps with theories."
"I'm trying not to."
Brooks called an hour later.
The blood belonged to Keene according to a rapid comparison with a prior sample from a department medical file.
The SUV's navigation history had been erased.
But the vehicle manufacturer retained cloud location events.
The SUV had traveled to the Alvarez house the night Daniel and Elena left.
Then to Pike's office.
Then to the storage facility.
Then to an abandoned warehouse district.
"When was the last location?" Daniel asked.
"3:11 a.m. yesterday."
"Before the SUV was found?"
"Yes."
Brooks paused.
"We're searching the warehouse area now."
Daniel hated waiting.
Elena hated silence.
They filled both with small ordinary tasks.
Laundry.
Coffee.
A walk inside the secure building hallway.
At one point, Elena stood in front of a vending machine for three minutes deciding between crackers and chocolate.
Daniel watched her with unexpected emotion.
For months, Victoria had apparently controlled what Elena bought, where she went, and how she spent.
Now choosing a snack had become an act of independence.
"Chocolate," Daniel said.
Elena looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because you stared at it first."
"Don't make decisions for me."
Daniel raised both hands.
"Crackers it is."
Elena stared another second.
Then pressed the chocolate button.
"I didn't say crackers."
Daniel smiled.
"Understood."
The ordinary moment ended when Dana called.
"We have a problem."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"What now?"
"Victoria is giving a press conference."
"A what?"
Dana sent a link.
A local news livestream showed Victoria standing outside Daniel's house beside two attorneys.
She wore a dark dress and the same expensive necklace Daniel had noticed on his first morning home.
Her eyes were red.
Her voice trembled perfectly.
"My son came home from deployment changed," she told cameras.
"We love him, but we are frightened for him."
Daniel felt sick.
Victoria described Elena as manipulative and unstable.
She claimed Ricardo had disappeared because Daniel threatened him.
She said Keene was missing after trying to help the family.
Then she held up a photograph.
It showed Victoria's bruised eye.
"This is what Elena did to me," she said.
Elena stepped away from the screen.
Daniel reached for the laptop lid.
Dana stopped him through the call.
"Leave it on."
"Why?"
"Because she may say something useful."
Victoria continued.
"I have remained silent to protect my son."
Dana snorted.
"That lasted forty-eight hours."
Victoria then produced copies of checks signed by Elena.
One was the forty-thousand-dollar North Bridge payment Elena had already disclosed.
Another Daniel had never seen.
It was for one hundred thousand dollars.
Elena stared at the image.
"That's not my signature."
Daniel believed her.
The old version of him might have looked twice.
This version did not.
Victoria concluded with a plea for Daniel to "come home and get help."
Then a reporter asked whether she had transferred his property while he was deployed.
Victoria's expression flickered.
Only for a moment.
"My son authorized me to protect his affairs," she said.
Another reporter asked about RCV Holdings.
Victoria's lawyer ended the conference.
Dana immediately clipped the video.
"Why?" Daniel asked.
"Because she just made a public statement about authorization."
"Which is false."
"Exactly."
Elena sat on the couch, shaking.
"Everyone will believe her."
Daniel looked at the comments under the livestream.
Some people did.
Others did not.
But Dana took the phone away.
"Do not read public comments."
Elena looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because strangers are not jurors and they are not your therapist."
Elena almost smiled.
At 6:40 p.m., Brooks called from the warehouse district.
Investigators had found a room recently used as a temporary hideout.
Inside were food wrappers, a sleeping bag, disposable phones, and a torn piece of Ricardo's driver's license photocopy.
They also found a bloodstained shirt belonging to Keene.
"Keene?" Daniel asked.
"Not there."
"Ricardo?"
"Not there."
"Gun?"
"Not there."
Brooks's voice tightened.
"But we found a map."
Daniel waited.
"Of what?"
"Your protected apartment building."
Elena stopped breathing.
Dana looked at the ceiling as though forcing herself not to swear.
Daniel's voice became very calm.
"You said four people knew this location."
"They did."
"Then one of those four told them."
May you like
Brooks did not answer.
She did not need to.
