Chapter 7 - The Man in the Gray Sedan
Detective Mills arrived with two patrol officers within twelve minutes.
The gray sedan was already gone.
The photograph remained on my phone.
Clear.
Recent.
Close enough that whoever took it had been watching us from somewhere inside the hotel parking lot.
Mills examined the message.
“Do not respond.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Have you received anything else?”
“Only the will photograph and that call.”
He wrote down both numbers.
“They may be disposable phones.”
“Can you trace them?”
“We’ll try.”
Gwen sat on the edge of the bed.
She was shaking.
That changed everything.
Until then, the investigation had felt like a battle I could contain.
Bank records.
Documents.
Interviews.
Lawyers.
Now somebody had followed my sick wife.
I looked at Mills.
“I want her moved somewhere secure.”
“That’s reasonable.”
“Not another hotel.”
Rachel arrived soon afterward.
She arranged a short-term rental apartment under her firm’s corporate housing account.
The address would not appear under my name.
It was only fifteen minutes from Gwen’s cancer center.
For the first time since I came home, I felt we had taken one real step toward safety.
Then Paige called.
I almost ignored it.
Gwen looked at the screen.
“Answer.”
“Why?”
“She may know something.”
I picked up.
“What?”
Paige was crying.
“Daniel.”
“What happened?”
“You need to get me out.”
“Out of where?”
“The house.”
I stood.
“Why?”
“Mom knows I talked to the police.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where are you?”
“In my bedroom.”
“Is Margaret there?”
“Downstairs.”
“Are you in immediate danger?”
A pause.
“I don’t know.”
I looked at Mills.
He could hear the conversation.
He motioned for me to keep her talking.
“Paige, why are you scared?”
“She keeps asking what I told them.”
“What did you tell them?”
“I told them about Travis.”
Mills’s expression sharpened.
“What about him?”
Paige whispered.
“He helped with the bank.”
“The mortgage?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know it was forged?”
Silence.
“Paige.”
“Yes.”
Gwen closed her eyes.
My sister began sobbing.
“I didn’t understand at first.”
“Then explain.”
“Mom said you gave permission.”
“When did you realize I hadn’t?”
“Later.”
“When?”
“When Travis asked me to practice your signature.”
I felt numb.
“You practiced my signature.”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you sign the mortgage?”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Travis already had it.”
“From where?”
“I don’t know.”
I looked at Mills.
He was taking notes quickly.
“What else?”
“The company.”
“Horizon.”
“Yes.”
“You own thirty percent.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Mom needed somebody local.”
“For insurance fraud?”
“I didn’t know about that at first.”
“When did you know?”
“After the first claim.”
“And you stayed involved.”
Paige cried harder.
“Yes.”
I had no comfort to give her.
“What about Gwen?”
Silence again.
“Paige.”
“I was terrible to her.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I know.”
“Did you stop her from contacting me?”
“Yes.”
Gwen turned away.
“Did you impersonate me?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
Not suspicion.
Not inference.
An admission.
“Why?”
“Mom said you were distracted overseas.”
“That’s your excuse?”
“No.”
“Then what is?”
“There isn’t one.”
Her voice broke.
“I liked the money.”
At least that was honest.
I said nothing.
“I liked the house.”
“The clothes.”
“The trips.”
“People thought we were rich.”
“And Gwen was what?”
“A problem.”
I felt disgust.
“She kept asking questions.”
“She knew the money didn’t make sense.”
“Mom said if you found out, you’d cut us off.”
“She was right.”
“I know.”
I took a breath.
“What about the forged will?”
Paige stopped crying.
“I didn’t sign it.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did Margaret create it?”
“I think so.”
“Who took the photograph?”
“What photograph?”
I told her.
Her breathing changed.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“Travis.”
“You think he sent it?”
“He keeps copies of everything.”
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“For himself?”
“Yes.”
“If Mom turns on him, he threatens to expose her.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Was he outside my hotel?”
“What?”
I told her.
Paige began breathing faster.
“Leave.”
“We already are.”
“No.”
She sounded terrified.
“I mean leave town.”
“Why?”
