Chapter 8 - THE MONEY TRAIL
My life insurance policy was worth far more than the memorial donations.
Rachel knew that.
She was the primary beneficiary.
But a real military death can't be manufactured with a social media post.
There are official records.
Investigations.
Notifications.
Verification.
Whatever Rachel had planned, she couldn't simply walk into an office and collect a policy because she printed a fake letter.
That should have comforted me.
It didn't.
Because Katherine discovered that Rachel had already tried.
The broker from the security footage confirmed she had contacted him.
She told him I had died overseas and asked how quickly she could access benefits.
When he requested official documentation, she provided the forged casualty letter.
He noticed inconsistencies.
He refused to submit the claim.
Rachel became angry.
Then she asked him a question that made him suspicious.
"If official confirmation takes months, what happens if I leave the country?"
He had kept notes.
Every word was now evidence.
The memorial fundraiser was different.
That money had already been deposited.
Most of it was gone.
Katherine traced what she could.
Luxury hotel.
Furniture.
Brad's truck payment.
A $12,000 transfer into an account opened jointly by Rachel and Brad.
Plane tickets.
And one payment that made no sense.
$9,500 to a company called Harbor Path Consulting.
"What is that?"
I asked.
Katherine typed the name into her laptop.
The company barely existed.
A rented mailbox.
No obvious website.
No employees listed.
Then she found the owner.
Bradley Collins.
Brad.
My wife had transferred nearly ten thousand dollars of money donated for my supposedly fatherless child directly into Brad's company.
I sat back.
"What were they planning?"
Katherine didn't answer immediately.
Then my phone buzzed.
A message from a number I didn't recognize.
Captain Walker.
My name is Jenna Collins.
I'm Brad's former wife.
We need to talk before he convinces Rachel to disappear.
I stared at the message.
Katherine read it over my shoulder.
"Call her."
Jenna answered immediately.
Her voice was shaky.
"I saw your story online."
"What story?"
"The posts saying you came home alive."
I closed my eyes.
News traveled fast.
Jenna continued.
"Brad did something similar to me."
My eyes opened.
"What?"
"He isolated my son from me."
She said.
"He told people I was unstable."
"He lied to my family."
"He controlled every account."
"When I finally left, he emptied everything."
I looked at Katherine.
"Do you know where he is?"
"No."
Jenna hesitated.
"But I know what he does when he's cornered."
"What?"
"He runs."
Another pause.
"And he never runs without taking something valuable with him."
My heart started beating harder.
"What does he consider valuable?"
Jenna's answer came instantly.
"Money."
May you like
Then she added something that frightened me more.
"And leverage."
