Chapter 5: The Man in the Dark Coat
Brooke stared at the message.
I stared at it with her.
"Who is that number?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"Has it messaged you before?"
"Never."
She looked up.
Across the parking lot, Grant was still in the cruiser.
His lawyer was standing a few feet away, typing on his own phone.
Brooke walked directly toward the officer in charge.
"Someone just sent me this," she said, and held out her phone.
The officer read it.
He looked at the lawyer.
He looked at Grant in the cruiser.
"Don't respond," he said.
"Don't delete it.
I'm going to need you to forward that to the number I give you."
"Do you know who sent it?"
"Not yet." He handed her phone back.
"But sending a message like that to a witness during an active call — that's not something people do unless they're worried."
Grant's lawyer appeared at the officer's shoulder.
"My client would like to make a statement," he said.
"Your client can make a statement at the station."
"I think if you hear what he has to say now, it may save everyone a great deal of time."
The officer looked at him for a moment.
"We'll do this properly.
At the station."
The lawyer's mouth pressed into a line.
He nodded once and went back to the cruiser.
Carol touched Brooke's arm.
"You don't have to be anywhere near that station tonight.
The advocate's office can handle the next steps.
You can go somewhere safe."
"I know," Brooke said.
"But I want to know who sent that message."
"The police will find out."
"I want to know tonight."
I recognized that voice.
It was the voice Brooke used when she had already made a decision and was informing you of it rather than asking.
She called her attorney from the parking lot.
It was past ten o'clock.
The call was answered on the second ring.
"Diane," Brooke said.
"I need to tell you what just happened."
I stepped back to give her space.
While she talked, I watched the lawyer climb into a second car that had arrived — not the silver one, a black one — and make a call of his own.
The man in the dark coat who had arrived first was still standing near the entrance to the restaurant.
He hadn't left.
He was watching the parking lot with the specific stillness of someone who was waiting for something.
I walked toward him.
He saw me coming and didn't move.
"Are you here for Grant?" I asked.
He looked at me without expression.
"I'm a friend of the family."
"Whose family?"
"Ma'am, I think you should go be with your daughter."
"My daughter is on the phone with her attorney.
I'll be with her in a moment." I held his gaze.
"I've been watching you since you arrived.
You haven't spoken to Grant.
You haven't spoken to the lawyer.
You've just been standing here watching."
Something shifted in his face.
Not much.
Just enough.
"That message that was just sent to my daughter's phone," I said.
"Did you send it?"
He said nothing.
"Because if you did, the officer over there is going to want to talk to you."
He looked past me toward the cruiser.
Then he looked back at me.
"Your daughter should think carefully," he said.
"Grant has friends who have been very generous to him over the years.
People who wouldn't appreciate their names appearing in a legal filing."
My hands were steady.
I was surprised by that.
"Is that a threat?"
"It's information."
"I'm going to share that information with the officer right now," I said.
"And I'd recommend you stay where you are, because if you leave before I get back, that's going to look very specific."
I turned and walked back to the officer before he could respond.
I told him exactly what the man had said, word for word.
The officer looked past me.
The man in the dark coat was still there.
He hadn't moved.
"Stay here," the officer said to me.
He walked toward the man.
Two other officers followed.
Brooke appeared at my side.
She had finished her call.
"What's happening?" she asked.
"I'm not entirely sure," I said.
"But I think the people Grant has been moving money for just made a mistake."
Brooke watched the officers reach the man.
She watched him cross his arms.
She watched one officer step to his left while the other stayed directly in front of him.
"Diane wants copies of everything tonight," Brooke said.
"The message, the recordings, the police report number.
She said this changes the filing."
"Changes it how?"
May you like
Brooke was quiet for a moment.
"She said it's no longer just a domestic case."
