Game on, Mom.
Marcus Webb raised an eyebrow when I told him about the HR email.
That’s a bold move, he said, discrediting you before you can talk. It means she’s scared. It means she’s strategic.
He tapped his pen against his notebook.
We need something concrete, something she can’t explain away.
That’s when I remembered.
The building, I said slowly. They installed new security cameras two months ago in all the hallways.
Marcus was already pulling out his phone.
What’s your building manager’s name?
20 minutes later, we were sitting in Mr. Henderson’s cramped office watching footage on a small monitor.
Here, Henderson pointed at the screen. February 7th. That’s the day you mentioned.
I watched my mother walk down the fourth floor hallway. She carried a large black bag, the kind you’d use for a gym or an overnight trip. She glanced around before entering my apartment. The time stamp read 2:07 p.m.
Henderson fast forwarded. My mother emerged at 5:12 p.m.
3 hours.
She told me she only stopped by for 30 minutes.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
Wait, I leaned forward. Where’s the bag?
We watched again. She walked in carrying the bag. She walked out empty-handed.
Can you check the other cameras? Marcus asked. Stairwells, parking garage.
Henderson nodded and started clicking.
We found it on the service entrance camera. Patricia walking to her car at 5:15 p.m.
No bag.
She hadn’t taken it out that way either.
She left it in my apartment, I said quietly.
Marcus made a note.
That bag is key. Fire investigators found something suspicious near the outlet, still being analyzed at the lab. But if we can prove what she brought in, the three-hour visit, the missing bag, the suspicious fire origin.
Finally, we had a direction.
Diana Reeves was exactly what I needed. A lawyer who specialized in insurance fraud and didn’t believe in sugar coating.
This signature is good.
She held the beneficiary form up to the light in her downtown office. Professional even, but not perfect.
What do you mean?
She pulled out a magnifying glass. Old school, but effective.
See these points here and here?
She traced invisible lines on the paper.
Hesitation marks. When someone forges a signature, they naturally slow down at certain points, trying to get it right. Your real signature is fluid. You’ve been signing your name for years. This one has at least three places where the pen paused.
Hope flickered in my chest.
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