Chapter 4 - The Paper Trail
With Richard on the run, Detective Miller and his task force worked around the clock to track his financial transactions and communications. Meanwhile, David and I began scouring through Malia's personal records, searching for anything Richard might have tried to cover up prior to her murder.
We gathered at David’s office downtown. The room was lined with floor-to-ceiling law books, and the large windows offered a sweeping view of the city skyline.
"Malia was smarter than Richard ever gave her credit for," David said, spreading a array of bank statements and encrypted thumb drives across his desk. "Shortly before she vanished, she set up a cloud drive backup and gave the password to her safety deposit box to her bank manager with explicit instructions to release it only if she was reported missing for over a year."
My heart hammered against my ribs. "Why didn't the bank manager contact us earlier?"
"Richard’s lawyers slapped a legal hold on her assets during the custody dispute," David explained. "It took a court order from Detective Miller yesterday to finally unlock the box. Look at what was inside."
David pushed a printed stack of emails and financial documents toward me. As I scanned through them, the full scope of Richard’s desperation became horrifyingly clear.
Richard hadn't just been fighting for custody out of spite or possessiveness; he was running an elaborate money-laundering scheme through his real estate development firm, inflating construction costs and skimming millions into offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. Malia, who had managed the bookkeeping for his firm during their engagement, had discovered the paper trail.
"She kept a digital ledger," I realized aloud, reading through the line items. "She was going to take this to the federal prosecutors."
"Precisely," David nodded. "When Richard realized she had full proof of his financial crimes, which would have put him in federal prison for decades and stripped him of his custody rights entirely, he snapped. This was never just a domestic dispute. It was a calculated elimination of a whistleblower."
"Does Miller have this?" I asked.
"Yes, and so do the federal authorities," David replied. "They've frozen all of Richard’s bank accounts and seized his assets. He’s running on whatever cash he had on hand, which means he’s desperate, isolated, and increasingly dangerous."
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A cold shudder ran down my spine. A desperate man with nothing left to lose was the most dangerous threat of all. "He might try to come after Alina," I said, panic creeping into my voice. "If he thinks she knows something, or if he wants to use her to bargain..."
"You are both under twenty-four-hour police protection," David assured me, taking my hands in his. "Miller has two unmarked cars posted outside your house at all times. You are safe, Shayla. We are going to trap him."
