Chapter 4 - The House on Elm Street
By five o'clock in the morning, the rain had begun to fall over the city, turning the streets slick and black.
Dr. Cooper refused to discharge Chloe and me, keeping us in the pediatric trauma unit under twenty-four-hour police guard. Brenda stayed in the room, sitting between our beds, holding one of my hands and one of Chloe’s. She didn't sleep. Every time the door opened, she flinched, but she didn't let go of us.
At six-thirty, Detective Lin returned.
She looked exhausted, her coat damp from the rain, but her eyes held a hard, satisfaction-filled edge. She pulled a chair over to the side of my bed and sat down.
“We executed the warrant,” Lin said quietly.
Brenda sat up straight. “What did you find?”
“Your stepfather’s attorney tried to block the search at the gate,” Lin explained, pulling a pair of latex gloves from her pocket and laying a sealed plastic evidence folder on the tray table. “He claimed the property was subject to corporate privilege. We ignored him.”
She opened the folder, pulling out several high-resolution photographs taken inside our home.
The first photo showed the floorboard beside the heating vent in my bedroom. The wood had been cleanly pried up, exposing the dust-covered joists underneath.
The second photo showed the garage.
The heavy steel workbench had been pulled three feet away from the wall. Behind the circuit breaker box, mounted deep into the poured concrete foundation, was a small, heavy digital safe. Its door was swinging wide open.
“Your father was a very clever man, girls,” Detective Lin said, a faint smile touching her lips. “He didn't just keep ledgers. He kept digital audit trails, bank transfer slips, and taped phone conversations from four years ago.”
I leaned closer to look at the photos. “What did they show?”
“Edric Kaine didn't just embezzle from the firm,” Lin said, her tone growing flat and serious. “He was running an illegal offshore laundering ring using fake charity trusts created in your names. He used your father’s digital signature after David died to move nearly four million dollars into accounts based in the Cayman Islands.”
Brenda covered her mouth with both hands, letting out a soft, horrified sob. “Four million... My God...”
“And that’s not all,” Lin added, looking directly at Brenda. “We found a prescription bottle hidden inside Edric’s locked desk drawer. It was filled with digitalis—a potent cardiac medication. Your late husband was never prescribed digitalis.”
My heart hammered against my ribs. “He poisoned him.”
“The county coroner is currently exhuming your father’s remains under an emergency court order,” Lin declared firmly. “If the toxicology matches the bottle we found in that desk, Edric Kaine will be facing two counts of attempted aggravated murder, two counts of felony child abuse, financial fraud, and one count of first-degree premeditated murder.”
Chloe let out a long, shuddering breath, laying her head back against the pillow. Tears ran freely down her bruised cheeks, but for the first time in two years, she was smiling.
May you like
“He thought he was so smart,” Chloe whispered.
“Smart people make mistakes when they get greedy,” Detective Lin said, standing up and zipping her jacket. “And Edric Kaine made the mistake of thinking three women in one house were too broken to fight back.”
