Chapter 16 - Victor
Tyler was missing from school.
Angela called him twelve times.
No answer.
His car was still in the student lot.
Detective Ortiz treated the message as a possible kidnapping threat.
David finally talked.
Victor Saye had financed his company through private loans that became predatory when business collapsed.
David owed millions.
Victor discovered Mesa Ridge through documents David had shown a lender years earlier.
The Arizona trip was supposed to finish the transfer.
“Where would Victor take Tyler?” Ortiz asked.
David’s hands shook.
“He has a warehouse outside Tempe.”
“Too far.”
“Then maybe the Charlotte yard.”
“What yard?”
David gave an address near an abandoned rail spur.
Police moved.
I was told to stay behind.
I did not argue.
For once, I knew the difference between courage and getting in the way.
Two hours later Ortiz called.
They found Tyler.
Alive.
Locked inside an office at the yard.
Victor was gone.
So was the original trust certificate David had stolen from my mother’s files years earlier.
“That certificate cannot transfer ownership,” Evelyn told me.
“Then why does Victor want it?”
“Because it can support a fraudulent chain of title long enough to create chaos.”
Chaos was profitable if you knew where to sell it.
Daniel called next.
“I found Victor’s buyer.”
“Who?”
“Horizon Materials.”
The same company negotiating for mineral rights.
“They think the documents are real?”
“Somebody inside their acquisition team does.”
Evelyn froze.
“What name?”
Daniel read it.
Leonard Greaves.
The trust officer who had supposedly protected me.
I remembered his calm voice on speakerphone.
The pending closing.
The login alerts.
The helpful warnings.
He had been inside the trust the entire time.
Then Evelyn’s email chimed.
May you like
A closing notice had just been generated.
Mesa Ridge was scheduled to transfer at 8:00 the next morning.
