Chapter 4 - THE SECOND NAME
Officer Ramirez arrived while I was still staring at the false license.
He entered with another officer, took one look at the documents scattered across the floor, and told everyone not to touch anything.
Teresa immediately began crying.
It was a perfect performance. Her shoulders shook. Her voice became weak and wounded.
“My son is confused,” she said. “His wife has turned him against me.”
Ramirez looked at Amy holding a feverish baby, then at the locked cabinet, then at the forged documents.
“Ma’am,” he said, “step away from the box.”
“This is my home.”
“No,” I said. “It isn’t.”
Her tears stopped.
The officers photographed everything. One found three prepaid phones wrapped in a dish towel. Another found envelopes addressed to people I had never heard of. Inside were photocopies of Social Security cards and birth certificates.
Officer Ramirez held up the false license. “Do you know Daniel Mercer?”
“No.”
Teresa answered too quickly. “He’s an old family friend.”
Ramirez turned to her. “I asked your son.”
She pressed her lips together.
Amy left for the clinic with Betsy, who volunteered to drive. Before she went, I kissed Frederick’s forehead and promised I would follow as soon as the officers released me.
I hated letting them go without me.
But I hated the thought of evidence disappearing even more.
A detective named Harper arrived forty minutes later. She was calm, direct, and unimpressed by my mother’s dramatics.
“Mr. Bradley, your bank flagged these documents because several signatures were inconsistent,” she explained. “The hidden folder was part of a secure fraud alert system. Did anyone else have access to your online banking?”
“My mother paid the bills.”
Teresa smiled faintly, as if that proved her innocence.
Detective Harper opened one of the prepaid phones.
The latest message read: HE CAME HOME. CLEAN THE OFFICE ON LINDEN STREET.
Harper showed it to Ramirez. “Send a unit.”
Teresa lunged for the phone.
The officers restrained her.
For the first time, she looked truly afraid.
Then my own phone rang.
It was the clinic.
May you like
The nurse said Frederick was being transferred to the children’s hospital.
And when she told me what they had found in his blood, my knees nearly gave out.
