Chapter 19 - The Paper Firestorm
"He came up on the late train," Courtney stammered, leaning forward, her handcuffs clattering against the metal table. "He told me if the deeds didn't clear the county registrar by eight-thirty this morning, he would ruin Kevin. He has promissory notes with Kevin’s forged signature for half a million dollars. He told me if I didn't get Maisie into state custody so he could take over the trust, he would send those notes to the federal bank examiners. Kevin would go to prison for ten years!"
"And you thought saving Kevin meant selling my daughter?" I leaned forward, my knuckles white on the table.
"I thought we would get three million dollars!" she screamed, the hysteria finally shattering her composure. "We were drowning, David! You and your stupid noble poverty! You sit up on that mountain, barely able to pay your property taxes, while you sit on sixty million dollars of rare earth minerals! Julian was going to pay off Kevin’s debts, give us a house in Saratoga, and Maisie... Maisie would have been sent to an elite boarding school in Switzerland! She wouldn't have been hurt!"
"You burned her cake," Kevin whispered, staring at his wife as if looking at a demon. "You laughed at an eight-year-old girl who baked her own birthday cake because her mother wasn't there to make it for her."
"I was angry!" she shrieked. "She looked at me with those damn Sterling eyes! The same eyes her brother has! Every time I looked at that kid, I saw Julian holding a financial noose around my neck!"
Sheriff Miller, standing by the door, took out his audio recorder and clicked it off. He looked down at Courtney with utter disgust.
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"Mrs. Vance," Miller said coldly. "You just confessed to extortion, criminal conspiracy, and aggravated corporate fraud on an official record."
"It doesn't matter," Courtney whispered, a terrible, broken grin appearing on her lips. "It's eight-fifteen. Julian's emergency injunction is in front of Judge Callahan right now. Pendelton has the deed filings. By eight-thirty, the Vance timber parcel belongs to Blackwood Crest. And the warrant for Maisie’s protective custody is already signed."
