Chapter 3 - The Deputy at the Back Door
Deputy Calvin Shaw stepped inside first.
Wade remained outside, leaning against the patrol car like he belonged there.
Mateo noticed that immediately.
Shaw removed his hat. “Mrs. Morales, we got a complaint about a disturbance.”
Elena stared at him. “A disturbance?”
“At your business.”
Mateo folded his arms. “The man outside threw her food on the floor.”
Shaw looked at him. “And you are?”
“Family.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“It answers enough.”
Elena touched Mateo’s arm. “Please.”
Shaw glanced at the broken pastries, then at Wade through the doorway.
“He says your grandson threatened him.”
Mateo almost smiled.
“He came in here to intimidate a seventy-year-old woman over a private debt.”
“Allegedly.”
“The food is still on the floor.”
Shaw’s expression barely moved. “Did you threaten him?”
Mateo looked directly at him. “I told him not to touch the counter again.”
“That can be interpreted as a threat.”
“So can showing up with three friends and destroying merchandise.”
Shaw sighed. “Nobody wants trouble.”
Elena finally spoke. “Then tell him to leave me alone.”
For one second, Shaw looked ashamed.
Then it vanished.
“The debt is a civil matter.”
Wade called from outside, “Unless she defaults. Then it becomes my property.”
Mateo turned sharply.
Shaw blocked the doorway. “Don’t.”
The silence that followed felt planned.
Mateo looked from Shaw to Wade and understood the arrangement.
Not every detail.
But enough.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
Shaw stiffened. “What are you doing?”
“Recording.”
“You need consent.”
“Not in this state when there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public-facing business.”
Shaw’s eyes narrowed.
Wade’s changed.
Mateo saw it.
That tiny reaction.
Fear.
Interesting.
He raised the phone toward Wade. “Say it again.”
Wade pushed off the patrol car.
“Say what?”
“That her property becomes yours.”
Wade smiled slowly. “You think a phone makes you dangerous?”
“No. Paper does.”
Mateo held up the lien notice.
“I spent six years auditing distressed-property fraud for the state attorney general’s office.”
Elena stared at him.
Shaw did too.
Mateo had never told his grandmother exactly what he did.
Wade stopped smiling.
Mateo continued, “And this lien has three signatures that don’t belong together.”
He pointed to the bottom of the page.
One was the county clerk.
One was a private lender.
May you like
The third belonged to a witness.
Deputy Calvin Shaw.
