Marcus frowned.
“Disappeared?”
“Left the country.”
Marcus stared at the photograph.
“Why?”
“We don't know.”
Marcus flipped the page.
There were financial records.
Then property records.
Then an address.
Marcus recognized the address.
His stomach tightened.
“That isn't Crestline.”
“No.”
“Whose property is that?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Patricia Whitmore's.”
Marcus said nothing.
The next page contained a photograph of Patricia's house.
A moving truck was parked outside.
Marcus stared at it.
“When?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“She's gone?”
“Legally, we don't know.”
“What do you mean?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“She sold the house.”
Marcus's eyes narrowed.
“To whom?”
“That is the problem.”
The buyer's name was listed on the next page.
Marcus read it.
Then read it again.
It wasn't a person's name.
It was a company.
A shell company.
Marcus looked up.
“Crestline?”
“No.”
Daniel shook his head.
“We traced the ownership.”
He placed another document on the table.
Marcus read the corporate registration.
His expression changed.
“It's connected to someone in the original investigation.”
“Exactly.”
Marcus sat down.
The room suddenly felt colder.
“Who?”
Daniel slid another page forward.
Marcus read the name.
He knew it.
Everyone in the task force knew it.
It belonged to a consultant who had appeared repeatedly in Crestline's financial records.
Someone who had never officially worked for Crestline.
Someone who had never appeared in the HOA records.
Someone who had nevertheless received payments from both.
Marcus looked at Daniel.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“Two hundred eighty thousand dollars.”
Marcus leaned back.
“From Patricia?”
“Indirectly.”
“For what?”
“We don't know.”
Marcus closed the folder.
“Then why bring me in?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Because there is something else.”
He opened a laptop.
A video appeared.
Marcus watched.
It showed a suburban street.
Patricia's old neighborhood.
The camera angle was unfamiliar.
A black sedan stopped near Marcus's house.
A man stepped out.
He walked toward the property line.
He stood there for nearly two minutes.
Then he photographed Marcus's house.
Marcus's jaw tightened.