Chapter 5 - The Desperate Trap
Two weeks later.
Margaret and Carla finally managed to post bail using a shady, high-interest loan shark Carla knew from her gambling days.
They were released, but they had nothing. The locks on Margaret's condo had been changed. Their cars had been repossessed because I stopped making the payments. They were living in a cheap, run-down motel on the edge of town, awaiting their criminal trial for assault and attempted robbery.
But Margaret wasn't finished.
If she was going down, she wanted to take Irene and me with her.
One evening, I received a notification on my phone. It was an alert from my home security system.
Someone had bypassed the front gate of our Paradise Valley estate.
I was at the hospital, preparing to bring Irene home the next day. I pulled up the live camera feed on my tablet.
Through the infrared night vision, I watched Carla and Margaret sneaking through my backyard. Carla was carrying a heavy black duffel bag.
“What are they doing?” Irene asked, looking over my shoulder.
“They’re trying to plant evidence,” I realized. “They think if they can hide the stolen company funds inside my house before the FBI raids it, they can frame me for Carla’s embezzlement.”
Irene gasped. “Call the police!”
“No,” I said, a dark smile crossing my face. “The police can only get them for trespassing. I want them gone forever.”
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I opened a separate app on my phone and dialed the head of my private security detail, a former Navy SEAL named Marcus.
“Marcus,” I said into the phone. “They’re in the backyard. Let them break into the guest house. Wait until they stash the bag in the floorboards. Then lock the doors from the outside and call the FBI field office. Tell them we have the embezzlers trapped on site.”
