Page 62 of Broken Wolf

I got the rest of the story in between her tests and waiting for results. After Hank died, David first accused her of killing him for his money since they were fighting all the time and he’d known that. She’d basically laughed in his face that she was the one with the money and Hank had been leeching off of her for years and the only reason David was anywhere in life was because of her.

She finally let that out of the bag and how little Hank made while acting like he was the man of the house and the breadwinner. That she had paid for David’s college even though he treated her like dirt and she was done with him after the funeral. He actually hit her, but she left that to shock and grief and let it go.

Something she deeply regretted now.

Two weeks after the funeral, she came back from work—her first day back to work—and found men there waiting for her with David. They said they were with some retirement home and she was being placed there against her will and David was now her guardian.

They said nothing as he gloated that everything was now his, and if she behaved, he would let her retire to this nice place in Florida and live out her life there but not to be stupid. Otherwise, she’d be out on her ass with nothing. She went to call the police, but he took her phone and showed her some court documents—everything we’d pulled as well.

And it was all legal and done.

Well, it was all illegally done since it was fraud, but it was legit through the courts. I had some questions how it all happened without her even showing up or getting notice of court dates.

Hell, nothing happened that fast in Cook County. That alone would make most people call bullshit.

So there was a growing list of people who were going down for this. The clerk or person involved in the DeKalb court. The DeKalb cops. Someone at a title company for sure flipping these properties with all this shady shit and not alerting someone.

Yeah, for sure someone there was on the take to look the other way.

On the Chicago side, there was the doctor who signed off on everything to declare Marie mentally unfit. The attorney David used. Whoever was involved in that court sham—got it on the schedule so fast and the judge probably too.

But the thing that perked up my ears was a piece that I had been wondering about.

“What do you mean he said you were going to Florida?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at that.

She nodded. “He told me that it was some cushy retirement home in Florida and I was lucky he was that nice that I would have a pool and golf so just take it early and shut my mouth. I don’t even know how he did that with my job and—all of it is so insane!”

“No honor among criminals,” I muttered, tapping my pen against my notepad. “But that explains…” I blinked at her. “He’s not stupid. It wasn’t a mistake.”

“David?” she asked.

“No, the guy who owns the trailer park. He doesn’t exist. He had to know we’d immediately find that out and—”

Sander came in from outside with wide eyes. “He’s not sticking around. The moment anything goes wrong or anyone gets caught, he’s out of here with his bags of money or probably accounts in the Caymans.”

I tapped my nose that he got it. “He’s making promises that he’s getting people out of state so they won’t be caught and it’s all like above board, but he’s setting it up so they do get caught and he can slip out in the chaos. Why would we care about the shady trailer park owner in the midst of all of this dirt? I mean we would, but he wouldn’t be the priority.”

Marie snorted. “Good, I hope David gets screwed. He deserves nothing more.”

“Oh, he’s going down. For all of it, and I’m going to do more than that,” I chuckled darkly.

At least for her.

Well, I wouldn’t stop the others, but if the DeKalb police roughed her up, that was a lawsuit right there, not just their crimes. So I would get her an attorney and he could talk to the other victims later. I saw a big settlement being paid out.

Good. I’d probably get some shit later for being involved in suing a police department, but clearly a bunch of them were in on it.

And they should have handled this all themselves. We were in the FBI.

17

I couldn’t hide my shock when I heard the rest. She was carted off with what David had already packed up for her—which wasn’t much, but apparently he thought she’d be quieter about it all if he at least left her with sentimental stuff and like her grandmothers’ and mother’s jewelry.

Only to have it all be stolen still when she was kicked out of her trailer later, but that was something to handle another time. As horrible as that was… I doubted any of it would probably be recovered. But it gave us more insight into how Greg was making money. Selling all of everything left in the house wasn’t how normal evictions went either.

Gods, I really hated this fucker.

She was brought to her new “home” and basically told she was remanded there like a retirement place and she couldn’t leave without an escort. They had guards and the works. She wasn’t allowed phone access to cause trouble—all of that part legal with what David signed, but it was supposed to be a swank place in Florida.

---