Chapter 14 - THEY PLANNED MY DEATH
No one spoke for several seconds.
Detective Chen read the line twice.
"Explain this," she told Paige.
"I can't. I've never seen it."
"It's in your storage unit."
"This isn't my unit."
The manager looked at his tablet. "Paid with your company card for twenty-two months."
Paige's face went white.
Gwen gripped the edge of the chair.
I stared at the words.
DAVID DECLARED DEAD.
Claire arrived twenty minutes later with two federal investigators.
The flash drive contained draft forms for a fraudulent death declaration, insurance beneficiary changes, and messages between Paige and Voss discussing what would happen if I were reported missing during deployment.
One message read:
If his unit can't verify location fast enough, we can push the casualty confusion. Margaret gets the house. Paige gets policy split. Wife signs under incapacity.
My mother had been planning what to do with my life insurance while I was still alive.
Gwen started crying without sound.
I knelt beside her.
"Did you know?"
She shook her head violently. "No. I swear."
"I know."
Chen's phone rang.
She walked away, listened, then returned.
"We have a problem. Margaret left your house forty minutes ago."
"Where?"
"Lake property."
Paige suddenly laughed.
It was small and ugly.
"You think Mom is stupid?"
Chen turned toward her.
Paige's smile widened.
"If she went to the lake house, you're already too late."
"Too late for what?" I asked.
Paige looked directly at me.
"The original signatures."
Claire cursed under her breath.
We ran.
As I reached the door, Gwen grabbed my sleeve.
"David."
May you like
I turned.
"There's a furnace in the basement."
