His name was Victor Hale.
And according to the final message on Marcus’s phone, he had already transferred four hundred thousand dollars out of my retirement fund.
PART 5
THE MAN WHO HAD BEEN STEALING MY LIFE FOR SEVEN YEARS
The p/o/lice did not allow me to return to Rachel’s house that night.
They said it was a cr/i/me scene.
I no longer thought of it as home anyway.
Clara took me to a small hotel overlooking the river. Samuel arrived after midnight with two officers and a financial investigator named Priya Shah.
Priya carried a laptop, three phones, and the exhausted look of someone who had discovered a problem much larger than expected.
She set everything on the table.
“Mrs. Carter,” she said, “we need to discuss Victor Hale.”
I sat near the window with a blanket around my shoulders.
My ribs had been treated, my lip cleaned, and the bruises on my arm photographed. The physical pain was sharp but understandable.
