Chapter 3 - SEVENTY-TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS
Don and Maria were taken upstairs first.
Maria could barely walk.
When Shawn lifted her, she weighed almost nothing.
That terrified him more than anything.
His mother had always been small, but strong.
This woman felt fragile.
Breakable.
Paramedics wrapped her in blankets.
Don refused a stretcher.
“I can walk.”
“You can barely stand,” Shawn said.
“I said I can walk.”
Same father.
Same stubbornness.
Shawn almost laughed.
Almost.
Instead, he put an arm around him.
“I’ve got you.”
Don looked at him.
For a second, the anger and humiliation disappeared.
“My boy came home.”
Shawn looked away before his father saw his eyes.
Sheriff Ruiz had Kyle handcuffed.
Brenda sat on the couch, shaking.
“You’re arresting me because of him?” Kyle demanded.
Ruiz looked at him.
“I’m detaining you because I found two elderly people locked behind an iron gate.”
“They wander!”
“With a padlock?”
“They’re senile!”
Don turned.
“I’ll show you senile.”
“Dad,” Shawn said.
Ruiz almost smiled.
Then he became serious again.
“Mr. Miller, your son said there may be documents involved.”
Don nodded.
“My office.”
The office had once been a tiny spare bedroom.
Now it contained a polished desk and expensive leather chair.
Don pointed toward a painting.
“Behind there.”
Shawn removed it.
A wall safe.
Don gave Ruiz the combination.
Inside were property deeds.
Insurance papers.
Bank statements.
And a folder marked:
POWER OF ATTORNEY.
Ruiz opened it.
Don pointed.
“That signature isn’t mine.”
Shawn took the paper.
It looked real.
Almost.
But he knew his father’s handwriting.
“That’s forged.”
Ruiz turned to Brenda.
“Ms. Miller?”
She looked at Kyle.
Kyle stared straight ahead.
Ruiz flipped through bank records.
His eyebrows rose.
“Transfers totaling seventy-two thousand dollars.”
Shawn felt cold.
His money.
Every monthly payment.
Two thousand dollars.
Gone.
“Where did it go?” he asked.
Brenda started crying harder.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
Kyle snapped.
“Shut up.”
Sheriff Ruiz stepped between them.
“Don’t speak to her.”
Shawn crouched in front of his sister.
“Look at me.”
She wouldn’t.
“Brenda.”
Her eyes finally lifted.
“What happened?”
“I was behind.”
“On what?”
“Everything.”
She wiped her face.
“The store was losing money. Mom’s medical bills. Taxes. I borrowed from Kyle.”
“How much?”
“At first? Ten thousand.”
“At first?”
Her lips trembled.
“Then twenty.”
Shawn stood.
“You stole from Mom and Dad to pay him?”
“I was going to put it back.”
Kyle laughed.
“That’s what everyone says.”
Shawn turned toward him.
Ruiz raised a hand.
“Don’t.”
Don suddenly pointed at another document.
“What’s that?”
Ruiz picked it up.
His expression changed.
“Property sale agreement.”
Shawn took it.
The Miller house.
The grocery store.
The surrounding eighteen acres.
All scheduled to transfer to a development company on December 27.
Three days away.
“For how much?” Shawn asked.
Ruiz looked closer.
“Four hundred thousand.”
Don laughed bitterly.
“The land alone is worth twice that.”
Shawn looked at Kyle.
“Who owns the development company?”
Kyle said nothing.
Ruiz pulled out his phone.
A deputy returned from the basement.
“Sheriff, we found another room.”
Ruiz frowned.
“What kind of room?”
The deputy hesitated.
“You’re going to want gloves.”
Shawn felt his stomach drop.
Ruiz looked at him.
“Stay upstairs.”
“No.”
“Mr. Miller.”
“They’re my parents.”
Don grabbed Shawn’s arm.
“Go.”
Shawn looked at him.
Don’s face had gone pale.
“There’s something down there Kyle never wanted us to find.”
Shawn followed the deputies into the basement.
Behind a shelving unit, they found a narrow wooden door.
Locked.
A deputy broke it open.
Inside sat a desk.
A laptop.
Stacks of files.
Photographs.
And a cardboard box filled with prescription bottles.
Sheriff Ruiz picked one up.
“These aren’t your mother’s.”
Shawn read the names.
Different elderly people.
Different addresses.
Ruiz slowly looked at Kyle upstairs.
“This isn’t just about your parents.”
Then the laptop screen lit up.
A message appeared.
May you like
DELETE EVERYTHING BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
Someone else knew the police were there.