“Because Travis is desperate.”
“For what?”
“Money.”
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
I looked at Mills.
“Explain.”
“Mom promised him part of the new money.”
“The four hundred thousand?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Fifty.”
The cashier’s check.
Suddenly everything aligned.
Margaret had tried to withdraw fifty thousand dollars the morning after I announced the compensation.
It had not been for contractors.
It had been for Travis.
“What does he have on her?”
“I don’t know all of it.”
“Paige.”
“I don’t.”
“But he says he has something that could send her away for years.”
I almost laughed.
“At this point, there are several options.”
“No.”
Paige lowered her voice.
“He means before the financial stuff.”
I froze.
“What happened before?”
“I don’t know.”
“Paige.”
“I swear.”
A loud crash sounded through the phone.
Paige screamed.
The call went dead.
I looked at Mills.
He was already moving.
Patrol units were dispatched.
I wanted to go.
Mills refused.
“You are not entering that house.”
“She’s my sister.”
“And you may be a target.”
“That doesn’t change—”
“Daniel.”
Gwen’s voice stopped me.
I looked at her.
“Stay.”
I hated it.
But I stayed.
Twenty-eight minutes later, Mills received a call.
Paige was alive.
Margaret had not attacked her.
A lamp had been thrown during an argument.
Paige had locked herself in the bedroom.
Police removed her from the house voluntarily.
She agreed to stay with a friend.
Margaret remained on the property.
Then the search for Travis intensified.
Bank records showed he had processed two of the disputed applications.
Security footage from eighteen months earlier showed him meeting Margaret after hours.
Another video showed Paige.
A forensic review found that multiple login attempts into my account had originated from an address once associated with Travis.
By evening, law enforcement had enough to treat him as a serious person of interest.
But they still could not find him.
Gwen and I moved into the corporate apartment.
It was small.
One bedroom.
White walls.
Cheap furniture.
A narrow balcony overlooking a parking garage.
Gwen stood in the middle of the living room.
“I love it.”
I stared at her.
“You love this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“No one can order me into a storage room.”
The sentence broke something inside me.
I pulled her into my arms.
She rested her head against my chest.
We stayed that way for a long time.
That night, I cooked.
Badly.
I burned chicken.
Undercooked rice.
Forgot salt.
Gwen ate everything.
“This is terrible.”
“I know.”
She smiled.
“It’s perfect.”
After dinner, she took her medication.
Then she sat beside me on the couch.
“What happens if the treatment works?”
“When.”
“What?”
“When the treatment works.”
She gave me a tired smile.
“What happens when it works?”
“Whatever you want.”
“Can we sell the house?”
“Yes.”
“Even if it costs us money?”
“Yes.”
“I never want to see it again.”
“Neither do I.”
She leaned against me.
Then she whispered.
“I want somewhere small.”
“Okay.”
“A kitchen I choose.”
“Okay.”
“A garden.”
“Okay.”
“And no storage room.”
I kissed the top of her head.
“Especially no storage room.”
At 1:13 a.m., I woke to my phone vibrating.
Rachel.
I answered immediately.
“What happened?”
“We found Leonard Price.”
“Where?”
“At a hospital.”
I sat upright.
“Why?”
“Someone attacked him outside his office.”
My stomach dropped.
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
“Did he identify anyone?”
“No.”
“But police searched his office under a warrant.”
“And?”
Rachel took a breath.
“They found a safe.”
“What was inside?”
“Copies of documents.”
“Money.”
“Several flash drives.”
“And a sealed envelope with your name.”
I swung my feet onto the floor.
“What does it say?”
“I haven’t seen the contents.”
“Why?”
“The detectives have it.”
“Rachel.”
“There’s something written on the front.”
“What?”
She hesitated.
“Open only if Daniel Carter comes home alive.”
I looked toward Gwen sleeping beside me.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I don’t know.”
But by sunrise, we would.
The envelope contained a letter Leonard had written eleven months earlier.
It began with one sentence.
If Daniel Carter dies during deployment, Margaret will become very rich.
And then came the sentence that changed the entire investigation.
May you like
I believe she is trying to make sure that happens.
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