Chapter 6 - The Package Jack Never Saw
Jack shook his head.
“I never got anything.”
Lucy looked confused.
“Keller told me he mailed it to the house in your name.”
Mark’s eyes moved slowly toward Diane.
She said nothing.
“Did you take Jack’s mail?”
“That is ridiculous.”
Jack’s face changed.
“No, it isn’t.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Three weeks ago, Grandma sent me a birthday card. Diane gave it to me already opened.”
Diane snapped, “It was damaged.”
“And my school acceptance letter was opened.”
“Because I manage this family.”
Mark took one step toward her.
“You manage everybody’s mail?”
An officer stepped between them.
“Sir, back up.”
The sergeant ordered Diane and Pike separated.
Pike was transported by ambulance under guard.
Diane was handcuffed after officers photographed Lucy’s restraints, the broken padlock, and the hidden security switch.
She still looked confident.
“You’ll regret this,” she told Mark.
“No,” he said. “I regret the last seven months.”
At 2:00 a.m., Mark, Jack, and Lucy sat in a private interview room at the precinct.
Jack refused to leave his mother’s side.
Lucy drank water in tiny sips.
Her hands shook.
Mark wanted to touch her.
He did not.
He had lost the right to assume touch was welcome.
A detective from Internal Affairs arrived just before sunrise.
Her name was Elena Ruiz.
She placed a recorder on the table.
“I need the entire story from the beginning.”
Lucy looked at Mark.
“The beginning is before Diane.”
Mark frowned.
“How far before?”
“Your company audit.”
Two years earlier, Nolan Mechanical had won a large city contract renovating municipal kitchens and food-service facilities.
The project saved Mark’s company after a brutal recession.
Lucy had handled payroll at the time.
She noticed invoices for equipment they never received.
Vendors she did not recognize.
Payments approved using Mark’s electronic signature.
Mark leaned forward.
“I thought those were subcontractor pass-throughs.”
“They weren’t.”
“Who created them?”
“Diane’s brother, Victor Shaw.”
Mark stared.
“I barely know Victor.”
“You know his shell companies.”
Lucy named three vendors.
Mark’s stomach turned.
All three had appeared on city projects.
Ruiz wrote them down.
“How does Detective Pike fit?”
Lucy answered, “He protected the scheme. Complaints disappeared. Inspections were rescheduled. People who asked questions suddenly had problems.”
“And Diane?”
“She ran the restaurant cash through the same companies.”
Mark covered his face.
He had signed forms.
He had not read enough.
He had trusted too easily.
Again.
Ruiz asked, “What was in Keller’s package?”
“Copies of my commitment papers, audio of Pike admitting the order was fake, and a ledger I stole from Diane before they took me.”
Jack whispered, “A ledger?”
Lucy nodded.
“Names. Payments. City officials. Police.”
Ruiz sat very still.
“If that package exists, it could open a corruption case.”
Mark looked at Jack.
“Where would Diane hide something addressed to you?”
Jack thought.
Then his eyes widened.
“The attic.”
Mark frowned.
“Why?”
“She keeps a box up there labeled ‘Jack—Old School Stuff.’ She told me never to touch it.”
Ruiz stood.
“We need a warrant.”
Jack looked at his father.
“What if she already moved it?”
Mark remembered something.
Diane had left the house that afternoon with two large restaurant supply boxes.
And one had been labeled with Jack’s name.
— — —
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