Chapter 3 - The Woman Upstairs
Two officers entered through the front door while two others moved around the exterior of the house.
Grant immediately transformed.
His shoulders relaxed.
His voice softened.
He released the anger from his face as though removing a mask.
“Officers, thank you for coming,” he said. “My wife is experiencing a great deal of stress.”
Rachel stared at him.
One of the officers, a woman with the name Parker on her uniform, looked at Rachel’s swollen cheek.
“Mrs. Monroe, are you injured?”
“My husband hit me.”
Grant sighed.
“It was an accident during an argument.”
“You slapped me.”
“You grabbed my mother.”
Judith placed a trembling hand against her chest.
Rachel almost admired the performance.
Officer Parker turned to Judith.
“Did you witness the incident?”
“I saw Rachel become aggressive.”
Rachel touched the recorder beneath her collar.
“The argument was recorded.”
Grant’s face tightened.
Officer Parker noticed.
“Recorded how?”
Rachel unclipped the device and handed it over.
“My father was listening from nearby. The recording includes Grant admitting he struck me, threats about my parents, discussion of a fraudulent property transfer, and a woman upstairs searching my office.”
The second officer looked toward the staircase.
Grant stepped forward.
“There is no woman upstairs.”
Rachel pointed at the scattered papers.
“She was standing there less than a minute ago.”
Officer Parker radioed the exterior team.
“Possible unauthorized person on the second floor.”
Grant blocked the first step.
“You cannot search my house without a warrant.”
Rachel said, “It is my house.”
Judith snapped, “That ownership is disputed.”
Officer Parker looked from one to the other.
“Who is the registered owner?”
Rachel answered, “I am.”
Grant said, “We are married.”
“That was not my question.”
Grant moved aside.
The officers went upstairs.
Elliot Crane remained near the side door, tapping rapidly on his phone.
Rachel watched him.
“Who are you contacting?”
“My office.”
“To prepare your defense?”
“To document that I advised all parties to avoid confrontation.”
Judith stared at him with open hatred.
“You advised us to recover the original deed.”
“I advised you to obtain legitimate documentation.”
“You prepared the transfer.”
“Based on information supplied by your son.”
Grant moved closer to him.
“Do not speak to her.”
Elliot looked at Grant as though finally seeing the danger in the man he represented.
“I am not your employee.”
A shout came from upstairs.
“Back door!”
One of the exterior officers ran past a window.
Rachel moved toward the staircase, but Parker ordered her to remain downstairs.
Several minutes passed.
Then an officer returned carrying Rachel’s blue flash drive in a clear evidence bag.
“We found this near an open bathroom window.”
Rachel’s heart sank.
“And the woman?”
“Gone. There is a rear section of the roof accessible from the window. She may have climbed down to the garden wall.”
Grant laughed bitterly.
“This is ridiculous. Rachel probably invited someone here to create a scene.”
Officer Parker turned to him.
“Sir, you told us no one else was in the house.”
“I did not know anyone was here.”
“You were standing at the bottom of the stairs when she appeared.”
“I did not see her.”
Rachel stared at him.
Grant avoided her eyes.
The officers separated everyone for statements.
Rachel sat in the formal dining room while Parker photographed the bruise on her face and the red marks around her wrist.
Thomas entered after being cleared through the gates.
When Grant saw him, he muttered something under his breath.
Thomas did not respond.
He simply stood beside his daughter.
After the initial interviews, Parker explained that Grant could be arrested for domestic assault based on Rachel’s statement, visible injuries, and the recording.
Rachel agreed to cooperate.
Grant’s confidence cracked.
“You would have your husband arrested over one mistake?”
Rachel looked at him.
“No. I would have you arrested because you believe hurting me is your right.”
Judith rushed forward.
“She is destroying this family.”
Officer Parker stopped her.
“Ma’am, step back.”
Grant was handcuffed in the entrance hall of the house Rachel had paid for.
As he was led outside, he turned toward her.
“You have no idea what you are doing.”
Rachel held his gaze.
“I am beginning to.”
Judith tried to follow him, but another officer asked her to remain for further questioning regarding the fraudulent transfer and the unidentified woman.
Elliot left after providing his business card and insisting that any future questions be directed through counsel.
Rachel wanted to stop him.
She wanted to demand the name of the woman upstairs.
But she understood that the recording already contained enough to make him nervous.
A nervous attorney made mistakes.
After the police finished documenting the scene, Rachel was permitted to collect personal belongings.
Thomas accompanied her upstairs.
The bedroom looked worse than before.
Judith had opened every compartment in the suitcase.
Grant had emptied drawers and cut the fabric lining from the bottom of Rachel’s filing cabinet.
Her office had been searched with greater urgency.
Files were scattered across the floor.
The computer tower had been removed from beneath the desk.
Thomas crouched beside the empty space.
“They took the whole computer.”
Rachel looked at the evidence bag containing the flash drive.
“Maybe they thought the account numbers were stored there.”
“What accounts?”
“I do not know.”
She opened the locked drawer where she had kept old tax records.
The lock had been forced.
Inside, several folders remained untouched.
One was labeled Grant Monroe, Business Records, 2022.
Rachel pulled it out.
It contained printed emails, loan statements, and corporate registration documents she had organized when Grant claimed he was trying to repair his finances.
She had scanned the papers onto the blue drive but had never read them carefully.
At the time, she had trusted him.
Now she sat on the floor and began examining every page.
Grant had once owned a consulting company called Monroe Urban Strategies.
The company had failed after a development project collapsed.
Rachel had been told that the failure resulted from investors withdrawing during a market downturn.
The records suggested something else.
Large sums had moved from investor accounts into a private holding company called Larkspur Management.
Rachel had never heard of it.
She found repeated payments to Larkspur marked as planning services.
Each payment was just below the internal review threshold.
Thomas pointed at a name on one of the registration documents.
“Who is Evelyn Shaw?”
Rachel read the page.
Evelyn Shaw was listed as Larkspur’s managing director.
The address belonged to a mailbox service in Delaware.
Rachel searched the name on her phone.
No useful results appeared.
Then she remembered the woman upstairs.
Black gloves.
Dark hair.
Controlled voice.
She had looked to be in her late forties.
Could she be Evelyn Shaw?
Rachel photographed every document.
As she reached the last page, a handwritten note fell from the folder.
It was in Grant’s handwriting.
J knows the original beneficiary cannot be located.
E.S. will continue transfers until replacement is approved.
Rachel read it twice.
“J could be Judith,” Thomas said.
“And E.S. could be Evelyn Shaw.”
“Replacement for what?”
Rachel turned the note over.
On the back was a sequence of numbers.
They resembled an account reference, but one section looked like a date.
October 17, 1989.
Rachel froze.
“That is my birthday.”
Thomas took the note.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He examined it again.
“Why would Grant write your birthday on a note about a missing beneficiary?”
Rachel did not answer.
She continued searching.
At the bottom of the folder was a photograph.
It showed Grant, Judith, Elliot Crane, and the woman from upstairs standing outside an old stone building.
A brass sign beside the entrance read:
THE ASHCROFT FOUNDATION.
Rachel zoomed in on the photograph.
May you like
The date printed in the corner was six years earlier.
Three weeks before Rachel had met Grant.
