Chapter 7 - The Pickup
Evelyn never made it past the front gate.
Daniel had locked the estate down the moment Anna called him. By the time I returned, a county patrol car was parked outside and Evelyn was sitting in the back of it.
“She says Victoria told her you authorized the pickup,” the officer said.
“For what purpose?”
“She won’t say.”
I looked through the window at Evelyn. She avoided my eyes.
Inside, Lily sat on the couch wrapped in Anna’s cardigan.
“Daddy, I didn’t go,” she said immediately.
I knelt and hugged her. “You did exactly right.”
“She knew my school.”
That chilled me more than anything.
Victoria had access to Lily’s schedule, doctor, teachers, friends, allergies, emergency contacts. I had handed a stranger the map of my daughter’s life and called it marriage.
Charles arrived with a detective from the financial crimes unit, Mara Ellis.
Detective Ellis spoke plainly. “The forged trust document, attempted unauthorized pickup, and security footage give us enough to start pulling records. But if you want this to hold, we need the whole chain.”
“Then follow it.”
She did.
By evening, Evelyn had admitted Victoria paid her twelve thousand dollars to notarize the forged amendment. Evelyn claimed she believed I had approved it privately.
“Do you believe her?” I asked Ellis.
“No.”
Neither did I.
Then Evelyn offered something useful.
Victoria had asked her about guardianship law.
Specifically, what would happen to a child’s trust if the surviving parent became “temporarily incapacitated.”
I stared at the detective.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Victoria may have been planning for a scenario where you couldn’t act as trustee.”
Anna looked horrified. “You mean sick?”
Ellis didn’t answer directly.
She didn’t need to.
Charles opened Claire’s letter again.
“Harbor Point,” he said. “We go now.”
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Because if Victoria had been searching for the blue safe, there was a chance she already knew where it was.
And when Daniel checked the Harbor Point alarm log, he found the rear door had been opened forty-three minutes earlier.
