Chapter 1 - The Paper Trail
The room went completely still.
The sound of Captain Briggs’s voice through the speaker of my phone was flat, clinical, and horrific.
Loosened intentionally.
I looked at Lucy. She was staring out the floor-to-ceiling glass doors of Paige’s pristine Upper Arlington living room, watching a pair of blue jays land on the manicured lawn. She looked so tiny against the plush velvet sofa—so fragile, yet she was the only reason my heart was still beating inside my chest.
"Mrs. Weston?" Captain Briggs asked, his tone shifting into something darker, more cautious. "Are you still there?"
"I'm here," I whispered, my left hand gripping the wooden armrest so hard my knuckles turned white. "What... what does that mean, Captain?"
"It means we are officially opening an arson and attempted homicide investigation," Briggs said quietly. "We have retrieved the video footage from your neighborhood’s smart-gate system. Your husband’s vehicle did not head toward the airport after leaving your driveway at 7:45 AM. He turned north toward the outer loop."
My throat closed up. "North?"
"Yes. And Mrs. Weston... before I release any further details, I need to know if you have access to your joint financial accounts. The lead investigator from the state insurance fraud unit is sitting next to me. He says a major transaction took place three hours before the explosion."
I swallowed, the air dragging painfully down my lungs. "What transaction?"
"Six hundred thousand dollars," Briggs said. "Transferred out of your primary home equity line and commercial business account into an offshore private trust registered in the Cayman Islands."
The phone felt ice-cold against my ear.
Six hundred thousand dollars. That was our entire life savings, our home equity, and the fund we had set aside for Lucy’s future medical care and college. It was everything Graham and I had built over fourteen years of marriage.
"Where is Graham right now?" I asked.
"He told us he was meeting with the public adjuster at a coffee shop near your damaged property," Briggs replied. "We have officers heading there now to bring him in for questioning. I advise you to lock your doors, stay where you are, and do not let him inside."
"I'm at my sister's house," I said. "Paige’s house."
There was a subtle, strange pause on the line.
"Mrs. Weston..." Captain Briggs’s voice grew hesitant. "Is your sister at home with you right now?"
"No. She said she went to the grocery store to pick up dinner."
"Mrs. Weston," Briggs said carefully, "the offshore account where the six hundred thousand dollars was transferred this morning... it's a joint entity. The co-signatory isn't Graham's business partner."
My heart stopped.
May you like
"Who is it?" I whispered.
"The secondary name on the incorporation document," Briggs said, "is Paige Elizabeth Miller."
