“Inside were copies of documents belonging to your parents.”
“What documents?”
“Bank statements. Insurance paperwork. Trust drafts.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
She paused.
“A handwritten note.”
“What did it say?”
Ruiz was silent for a moment.
Then she read it.
“‘If Margaret refuses again, use the photographs. Once she signs, everything changes.'”
Margaret.
My mother.
“What photographs?”
“We don’t know.”
“But Howard did.”
“Probably.”
I looked through the open bedroom door.
Vicky slept beneath her pink blanket.
“What was he trying to make Mom sign?”
“We don’t know that either.”
I thought of Denise.
The terror in her eyes.
Howard wasn’t trying to get into the house.
He was trying to get out.
Then something clicked.
“Detective?”
“Yes?”
“What if the ledger isn’t about money they wanted to steal?”
“What else would it be?”
I stared into the darkness.
“What if it proves money was already stolen?“
