Chapter 4 - THE ARREST ON CRENSHAW
Wayne’s face turned from pale white to a deep, mottled red. He took a sudden, panicked step around the side of the desk, reaching out as if to grab the phone from my hand.
"You wouldn't do this," Wayne hissed, his voice cracking with desperation. "I'm your brother, Susanna! You're going to put your own blood in prison over some money you don't even need?"
"This isn't about the money, Wayne," I said, standing my ground without flinching as he approached. "This is about the fact that you destroyed our mother's body and broke her spirit while living off her suffering. You aren't my brother anymore. You're just a predator."
Before Wayne could reply, blue and red strobe lights began flashing through the office blinds, painting the room in a rapid, chaotic glare. The sharp wail of police sirens echoed down Crenshaw Avenue, cutting off as two patrol cruisers pulled onto the gravel lot, their tires crunching heavily over the stones.
Wayne sprinted toward the back door of the garage office, hoping to slip out into the dark auto yard behind the fence. But as he shoved the metal exit door open, two armed officers were already waiting on the back porch, their flashlights blinding him.
"Wayne Bird!" an officer shouted over the hum of the idling cruisers. "Step out with your hands where we can see them! Do it now!"
Wayne froze, his shoulders slumping in total defeat. He slowly raised his hands into the air as the officers stepped forward, forcing his arms behind his back and snapping cold steel handcuffs onto his wrists.
Outside, Tiffany was screaming from the passenger seat of the black Ford F-350, watching in horror as Wayne was escorted toward the back seat of the lead cruiser.
I walked out onto the gravel lot, shutting the office door behind me. My mother was sitting in the front seat of my rental car, her hands pressed tightly against her mouth, tears streaming silently down her wrinkled cheeks as she watched her son being placed in the back of a police vehicle.
Chief Thomas stepped out of his SUV, holding a clipboard and walking over to me. "Susanna. I got the preliminary documentation your legal team emailed over while I was driving. If these bank records match the wire originations from Cardinal Health, your brother is looking at multiple felony counts of elder financial exploitation, fraud, and theft by deception."
"Search the property, Chief," I said, keeping my voice steady despite the adrenaline surging through my veins. "Check the shed behind the main bay. That's where he had her living."
Chief Thomas walked over to the wooden shed, shining his heavy tactical flashlight through the open screen door. He stood there for a long moment, sweeping the beam over the rusted iron cot, the single exposed lightbulb hanging from a frayed wire, and the plastic bucket my mother used for water. When he stepped back out, his face was set in a tight, furious line.
"It's a crime scene now, Susanna," Chief Thomas said, his voice hard. "We're impounding the vehicles, seizing the business records, and placing a forensic lien on all accounts associated with Bird's Auto Restoration."
"Thank you, Chief," I said softly.
I walked back to the rental car and opened the passenger door. Mattie was trembling violently, her frail shoulders shaking under my cashmere coat.
"Susanna..." she sobbed, looking at me with pure anguish. "He's my son... he's your brother... what is going to happen to him?"
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I reached into the car, pulling her small, frail body out of the seat and wrapping my arms around her tightly, holding her against my chest for the first time in nine long years. The smell of cheap dish soap and damp laundry hung heavy on her, but beneath it was the familiar, comforting scent of the mother who had held me when I was a child.
"He is going to pay for what he did to you, Mom," I whispered into her silver hair. "And you are never, ever going to wash another dish for the rest of your life."
