Chapter 10 - Cracks in the Defense
The digital flash drive was delivered directly to the United States Attorney’s Office the following morning. What had begun as a local elder abuse charge instantly mutated into a sweeping federal conspiracy case involving interstate money laundering and wire fraud.
By Friday afternoon, the dominoes began to fall with catastrophic speed.
Federal agents executed a search warrant on Marcus Vance’s corporate headquarters in the city's financial district. News helicopters broadcast live footage of agents carrying dozens of boxes and server towers out of the marble skyscraper. Marcus Vance was arrested on the tarmac of the municipal airport as he attempted to board a private jet chartered for the Cayman Islands.
Within four hours of Marcus's arrest, his high-priced attorney, Julian Montgomery, filed an emergency motion to withdraw as Marlo's defense counsel, citing a direct conflict of interest.
Marlo was abandoned. Stripped of the powerful legal shield she thought Marcus would provide, she was remanded to the high-security wing of the county detention facility, facing an insurmountable wall of federal and state indictments.
On Sunday morning, our family attorney, David, called my cell phone.
"Claire, are you sitting down?" he asked, his tone unusually solemn.
"Yes, David. What happened?"
"Marlo’s court-appointed public defender just reached out to me. Marlo has suffered a complete psychological breakdown in detention. She is refusing food, and she’s refusing to speak to the investigators. But she made one demand."
"What demand?"
"She wants to see you," David said. "Only you. She claims that if you don't come to the visitor center within twenty-four hours, she will take information to her grave that will shatter your mother's life forever."
Elias, who was sitting across the breakfast table feeding oatmeal to Ren, looked up sharply as he saw the color drain from my face.
"She’s bluffing, Claire," Elias said immediately, reaching across to cover my hand. "It's another manipulation. Another attempt to draw you into her chaos."
May you like
"Maybe it is," I said slowly, looking at my daughter's bright, innocent eyes. "Or maybe she knows something about Dad that wasn't in that letter. If there is even a chance she can hurt Mom again, I have to know."
***
