Chapter 6 - The Trap
I didn't stay in the law office. I rode alongside Detective Miller in an unmarked police cruiser as three tactical units converged on my residence.
“He cut his monitor twenty minutes ago,” Detective Miller explained while navigating through afternoon traffic with blue lights flashing. “He knows Julianna is talking to the feds. He’s desperate, which makes him extremely dangerous.”
“He thinks those paper ledgers in the basement are the only physical proof connecting him directly to the offshore accounts,” I said. “He doesn't know we already found the digital mirror drives in his office safe.”
When we arrived at the neighborhood, the street had been quietly blocked off by police cruisers. Tactical officers in heavy vests were surrounding the perimeter of the house.
Detective Miller checked her sidearm and looked back at me. “Stay in the vehicle, Clara.”
I watched from the front seat as the SWAT team blew the rear locks and flooded the house with flashbangs.
BANG! BANG!
The muffled pops echoed through the quiet suburban cul-de-sac. Seconds later, shouts rang out from the rear yard.
“HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM! DOWN ON THE GROUND! NOW!”
Through the side window of the cruiser, I watched two officers drag Evan out through the broken basement doors. He was covered in soot, struggling fiercely, screaming obscenities as they forced him onto the wet lawn and zip-tied his wrists behind his back.
His hood fell back, revealing a face warped by rage, panic, and defeat.
Detective Miller walked back to the cruiser, opening my door. “He had a gallon of gasoline and a road flare in his backpack. He was planning to burn the house to the ground.”
I stepped out of the car, walking slowly across the pavement until I stood a few feet from where Evan lay pinned to the grass by two deputies.
He looked up at me, his breath coming in ragged, desperate gasps.
“Clara,” he spat, blood on his lip. “You destroyed everything!”
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“No, Evan,” I said calmly, looking down at the man who had tried to erase my life. “You destroyed yourself the moment you mistook my kindness for weakness.”
Deputy Vance stepped forward, hoisting Evan up by his collar and shoving him into the back of a caged transport van. The heavy metal door slammed shut, locking him in darkness.
