Chapter 3 - Six Years of Sarah Bennett
Sarah kept the chain on the door.
"Who sent you?"
"No one."
"Then how did you find me?"
Daniel Mercer glanced toward the hallway camera.
"Your husband isn't the only person tracking those documents."
"That's not comforting."
"It shouldn't be."
Sarah almost closed the door.
Daniel spoke quickly.
"Bennett Residential Holdings was formed six years ago using your Social Security number."
Her hand stopped.
"How do you know that?"
"I audited one of its lenders."
Sarah opened the door another inch.
Daniel was perhaps forty-five, clean-cut, exhausted-looking, carrying a leather briefcase.
"Why are you here?"
"Because three months ago I found forty-one properties connected to companies that all trace back to you."
Sarah stared at him.
"Forty-one?"
"At least."
"I own one house."
"Legally, you appear to own considerably more."
"I've never bought another property."
"I know."
"How?"
"Because several documents were signed while you were documented somewhere else."
He opened his briefcase slowly.
"May I show you?"
Sarah let him inside but kept herself between him and the children.
Daniel placed copies of documents on the table.
"September fourteenth, four years ago. According to this closing statement, you personally signed for a property in Hartford."
Sarah remembered the date.
"I was in the hospital."
Daniel nodded.
"Giving birth to Toby."
Her skin prickled.
He showed her another.
"Two years ago, you supposedly signed this in Boston."
"We were in Colorado."
"I have the airline records."
Sarah looked at him.
"You've investigated me."
"I investigated your name."
"What's the difference?"
"At first, none."
Daniel sat.
"Mrs. Bennett, your husband created a financial identity around you."
"Why?"
"That's what I couldn't understand."
"Couldn't?"
"Until six weeks ago."
He pulled out a photograph.
It showed a burned house.
"What is that?"
"One of your properties."
"It's not mine."
"Legally, it was."
"Was?"
"It burned down eighteen months ago."
Sarah looked at the photograph.
"Insurance?"
"Three point two million dollars."
Her stomach turned.
"Paid to whom?"
"A company controlled by Mark Bennett."
She sat down.
Daniel continued.
"Then I found another fire."
Another photograph.
"And another."
A third.
Sarah whispered, "How many?"
"Seven suspicious insurance claims."
She covered her mouth.
"And they're under my name."
"Most of them."
"If somebody investigates..."
"They already are."
Sarah looked toward Emma.
"Who?"
"Federal investigators."
Her world seemed to tilt.
"Am I under investigation?"
Daniel hesitated.
That hesitation frightened her more than any answer.
"Your identity is central to it."
Sarah stood.
"I need a lawyer."
"Yes."
"Immediately."
"Yes."
"Then why come here?"
Daniel reached into the briefcase one final time.
He removed a photograph.
It showed Mark entering a restaurant.
Beside him was Brenda.
Behind them walked an older man Sarah recognized from photographs online.
Richard Collins.
But there was a fourth person.
Sarah leaned closer.
"Who is that?"
Daniel's expression changed.
"That's the reason I found you tonight."
The fourth man was wearing sunglasses.
Gray hair.
Expensive suit.
Daniel said, "His name is Victor Hale."
Sarah waited.
May you like
Daniel swallowed.
"He was declared dead nine years ago."
