Chapter 4 - The List
By midnight, Ruth’s kitchen had become an unofficial command center.
Coffee covered the table.
So did documents.
Sheriff Hayes had told Michael not to leave the county.
Michael stayed anyway.
Not because anyone trusted him.
Because he was scared.
Cole sat across from him.
“Start talking.”
Michael rubbed his face.
“Northline approached me six months ago.”
“Who?”
“Vanessa.”
“How did she know about your mother?”
“She knew Dad was dead. She knew Mom owned the house outright.”
Eli leaned forward.
“And she knew about your debts.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“I never asked.”
Duke laughed bitterly.
“Convenient.”
Michael looked at Ruth.
“I thought they were going to buy the property after you agreed.”
“But I didn’t agree,” Ruth said.
“I know.”
“When did you know?”
Michael hesitated.
Ruth’s face hardened.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
Everyone went silent.
Cole leaned back.
“You knew for three months that her signature was forged.”
Michael whispered, “Yes.”
Ruth stood.
Her walker scraped against the floor.
“You need to leave.”
“Mom—”
“Leave.”
“I’m trying to fix it.”
“No. They got caught. There’s a difference.”
Michael looked devastated.
Ruth pointed toward the door.
“You sold your loyalty before you sold my house.”
He left without another word.
The following morning, Sheriff Hayes returned with a financial crimes investigator named Lena Brooks.
She placed several files on the kitchen table.
“Northline has purchased twenty-seven properties in eighteen months.”
Cole asked, “From elderly owners?”
“Twenty-three.”
Duke swore under his breath.
Brooks continued.
“Seventeen were widowed. Twelve had adult children with significant debt.”
Ruth looked horrified.
“How many claimed they never sold?”
“That’s what we’re finding out.”
Cole pointed toward the files.
“What’s the pattern?”
Brooks opened one.
“Low purchase prices. Fast transfers. Relatives receiving consulting payments.”
“Bribes,” Duke said.
“I said payments.”
“You meant bribes.”
Brooks almost smiled.
“I meant payments until I can prove bribes.”
Then she opened another folder.
“One more thing.”
Inside were photocopies of property records.
“Northline wasn’t randomly searching public databases.”
“How do you know?” Cole asked.
“Because some information they had wasn’t public.”
Ruth frowned.
“What information?”
“Medical appointments. Emergency contacts. Whether homeowners lived alone.”
Cole’s expression darkened.
“Someone was feeding them private information.”
Brooks nodded.
“And we need to know who.”
Over the next two days, Cole, Duke, Eli, and Mason began doing something none of them expected.
They visited old people.
Not to intimidate them.
To listen.
One widow named Margaret had lost her home six months earlier.
“They told me my daughter wanted me in a facility,” she said.
“Did she?” Cole asked.
Margaret shook her head.
“She thought I wanted to sell.”
Another man, Harold, showed them a contract.
“My signature isn’t mine.”
The same pattern.
Different victim.
Same company.
By Friday, Brooks had eleven potential fraud complaints.
Then Michael called Cole.
“I found something.”
Cole almost hung up.
“What?”
“Vanessa kept client prospect files.”
“Where?”
“Northline’s satellite office.”
“You have access?”
“I did.”
“Did?”
“They fired me.”
Cole paused.
Michael continued.
“But I downloaded a backup before they locked me out.”
Cole stood.
“What’s on it?”
“Names.”
“How many?”
A long silence.
“Two hundred and fourteen.”
Cole’s blood ran cold.
“Two hundred and fourteen houses?”
“Potential targets.”
“Bring it to the sheriff.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody followed me home.”
Cole looked through Ruth’s window.
A dark sedan sat far down the dirt road.
He hadn’t noticed it before.
“Where are you?”
Michael gave him the address of a gas station.
“Stay inside.”
Cole grabbed his jacket.
Duke stood.
“Problem?”
Cole picked up his helmet.
“Apparently our family just got bigger.”
Twenty minutes later, all four motorcycles pulled into the gas station.
Michael climbed into Cole’s truck.
He handed him a flash drive.
“I’m sorry.”
Cole stared ahead.
“Wrong person.”
“I know.”
“Your mother is the one you betrayed.”
Michael nodded.
“I know.”
Cole started the engine.
Michael stopped him.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“I found the original referral sheet for Mom.”
Cole looked at him.
“Who referred her?”
Michael handed him a printed page.
At the bottom was a name.
Cole read it twice.
Then looked at Michael.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
Cole immediately called Sheriff Hayes.
Because the name on that paper belonged to someone Ruth trusted.
May you like
Someone who had access to elderly residents throughout the county.
And suddenly the Northline scheme became much larger than any of them had imagined.
