Chapter 4 - THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR
Twenty minutes later, the guests had quietly departed, leaving only Patricia, May, and me sitting around the kitchen table.
May had a cold compress resting against her bruised shoulders. The floor had been swept clean of fish and porcelain, but the heavy, sour smell of spilled soy sauce still hung in the air.
A soft knock sounded at the back door.
I opened it to reveal a woman in her early fifties wearing a sharp grey trench coat, holding a leather briefcase. Her hair was pulled back into a tight, professional bun, and her piercing gray eyes held an aura of supreme, lethal competence.
“Lawrence,” she said, offering a firm handshake. “Thank you for seeing me so late.”
“Come in, Ms. Vance,” I said, stepping aside.
Evelyn Vance walked into the kitchen, setting her briefcase on the dining table. She acknowledged May with a gentle, empathetic nod. “Mrs. May, I am deeply sorry for what you endured tonight. But I assure you, what happened here was the catalyst we needed to bring Jessica down.”
Patricia leaned forward, her hands crossed over her chest. “Who hired you, Ms. Vance? Was it Christopher?”
Evelyn let out a short, cynical laugh. “Hardly. Your brother is a victim of severe psychological manipulation and financial extortion. I was hired six months ago by the board of directors at Apex Global Logistics—the firm where Jessica serves as Chief Financial Officer.”
I gasped. “Apex Global? That’s the logistics firm Christopher invested his inheritance in two years ago!”
“Precisely,” Evelyn said, unlatching her briefcase and pulling out a thick binder filled with financial spreadsheets and bank statements. “Jessica didn't just meet Christopher by accident at that charity gala three years ago, Lawrence. She targeted him.”
Evelyn spread the papers across the table.
“Jessica has been funneling money out of Apex Global for nearly two years—over $3.8 million dollars,” Evelyn explained, pointing to red highlights on the bank statements. “When the internal auditors started closing in on her six months ago, she needed a fall guy. Someone with clean credit, significant familial assets, and enough emotional vulnerability to sign whatever she put in front of him.”
May’s voice trembled. “Christopher...”
“She married your son to use him as a financial shield,” Evelyn said flatly. “The contract she made him sign in your garage tonight wasn't just about custody of Lily. It was a legal dummy trust. By transferring Christopher’s inheritance and his share of this house into her offshore LLC, she was laying the legal groundwork to dump all $3.8 million of Apex’s stolen debt onto Christopher’s personal name.”
My stomach churned with nausea.
If Jessica’s plan succeeded, Christopher wouldn't just lose his money and his daughter—he would be facing up to twenty years in federal prison for crimes his wife committed.
“And why were you outside my house tonight?” I asked.
“Because Jessica knew Apex auditors were issuing a formal subpoena tomorrow morning,” Evelyn revealed, looking me dead in the eye. “Tonight was her deadline to get Christopher’s signature. I followed her here to record the transfer. I didn't expect her to physically assault your wife, but when she did, I knew I had to intervene.”
May you like
Evelyn closed the binder with a heavy thud.
“Lawrence, tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, Jessica is filing that forged garage contract at the county clerk’s office. Once it’s recorded, Christopher’s assets are officially tied to her fraudulent corporate shell. We have less than nine hours to stop her.”
