Chapter 8 - The Long Game
Kevin stared at the photograph, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the glossy paper. "Julian Vance... wait. That name was on one of our commercial bids last winter. The warehouse conversion downtown."
"Exactly," I said, leaning forward. "Courtney wasn't just skimming off your payroll, Kevin. She was actively sabotaging your bids. She leaked your cost estimates to Vance’s firm so they could underbid you by pennies. That’s why you lost the four biggest contracts of the year. She was intentionally driving Miller Construction into insolvency so you wouldn't notice the missing funds before she vanished."
Kevin let out a ragged, disbelieving laugh. "She was setting me up. She was going to bankrupt me, let me take the fall for unpaid debts and taxes, and then fly out of the country with him."
"The three passports had different names, all with her photo," I told him. "One Canadian, one Irish, one American. The safe deposit box was her escape hatch. Maisie’s birthday party was supposed to be her last weekend here. She had a one-way flight booked to Belize scheduled for the following Tuesday."
"Then why did she stay?" Kevin demanded, his voice cracking. "If she had the money, if she had the tickets, why the hell did she drag this out for six months? Why did she take you to court over a forty-dollar purse?"
I pointed toward the cold fire pit.
"Because of what was inside the lining," I said. "When she came to my house that day, she wasn't just showing off. She had the Metro Vault brass key, the flash drive with all her offshore credentials, and your mother’s sapphire ring inside that bag. When I threw her purse into the fire, she panicked."
I took a slow breath, remembering the look of sheer, psychotic fury on her face that afternoon.
"She couldn't call the police that day because they would have inventoried the contents of the burned bag," I continued. "She couldn't tell you the truth without revealing the theft. So she played the victim. She demanded two thousand dollars, hoping I would just pay her to make peace with the family. When I refused, she had to gamble on small claims court, hoping to intimidate me into settling out of court so she could recover the ashes and the key before the trail went cold."
Kevin dropped the photographs onto the deck table. He buried his face in his hands, his breath coming in jagged, painful gasps.
May you like
"I brought a monster into our family, Dave. I brought her around Maisie. I defended her when she treated you like dirt. I let her turn Mom against you."
"You were blinded by someone who made a career out of conning honest people," I said firmly, grabbing his shoulder and squeezing it tight. "You’re an honest builder, Kev. You build things that stand up. She’s a demolition crew. That’s not on you. But rebuilding? That is."
