Chapter 6 - THE ROOM NO ONE ROBBED
Greg was held without release pending a dangerousness hearing, but the consequences of the investigation reached the house before the hearing did. First Hudson froze the fraudulent line of credit and every account that had received its proceeds. Elena changed locks, passwords and school pickup authorizations while Noah stayed with Lauren Diaz, Elena’s older cousin, for two nights because Rebecca believed the house might still contain evidence Greg wanted.
Noah hated leaving. The suitcase from the storm remained in police evidence, so Elena packed another bag while he sat on the bed watching. When she reached for the framed photograph that normally stood beside his lamp, she remembered police still had it too. Noah’s face changed. “I want Dad’s picture back.”
“You will.”
“When?”
“As soon as they’re finished with it.”
Noah looked toward the empty place on the nightstand. “Greg hated that picture.”
Elena stopped packing.
“How do you know?”
“He turned it around sometimes.”
That small detail hurt more than Greg’s insults because it suggested a private campaign Elena had never noticed. Noah explained that Greg once asked whether Daniel had hidden “important papers” in Noah’s room. Noah thought he meant school forms and said no. Another time Greg took the photo off the nightstand and examined the back before putting it down.
Elena called Ortiz immediately.
That night, someone entered the house.
The alarm activated at 1:37 a.m., but whoever came inside used Greg’s old service code before it could send a full intrusion alert. Elena had changed the main code but did not know a separate maintenance credential still existed from when Greg installed the system. The person remained inside for seven minutes.
Nothing valuable was taken.
A laptop sat untouched on the kitchen table. Jewelry remained in Elena’s bedroom. Cash in a desk drawer was undisturbed. The only room seriously searched was Noah’s.
Drawers had been emptied. Closet boxes were opened. Daniel’s old wooden document case, stored beneath the bed, was gone.
Ortiz reviewed external camera footage. The intruder wore a rain shell, cap and face covering, but body proportions suggested a man. He entered through the side door and left carrying Daniel’s case beneath one arm. Greg could not have done it from custody.
The investigation had expanded.
Either Greg had an accomplice, or someone else had been protecting the same secret.
The missing document case contained nothing Elena considered extraordinary: Daniel’s old employment certificates, a few tax folders, Noah’s birth records and papers from the life-insurance claim. Yet Elena could not be certain what Daniel might have placed inside before his death. He handled sensitive fraud investigations at work and was careful about compartmentalizing information, sometimes to the point of irritating her.
Rebecca asked whether Daniel had ever expressed fear before his crash. Elena initially said no. Then she remembered a conversation from the week before his death. Daniel came home late, checked the back window twice and asked whether anyone had called asking about him. Elena teased him about becoming paranoid.
Daniel did not laugh.
He said, “There are people who think paperwork can’t hurt them.”
At the time Elena assumed it was about work.
Now she knew it had been.
The next morning police released a preliminary laboratory finding from the tool recovered in Greg’s truck. The black residue was consistent with modern EPDM brake hose. More importantly, microscopic marks on the tool’s cutting jaws were compatible with patterns found on Elena’s severed line. It was not an absolute individual match, but the likelihood of deliberate use increased substantially.
Greg’s attorney responded by claiming dozens of automotive hoses had passed through Greg’s hands during his career.
That defense created another question.
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Greg had sold Miller Auto four years earlier.
Why was there fresh brake-hose residue on his cutter now?
