Chapter 10 - The Door
Rachel's apartment was twelve minutes away.
Daniel made it in eight.
Police were already there when he arrived. Olivia stood in the hallway barefoot, one shoe missing, screaming at an officer.
"That is my child! You cannot keep me from my child!"
Rachel held Ethan behind a locked door.
Ortiz stepped between Olivia and the apartment.
"You need to leave."
"I haven't been charged with anything."
"You're the subject of an assault investigation, a financial crimes investigation, and a possible forgery case. Leave."
Olivia saw Daniel.
Everything in her face changed.
"Tell them," she said. "Tell them I'm his mother."
Daniel walked closer. "He watched you push Grandma down the stairs."
"I lost my temper."
Olivia realized what she had said.
Ortiz's eyes sharpened. "Can you repeat that?"
"I mean--we argued. I didn't push her."
Olivia looked at him desperately. "She was taking you away from me. She was digging through our life. She was going to make you hate me."
"You did that yourself."
She slapped him.
The sound cracked through the hallway.
Two officers grabbed her arms.
Ethan opened Rachel's door just enough to see.
"Mom?"
Olivia stopped fighting.
For a moment, she looked like the woman Daniel had married.
"Baby, come here."
Ethan stepped behind Rachel.
"No."
Olivia broke.
She began sobbing as officers escorted her toward the elevator.
Ortiz looked at Daniel. "We'll have enough for an arrest soon. But I want that storage unit first."
At dawn, they opened Unit 86.
Inside were three banker boxes, an old laptop, and a fireproof document case.
The first box held duplicate financial records.
The second held copies of every forged form.
The third held photographs.
Daniel picked one up.
It showed Olivia sitting in a casino lounge with a man Daniel recognized immediately.
His younger brother, Kyle.
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On the back, Margaret had written:
They are doing this together.
