Chapter 7 - The Forged Signature
I knew my own signature.
That wasn’t it.
It looked like mine from ten feet away, the way a cheap painting looks real until you stand close.
The loop in the D was wrong.
The last stroke was too straight.
“Forgery,” I said.
Detective Ortiz photographed my face before I could hide it.
“Do you recognize this document?”
“No.”
“Did you ever authorize your husband to become beneficiary of your daughter’s trust?”
“No.”
She nodded once. “Then we have financial motive.”
Not proof.
Motive.
I hated that word.
It sounded small compared to Nia crying in a hospital bed.
The CT took fifteen minutes.
I spent all fifteen staring at the closed imaging doors while memories turned against me.
Caleb buying Nia smoothies.
Caleb reminding her to take vitamins.
Caleb volunteering to pick up prescriptions.
Caleb insisting he could manage the household bills because numbers “stressed me out.”
The doors opened.
Nia came back pale, but awake.
Dr. Hale met us near the elevator.
“There’s a small internal bleed near the abdominal wall. We believe we can treat it without surgery if her numbers keep improving.”
I touched the side of Nia’s face.
She whispered, “I’m okay.”
“No more saying that unless you know,” I told her.
She gave me the smallest smile.
Then Detective Ortiz’s phone rang.
She stepped away.
When she came back, her expression had changed.
“Patrol found Marissa’s car.”
“Where?”
“Airport parking garage.”
“She’s leaving?”
“Looks like she tried.”
“Tried?”
“They found the car. Not her.”
Ortiz paused.
“There was blood on the driver-side door.”
Nia heard.
“Is she hurt?”
“I don’t know.”
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photo arrived.
It showed Marissa sitting in a room I didn’t recognize. Her face was bruised. Her wrists were bound with gray duct tape.
Below the image was one line.
STOP TALKING TO POLICE OR YOUR DAUGHTER IS NEXT.
I handed the phone to Ortiz.
For the first time all night, she cursed.
May you like
Then she asked me the question I had been trying not to ask myself.
“If Caleb has been inside this hospital for hours… who took Marissa?”
