Chapter 11 - The Paper Mom Signed
Mom stopped breathing when I repeated Brooke’s words.
“What did you sign?” I asked.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me again.”
She looked toward the door.
Detective Reed closed it.
Mom’s shoulders sagged.
“After your father disappeared, Evan brought me papers. He said the board needed temporary authority to keep the company running.”
“What papers?”
“A durable power of attorney. Some trust documents.”
I stared at her.
“You signed control of Dad’s estate?”
“I thought it was temporary.”
“Who got control?” Reed asked.
Mom whispered, “Brooke.”
There it was.
The motive.
With Dad presumed dead, Brooke controlled voting rights tied to his shares. She and Evan could move money, sell assets, bury the theft, and possibly force the company into a merger before anyone discovered the missing millions.
Dad returning alive would destroy everything.
So would I, because Dad’s original trust named me co-executor.
That was why Brooke came to my house.
The message from Dad was not the only problem.
I was the legal obstacle standing between her and the company.
Reed’s phone buzzed.
He read the screen and looked at us.
“Travis gave us an address.”
“Dad?”
“Maybe.”
Police raided an abandoned veterinary clinic on the edge of town.
They found ropes, blood, medical supplies, and one of Dad’s shoes.
No Dad.
No Evan.
But in a back room, they found a laptop still logged into a security camera feed.
One camera showed a different location: a concrete basement with a single chair.
Dad was in it.
Alive.
His head hung forward, but his chest moved.
I cried out.
“Where is that?”
Reed leaned toward the screen.
“We’re working on it.”
Then movement appeared behind Dad.
Evan stepped into view.
He looked straight into the camera as if he knew we were watching.
He held up a handwritten sign.
BRING CLAIRE.
May you like
Then he lifted another.
OR HE DIES AT MIDNIGHT.
