Chapter 4 - THE FRIEND WITH A BADGE
Dana did not allow Daniel to call the sheriff's office.
She did not allow him to call Thomas Keene.
She did not allow him to drive to the station and demand answers.
"You are emotionally involved and potentially dealing with a law enforcement officer who may have filed a false affidavit," she said.
Daniel paced across the conference room.
"So we do nothing?"
"No."
Dana picked up the phone.
"We do it correctly."
She contacted a state investigator she had worked with on financial fraud cases.
She also sent a preservation request to the court clerk for the original divorce filing metadata and service documents.
Then she prepared an emergency motion to set aside the fraudulent divorce proceeding and freeze any property transfers tied to it.
Daniel watched the legal machine begin to move.
It was slower than anger.
It was also more dangerous to the people who had underestimated him.
Luis arrived an hour later carrying a dented metal toolbox.
He placed it on Dana's conference table.
"You brought tools?" Daniel asked.
Luis shook his head.
"I brought what your brother couldn't find."
He opened the box.
Inside were flash drives, printed invoices, bank copies, handwritten notes, and a small external hard drive.
Elena stared at him.
"You kept all that?"
"Your mother made me nervous."
Daniel almost corrected him.
Then he remembered that Victoria had been Luis's employer only by fraud.
"Start at the beginning," Dana said.
Luis did.
In late June, Victoria had arrived with a power of attorney claiming Daniel had authorized her to make urgent business decisions during deployment.
At first, the decisions were minor.
A vendor change.
A temporary payroll adjustment.
A new bookkeeping service.
Then Ricardo began appearing.
He demanded access to accounting software.
He asked for administrator credentials.
He ordered Luis to route several customer payments into a new bank account.
Luis refused.
Two days later, the bank account changed anyway.
"Who had access?" Dana asked.
"Me, Elena, Daniel, and our outside accountant."
Elena shook her head.
"I didn't change it."
"I know."
Luis looked at Daniel.
"Someone used your credentials."
Daniel frowned.
"My password was changed before I deployed."
"By you?"
"Yes."
"Did you store it anywhere?"
Daniel thought.
"In a password manager."
"Who knew the master password?"
Daniel looked at Elena.
She looked back.
Only the two of them knew it.
Then Elena whispered, "Victoria had my phone for three days."
Dana wrote that down.
"When?"
"July."
"Why?"
"She said I needed a break from social media."
Luis gave a disgusted laugh.
"A break?"
Elena's eyes dropped.
"She took it after I tried to call Daniel's base."
Daniel went still.
"You tried to call me?"
"Three times."
"I never got anything."
"I know."
"Why didn't you email?"
"She changed the Wi-Fi password."
Daniel stared at her.
"Use cell data."
Elena closed her eyes.
"Ricardo canceled my phone plan."
The room fell silent.
Daniel thought back to their video calls.
They had become shorter in July.
Then sporadic in August.
Elena always blamed weak signal, exhaustion, or headaches.
He had believed her.
Worse, he had accepted it because he was exhausted too.
"How did you call me at all?" he asked.
"Victoria let me use her phone."
Daniel understood.
Every call had been controlled.
Every conversation had been supervised.
"Was she in the room?"
Elena nodded.
"Usually."
Daniel sat down.
He remembered asking Elena once whether she was happy.
Elena had smiled too quickly and said, "Of course."
Victoria had been standing ten feet away.
He remembered now.
Luis pushed a flash drive toward Dana.
"This has server logs."
"What kind?"
"Remote logins."
Dana inserted the drive into an isolated laptop.
The logs showed multiple access sessions from Daniel's credentials.
Several came from their home IP address while Daniel was overseas.
Others came from an office network registered to Pike & Latham Legal Services.
Dana froze.
"Pike."
Elena looked at her.
"Mr. Pike."
Dana searched the name.
Calvin Pike was a small-business attorney with disciplinary complaints but an active license.
He had prepared the incorporation paperwork for RCV Holdings.
He had also notarized two of the disputed transfer documents.
"This is getting bigger," Dana said.
Daniel's phone vibrated.
It was Victoria again.
This time, she left a voicemail.
Dana told him to play it on speaker.
Victoria's voice filled the room.
"Daniel, I don't know what Elena has told you, but you need to come home before she turns this into something ugly."
A pause followed.
Then Victoria continued.
"Your brother is worried about you."
Another pause.
"We have documents showing exactly what Elena agreed to, and if she starts making false accusations, Ricardo will have no choice but to protect himself."
Daniel stopped the recording.
Dana held out her hand.
"Send me that."
He did.
Elena's face was rigid.
"Protect himself," she whispered.
Daniel looked at her.
"What does that mean?"
Elena did not answer.
"Elena."
She stared at the table.
"He said that before."
Dana leaned forward.
"When?"
"The night he broke my rib."
Daniel's vision narrowed.
"Ricardo did that?"
Elena's breathing became shallow.
"Victoria was there."
"Tell us what happened."
"I refused to sign a transfer."
"Which transfer?"
"The business."
Daniel's hands clenched.
Elena continued.
"Ricardo grabbed my arm."
"Then what?"
"I tried to pull away."
Her eyes filled.
"Victoria locked the kitchen door."
Luis muttered something under his breath.
Dana remained still.
"What did Ricardo do?"
"He shoved me into the counter."
Daniel stopped breathing.
"I hit the edge."
Elena touched her side unconsciously.
"Then he said if I called police, he would tell them I attacked Victoria."
Dana's eyes narrowed.
"Why would police believe that?"
Elena looked at her.
"Because Tom was sitting in the living room."
The silence that followed was absolute.
Daniel stared at her.
"Deputy Keene was in our house when Ricardo hurt you?"
"Yes."
"Did he see it?"
"I don't know how much he saw."
"Did he hear it?"
"He came into the kitchen afterward."
Dana's face had changed completely.
"What did he say?"
Elena looked ashamed.
"He told me families fight."
Daniel stood so fast his chair tipped backward.
Luis caught it before it hit the floor.
Dana's voice cut through Daniel's anger.
"Sit down."
Daniel stared at her.
"He was there."
"I heard her."
"He was there."
"And if you storm into his department, what do you think happens?"
Daniel said nothing.
"He gets warned."
Dana pointed toward the evidence.
"Files disappear."
"Then what?"
"Then we make sure he does not get a warning."
Her phone rang.
She answered, listened, and wrote two words on a legal pad.
State police.
Daniel watched her expression.
"Yes," Dana said.
"I understand."
She listened again.
"No, my clients are secure."
Another pause.
"I'll send the records now."
She ended the call.
"What happened?" Daniel asked.
Dana looked at Elena.
"Thomas Keene is not on duty today."
Daniel waited.
"So?"
"His department says he called in sick."
Elena went pale.
Dana continued.
"And according to a state investigator, his patrol car's automatic license plate reader was accessed this morning."
Daniel felt cold.
"Accessed by who?"
"Keene's credentials."
"What was searched?"
May you like
Dana looked directly at him.
"Your truck."
