Chapter 15 - The Flash Drive
The flash drive held spreadsheets.
Not one deal.
Dozens.
Property addresses, estimated equity, owner ages, mortgage balances, family contacts, and notes about who might be easy to pressure.
My line read:
Single owner. Strong credit. Family leverage available.
I had to stand up and walk away from the screen.
Patricia kept reading.
Frank had been feeding Dileia targets.
Caleb had been arranging private money.
Dileia had been using her agent access to create legitimacy around deals that were never authorized.
Some never got past the planning stage.
A few did.
The retired teacher’s property was there.
So was the dead man’s.
And so was my parents’ house.
Mom covered her mouth.
Dad stared at Dileia’s name in the activity log.
“She put us on a list?”
I did not know what to say.
Detective Reyes did.
“This is no longer a family dispute.”
Dileia was arrested the next morning on charges tied to the forged documents and fraudulent transaction attempts.
Frank was taken in later that afternoon.
Caleb had already been detained.
Mom asked me to go with her to Dileia’s first court appearance.
I said no.
Not because I wanted Dileia alone.
Because I was done being assigned responsibility for everybody’s pain.
That evening, Ben and Yolanda invited me downstairs for coffee.
Their baby slept in a carrier beside the table.
“We’re staying,” Ben said.
I smiled for the first time in days.
“Good.”
Yolanda slid an envelope toward me.
“We found this behind the radiator after your sister came through.”
Inside was a torn piece of yellow paper.
Most of the writing was missing.
One line remained.
Renata signs after parents call.
May you like
Below it was another note.
Use birthday if necessary.
