Chapter 4 - The Eviction of Diane
At 2:00 PM on Tuesday, a heavy silver moving truck pulled up to the curb of 142 Elm Street—our three-bedroom suburban home in Columbus.
I stood on the front porch, accompanied by Evelyn Vance and two sheriff's deputies.
Sitting on the porch steps, surrounded by four large leather suitcases and six plastic totes, was Diane Mercer. She was wearing her oversized sunglasses, her face red from crying, furiously screaming into her phone to her husband, Arthur.
"Arthur! Get down here right now!" Diane shrieked into the speakerphone. "The police are here! They're putting my things on the driveway! That little sociopath blocked my credit cards!"
When she saw me step out of the front door, Diane jumped up, lunging toward the porch railing.
"You ungrateful little viper!" Diane screamed, her voice cracking. "We let you into this family! We gave you a home! And you put my son in jail over a joke?!"
"Mrs. Mercer," Deputy Miller warned, stepping onto the porch steps and placing his hand on his holster. "Keep your distance from Ms. Brooks. You are currently served with a formal trespass notice for this property."
"This is my son's house!" Diane yelled, pointing a manicured finger at the front door. "We paid for this place!"
"You didn't pay for it, Diane," I said, leaning against the doorframe. "You used $50,000 of embezzled funds from Ethan's corporate expense account to pay a private loan that you forced Ethan to hide from me. And yesterday afternoon, the corporate auditors from Mercer & Associates seized that loan agreement as evidence of grand larceny."
Diane went dead white. She stumbled back against her suitcases, her hand flying to her mouth.
"The bank has taken full administrative control of the property assets pending the fraud investigation," Evelyn Vance informed her cleanly. "Furthermore, the local district attorney has added Diane Mercer as a primary co-conspirator in the corporate wire fraud indictment filed this morning."
"Wire fraud?!" Diane gasped, her eyes wild with terror. "I didn't do anything! Ethan gave me that money! He said it was his bonus!"
"You signed the deposit receipts, Mrs. Mercer," Evelyn replied. "All forty-eight of them."
A second police cruiser pulled up behind the moving van.
Officer Rodriguez stepped out, holding a blue folder. "Diane Mercer?"
Diane backed away, her heels clicking frantically against the concrete driveway. "What... what is that?"
"You are under arrest for felony obstruction of justice and corporate wire fraud conspiracy," Officer Rodriguez announced, pulling out his handcuffs. "You have the right to remain silent..."
As the officers guided Diane toward the back of the cruiser, she turned her head, looking at me standing on the sunny porch. The arrogant, cruel woman who had stood by the pool doors shouting "Cool her off!" was completely gone. In her place was a broken, frightened woman facing federal prison time.
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"Claire! Please!" Diane wept as the door opened. "Tell them it was Ethan! Tell them I didn't know!"
I didn't answer. I simply closed the front door, locked the deadbolt, and drew the curtains closed against the afternoon sun.
