Chapter 6: The Brother at the Door
Patricia Owens worked out of a narrow office above a dry cleaner on a street Daniel had never had reason to visit.
The waiting room had two chairs and a plant that had seen better years.
None of it suggested the kind of lawyer Marcus would have hired.
That was exactly why Ruth had chosen her.
Patricia was in her late fifties, compact, with reading glasses pushed up on her forehead and the unhurried manner of someone who had heard worse things than whatever you were about to say.
Daniel laid everything on her desk.
The incident report.
The notebook.
The emails.
Ruth's envelope.
Patricia read without speaking.
She turned pages slowly, went back twice, made a note on a yellow pad.
When she finished, she took her glasses off entirely and set them down.
"Your brother used your name on founding documents for a fraudulent investment vehicle," she said.
"Your wife discovered it, confronted him, and d*ed in a collision the following week.
You have a police incident report confirming a second vehicle made contact with her car.
You have your wife's own written account naming your brother and documenting his threat." She paused.
"And you have emails between your brother and his associate that establish the fraud."
"Yes."
"Does Marcus know you have any of this?"
"No.
He knows Vanessa exists.
He knows she's been asking questions.
He doesn't know what she found."
Patricia nodded slowly.
"Then we have a window.
Not a large one." She picked up her pen.
"He's already reaching out to you directly.
That tells me he's trying to read how much you know.
If he senses movement, he'll start destroying records.
He may already have people watching." She looked at Daniel over the pad.
"You cannot confront him.
Not yet.
Not until we've secured everything."
"I understand."
"I want originals and copies of everything in this room deposited with my office today.
I'll contact a colleague at the financial crimes unit — someone I trust, not someone your brother would know.
We do this carefully and we do it once." She paused.
"Can you keep him calm for a few more days?
Respond to his texts.
Keep it normal."
Daniel looked at the yellow pad.
"He sent my daughter a birthday card last month," he said.
"He signed it Uncle Marcus.
She put it on her dresser."
Patricia didn't look away.
"I know," she said quietly.
"Keep him calm."
---
Daniel texted Marcus that evening.
*Sorry, been swamped.
Dinner sounds good.
End of the week?*
The reply came in under a minute.
*Thursday.
I'll book somewhere.
Just the two of us.*
Daniel set the phone down.
Vanessa was sitting across from him at the kitchen table, the same table where this had all started two nights ago.
"He wants Thursday," Daniel said.
"He wants to look you in the eye," Vanessa said.
"He wants to know if you know."
"Then I'll let him look."
Vanessa studied him.
"Daniel.
Whatever you're feeling right now — keep it off your face on Thursday.
All of it."
"I've been looking at my brother's face my entire life." His voice was quiet.
"I know how to look back."
Vanessa nodded once.
She reached for her coffee.
Then she stopped.
"There's something else I haven't told you yet."
Daniel waited.
"The man Marcus was working with on the investment scheme.
The name on those emails." She set her cup down.
"I recognized it.
I looked him up." She paused.
"He's connected to the officer who buried Claire's original complaint.
The one she went to first."
The kitchen light hummed faintly above them.
"So it wasn't just Marcus," Daniel said.
May you like
"No," Vanessa said.
"It wasn't just Marcus."
