Chapter 16 - THE SECOND INTRUDER
I shut off the basement light and called security.
“No one should be in the house except my mother.”
“She left with Donovan twenty minutes ago for his pediatric appointment,” the guard said.
So the house should have been empty.
Except for me.
I heard a drawer slam upstairs.
Then another.
Someone was searching.
I locked the basement door from inside and watched the hallway camera on my phone.
A man crossed the frame.
Derek Sloan.
My former CFO.
He carried a backpack.
Security officers entered through the rear hall.
Derek heard them and ran.
He made it as far as the courtyard before they tackled him beside the fountain.
Inside his backpack were copies of financial ledgers, a laptop, and a bottle of lighter fluid.
When police questioned him, he asked for a deal before anyone had even accused him of arson.
That told us enough.
Derek claimed Bonnie had ordered him to destroy records linking her to the forged insurance policy and the Mesa Verde financing.
“But she’s in custody,” I said.
“She gave me instructions before,” he answered. “A contingency.”
“What did she think was in the basement?”
“Evelyn Cross’s records.”
I stared at him.
He knew the name.
Derek leaned toward the detective.
“Bonnie didn’t start with Taylor. She’s been doing this for decades.”
The old records opened a second investigation.
Bonnie’s carefully built image began to collapse.
But that night, Priya brought me a new problem.
“Caden’s attorneys are proposing settlement.”
“I’m listening.”
“He gives up any claim to the mansion, your company, and spousal support. He accepts supervised parenting until a therapist recommends otherwise.”
“What does he want?”
“Half the equity in the old house.”
“That’s reasonable.”
Priya hesitated.
“And one more thing.”
May you like
“What?”
“He wants you to agree not to testify against Bonnie.”
