Chapter 26 - The Warrant at Sunrise
By seven in the morning, the sun broke over the limestone bluffs, casting a warm golden light over the smoke-stained ridge.
I stood on the porch with a fresh cup of tea, watching three state police cruisers and an unmarked black SUV rumble up the driveway. Sheriff Samuel Vance stepped out, accompanied by an elegant, sharp-featured woman in a navy suit carrying a leather briefcase—Assistant State Attorney Eleanor Cross.
"Mrs. Vance," Attorney Cross greeted me, shaking my hand with a firm, professional grip. "I’m sorry to meet under such harrowing circumstances, but your attorney and Sheriff Vance have provided us with extraordinary evidence."
"Have you found her?" I asked.
"Not yet, but we have frozen every account associated with Vanessa Miller and her holding companies," Cross stated. "Thanks to Daniel’s sworn statement and the documents recovered from the rental car, we obtained emergency federal warrants at dawn. Her bank accounts, her safety deposit boxes, and her passport are flagged at every airport and border crossing in the country."
"She’s backed into a corner," Samuel added, adjusting his Stetson. "And a cornered animal is dangerous, Carmen. We have deputies stationed at the main gate and around the hospital until she’s in handcuffs."
"She won't run far without money," I remarked, remembering how Vanessa used to obsess over her designer handbags and expensive dinners. "Vanessa doesn't know how to survive in the cold. She needs luxury like oxygen."
"Which is exactly why she made a massive mistake two hours ago," Cross said with a thin smile. "She attempted to wire fifty thousand dollars from a joint credit line she opened using your forged signature at a regional bank in Branson, Missouri. The bank flagged the transaction, and the IP address originated from a motel less than twenty miles from here."
My heart leaped into my throat. "She’s still in the county?"
"She never left," Samuel said. "She was waiting for the morning news to see if the fire destroyed the records in Arthur’s safe. When she realized the main house didn't burn, she tried to pull cash to hire a runner."
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"I want to be there when you arrest her," I said, my voice steady and unyielding.
Cross hesitated, but Samuel held up a hand. "Let her come, Eleanor. Carmen’s the one who held Blackwood Ridge together with her bare hands last night. She deserves to see the end of it."
