Chapter 7 - THE FREEZE ORDER
Detective Miller of the Special Investigations Unit stepped into the foyer, holding a signed judicial search and seizure warrant in one gloved hand. Behind him stood two uniformed officers with their thumbs hooked in their duty belts.
"Richard Davis? Eleanor Davis?" Detective Miller asked, his voice flat and authoritative.
Richard quickly dropped his fists, forcing a sickly, panicked smile onto his sunburned face. "Officer... Detective, thank goodness you're here. My daughter has broken into our family residence and stolen private financial records. She's suffering from a severe psychological episode—"
"Save it, Mr. Davis," Detective Miller interrupted, cutting him off mid-sentence. "We aren't here on your daughter's call. We're here on a direct referral from the State Financial Crimes Unit and Adult Protective Services."
Eleanor backed up against the wall, clutching her designer purse to her chest as if it could shield her from the badges. "This is a misunderstanding! We are the legal guardians! We have papers!"
"The papers you filed with the county clerk contained a forged notary stamp belonging to a deceased paralegal," Detective Miller said, pulling a pair of steel handcuffs from his utility belt. "Furthermore, the forensic audit submitted by Sovereign Trust indicates over $640,000 in systematic asset diversion from Mrs. Evelyn Vance’s pension and estate accounts over the last eighteen months."
"Six hundred and forty thousand...?" Richard stammered, his face draining of all color. "No... that's impossible. It was only three hundred thousand..."
"Thank you for the verbal confession on police body camera, Mr. Davis," Detective Miller said dryly. "Hands behind your back."
As the officers clicked the cuffs around Richard’s wrists, Eleanor dropped to her knees on the dusty hardwood floor, sobbing uncontrollably. "Please! Don't do this! What about our house? What about our reputation? Claire, tell them! Tell them we're your parents!"
I looked down at the woman who had left her own mother unwashed in a locked basement room while sipping champagne on a Mexican beach.
"My grandmother raised me when both of you were too busy chasing country club memberships," I said quietly. "You abandoned her. You starved her of dignity, care, and love. You aren't my parents anymore. You're just two criminals facing thirty years of grand larceny."
As the officers escorted Richard and Eleanor out to the squad cars in the pouring rain, my phone buzzed with an incoming FaceTime call from Vanessa.
I answered it.
Vanessa was sitting on the floor of the Cabo San Lucas International Airport terminal, surrounded by three massive designer suitcases, her face blotchy from crying.
"Claire!" she wailed into the screen. "The airline canceled my first-class ticket! They said my credit card was flagged for criminal fraud! I don't have any cash to pay the baggage fees, and the Mexican authorities are telling me I can't leave the country until my hotel debt is cleared! You have to wire me five thousand dollars right now!"
"Vanessa," I said, holding up the photograph of Grandpa Arthur's Silver Star. "Where is Grandpa’s military pocket watch?"
"What?!" she shrieked. "Who cares about an old broken watch?! I'm stranded in Mexico!"
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"Where is it, Vanessa?" I repeated, my tone as cold as winter frost. "Because if you don't give me the exact pawn ticket number for Arthur's gold watch within the next ten seconds, I will personally instruct the bank’s legal counsel not to post your extradition bond when the federal marshals arrive at your gate."
***
