Chapter 4 - The Paper Trail
The police station was cold, brightly lit with fluorescent tubes that made my head throb. I sat in an interrogation room wrapped in a gray wool blanket, holding a paper cup of lukewarm coffee that trembled in my hands. Lily was asleep on a small vinyl sofa in the corner, clutching a plush bear given to her by an officer.
Detective James Miller, a tired-looking man with graying hair and a sharp, calculating gaze, sat across from me. He had spent the last two hours listening to my statement, recording every word.
"Mrs. Davis," Detective Miller began, leaning back in his chair and clicking his pen. "We captured one of the men at the scene—the one you hit with the pan. His name is Ray Higgins. He's currently in the hospital with a severe concussion, but he's talking. He claims he was hired by your husband."
Hearing it confirmed by an officer of the law didn't make the pain any less agonizing. The man I had shared a bed with for eight years, the man who kissed our daughter goodnight, had put a hit out on us.
"And Vance?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.
"Vance Mitchell. He's still on the run, but we've issued a statewide APB. He was injured, thanks to you, so he won't get far without medical attention," Miller said. He adjusted his glasses and leaned forward. "Now, let's talk about your husband. Mark Davis."
"Where is he?" I asked, my grip tightening on the paper cup. "Did you arrest him?"
Miller sighed, pulling out a folder. "Mark’s flight landed in Chicago two hours ago. We contacted local authorities, and they detained him at O'Hare International Airport as he stepped off the plane. He’s currently in custody in Illinois, awaiting extradition back to Oregon."
A wave of relief washed over me, but it was quickly replaced by a cold, burning rage. "He tried to have us killed for insurance money. He lied about the mold in the crawl space just so he could hire those men to hide in our house!"
"It gets deeper than that, Sarah," Miller said gently, sliding a sheet of paper toward me across the metal table. "We searched Mark's computer and financial records with a federal warrant an hour ago. The mold wasn't just a cover to get contractors inside your home."
I looked down at the document. It was a financial audit statement.
"Mark didn't just have debt," Miller explained. "He was embezzling from his firm—over three million dollars over the past four years. The firm was launching an internal audit next Monday. He knew he was going to be exposed. He didn't just need the life insurance policy to pay off his debts; he needed a fresh start. He had offshore accounts set up in the Cayman Islands under a shell company."
"He was going to fake his grief, collect the payout, and disappear," I said, the pieces of the terrible puzzle clicking together.
"Exactly," Miller nodded. "He left you and Lily to take the fall. If the house burned down as planned, the investigators would have found Vance's work and assumed it was an arson-robbery gone wrong. Mark would have been the grieving husband stranded on a business trip, completely innocent."
I looked over at Lily, her tiny chest rising and falling in steady, peaceful sleep. She had saved my life. If she hadn't heard Vance talking through the floor vent while Mark was packing his bags, we would have been caught entirely off guard. Mark had left the crawl space hatch unlocked from the inside so Vance and Ray could slip into the house after he drove away.
"I want to see him," I said, looking back at Detective Miller. My voice wasn't shaking anymore. The terror that had gripped me in the pantry had transformed into a cold, hard resolve. "I want to look him in the eye when he realizes he failed."
"He's being flown back on a transport plane tomorrow morning," Miller replied. "You'll get your chance in court, Sarah. But right now, you and your daughter need to be somewhere safe. Vance is still out there, and until he's behind bars, you are in danger."
"Where do we go?" I asked.
"We're placing you in a safe house outside the city," Miller said firmly. "Under police protection. Nobody knows about this location except my team."
I nodded, standing up and wrapping the blanket tighter around my shoulders. I walked over to Lily, gently lifting her into my arms. She stirred slightly, burying her head into my neck.
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"It's okay, baby," I whispered to her. "Mommy’s got you. The monsters aren't coming back."
But as we walked out of the police station under the dark Oregon sky, I couldn't shake the feeling that the nightmare was far from over. Vance was still out in the dark, and a man who has nothing left to lose is the most dangerous monster of all.
