Chapter 3 - THE FIRST STATEMENT
Two patrol cars stopped in front of the house, followed by an unmarked SUV.
The uniformed officers separated everyone.
The woman from the SUV introduced herself as Special Agent Lena Ortiz from Army Criminal Investigation Division.
Marcus's confidence vanished.
"This is family stuff," he said.
Ortiz looked at Maya's face. "Not anymore."
Paramedics examined both children.
Maya had bruising around her eye, a healing mark on her upper arm, and cracked skin on her hands from detergent. Eli was underweight but stable.
When a medic asked Maya who usually fed the baby at night, she pointed to herself.
David closed his eyes.
Sarah began crying.
"I was tired," she said. "Marcus was helping me. David was gone. I thought he was dead."
"You thought I was dead for seven weeks?" David asked.
Sarah flinched.
He was right. Missing was not dead.
Marcus tried to leave again.
One officer stopped him.
Ortiz asked Sarah for the property-transfer envelope from her purse.
Sarah hesitated.
David noticed.
"Give it to her."
Inside was a quitclaim deed transferring David's half of the house to Sarah.
His signature appeared at the bottom.
So did a notary stamp.
David laughed once, without humor.
"I was in Afghanistan on that date."
Marcus said, "Maybe you signed it before you left."
David finally looked directly at him.
"I didn't."
Ortiz placed the document into an evidence bag.
Then she removed another paper from Sarah's purse.
A bank receipt.
Forty-eight thousand dollars withdrawn from David's deployment savings account three weeks earlier.
Sarah wiped her face.
"I can explain that."
David nodded.
"Good. Start talking."
Before she could, an officer came in from the garage carrying a locked black case.
"Agent Ortiz? You need to see this."
Marcus went pale.
May you like
For the first time since David walked in, Sarah looked at Marcus instead of her husband.
And the fear in her face told me the case did not belong to David.
