Chapter 6 - The Storage Unit Payment
The receipt showed a storage facility in Beaverton.
Unit 214.
Monthly payment: $189.
Payment method: Automatic withdrawal.
The final four digits of the account were unfamiliar.
I showed the receipt to Maya.
She photographed both sides.
“Your father rented a storage unit?”
“Not that I knew of.”
“When was this receipt issued?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Could it belong to another Thomas Moore?”
“The billing address is this house.”
The receipt had been hidden behind a photograph taken at Emma’s eighth birthday party. My father was kneeling beside her with frosting on his nose while Emma held a cake shaped like a blue butterfly.
It had been his favorite photograph.
Maya examined the frame.
“The backing was opened recently.”
“How can you tell?”
“The dust pattern. The edges are clean.”
Someone had removed the back panel, placed the receipt inside, and closed it again.
“Why would Gerald hide it here?”
“We do not know that he did.”
“No one else was rearranging this room.”
Daniel stood near the doorway.
He had heard us.
“My father moved those photographs yesterday.”
I looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“He complained that Emma had too many things on the walls.”
“Did you stop him?”
Daniel did not answer.
Maya placed the receipt in a clear document sleeve.
“We need to determine who paid the bill and who currently has access.”
“Can we go there now?”
“It is four in the morning.”
“I’m not going to sleep.”
“The office will be closed.”
“I can wait in the parking lot.”
Maya shook her head.
“You have been awake for nearly twenty-four hours. Your daughter needs you here. We will contact the facility when it opens.”
Daniel took one step toward me.
“I can call my father.”
“No.”
“He may explain it.”
“He will destroy whatever is inside.”
“You think he has access?”
“I think he forged your signature, tried to claim my house, removed our daughter from her bedroom, and may have attempted to steal forty thousand dollars from her education account.”
Daniel stared at the storage receipt.
“What could he want from your father?”
“My father is dead. Whatever Gerald wants, he believes it still has value.”
At dawn, the rain finally stopped.
Emma slept in my bed because her room remained too chaotic. Olivia slept on the sofa beneath a clean blanket.
Daniel sat alone at the kitchen table.
I showered, changed clothes, and called the bank as soon as the fraud department opened.
The representative would not discuss the investigation in detail over the phone, but she confirmed that the attempted amendment had included a photocopy of my driver’s license.
My current license.
I kept it in my wallet.
I opened my bag and checked.
The license was still there.
Someone had photographed it.
I tried to remember when my wallet had been outside my control.
At the hospital, it remained inside my locked employee locker.
At home, I sometimes left it in my bag near the kitchen door.
Gerald and Marlene had access to the entire house.
The representative also confirmed that the amendment included a copy of Emma’s birth certificate.
That document was stored in the fireproof box beneath my bed.
The box had not been forced open.
Someone knew the combination.
Only Daniel and I knew it.
When I confronted him, he looked genuinely stunned.
“I never told them.”
“Did you open the box while they were in the room?”
“No.”
“Did you write the combination somewhere?”
He hesitated.
“Daniel.”
“I stored it in my password manager.”
“Did your father have access to your phone?”
“He borrowed it sometimes.”
“Did he know your main password?”
Daniel looked away.
Everything connected back to the same weakness.
He had given his father access because refusing Gerald felt harder than risking his own family.
At 8:15 a.m., Maya called the storage facility.
The manager confirmed that Unit 214 remained active.
The rental contract had originally been signed by Thomas Moore six years earlier.
Two years ago, shortly after my father’s death, an authorized user had been added.
Gerald Hart.
My throat tightened.
“Can we access the unit?”
“The manager says the account is past due despite the recent receipt.”
“How is that possible?”
“The payment was reversed.”
“Who made it?”
“Someone used an online account connected to a temporary debit card.”
“Can the facility open the unit?”
“Not without proof that you are the legal representative of your father’s estate. Bring the probate order and death certificate.”
“I have both.”
“There is another complication.”
“What?”
“Gerald visited the facility yesterday.”
I looked toward the front windows.
The blue minivan was gone, but tire marks remained along the curb.
“Did he enter the unit?”
“The manager refused access because Gerald could not verify the account code.”
“So he left?”
“Not exactly.”
May you like
Maya paused.
“He offered an employee five thousand dollars to cut the lock.”
