Chapter 6 - SECRETS UNEARTHED
With Laura securely locked behind bars waiting for her arraignment hearing, Daniel took his
mother back to the house. The immaculate, sterile environment now felt different—it felt like a
crime scene that needed a thorough sweep.
Daniel sat Evelyn down in the living room with a fresh cup of tea—real tea, made exactly the
way she liked it. "Mom, I need you to stay here. I'm going through Laura’s office. I need to see
how deep this rabbit hole goes."
"Take your time, son," Evelyn said, her voice steady. "Look under the loose floorboard in the
closet of her office. I saw her hiding a small lockbox there two weeks ago when she thought I was
asleep."
Daniel nodded, a cold determination settling over him. He walked into Laura’s home office, a
room decorated with expensive art and modern furniture—all funded, no doubt, by his mother’s
hard-earned savings.
He moved the heavy designer rug aside and immediately spotted the cut in the hardwood
floorboards. Using a pocket knife from his military gear, he pried the board loose. Sure enough, a
small, fireproof steel lockbox was tucked away in the darkness.
Daniel brought the box to the desk. He didn't have the key, but as a former fraud investigator,
he knew that low-end consumer lockboxes were notoriously easy to bypass. He took a heavy-
duty paperclip, manipulated the secondary tumbler, and with a sharp click, the box popped open.
What he found inside made his blood run cold.
It wasn't just his mother’s money Laura had been targeting. Tucked inside the box were forged
life insurance policies taken out in Daniel’s name just before his deployment. The beneficiary?
Laura Jacobson. The payout? Half a million dollars.
Even worse, there were medical records belonging to a completely different elderly individual
—an aunt of Laura’s who had passed away three years prior in a state-run facility under highly
suspicious financial circumstances. Laura had used the exact same blueprint before. She was a
serial predator who targeted vulnerable family members, stripping them of their assets before
discarding them into institutions.
Daniel’s phone rang, vibrating sharply against the mahogany desk. The caller ID showed
Detective Miller.
"Daniel," the detective’s voice came through the line, tight and urgent. "We just finished
processing Laura’s laptop and her personal cell phone. We found something you need to see
immediately. She wasn't acting alone."
Daniel gripped the phone tighter. "Who else is involved?"
"Dr. Harrison," Detective Miller replied. "Your family doctor. We found encrypted text
messages between them detailing a kickback scheme. Laura promised him twenty percent of
your mother’s total estate value once she was successfully committed to the Westwood Clinic
under a permanent, irreversible conservatorship."
Daniel closed his eyes for a brief second, processing the sheer scale of the betrayal. Dr.
Harrison had been their family physician for over a decade. He had treated Daniel’s father
before he passed.
"Where is Harrison now?" Daniel asked, his voice dead calm.
May you like
"We sent a unit to his clinic ten minutes ago," Detective Miller said. "But he got tipped off. He
skipped his afternoon appointments. He’s on the run, Daniel."
