Chapter 6 - The Forensic Paper Trail
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The color drained from Julian Vance’s face until he looked like carved limestone.
“Caleb... Hart?” Julian stammered, stepping backward against the leather sofa. “The Hart Real Estate Syndicate...?”
“The very same,” Marcus Cole intervened, opening a leather portfolio and spreading twenty-four forensic audit documents across the desk.
Marcus pointed to the first page. “Here is the handwriting analysis from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The signature on the trust liquidation release is a mechanical forgery executed with an electronic autopen.”
He flipped to the second page. “Here is the surveillance footage from the notary’s office on Flagler Street, showing you paying a four-thousand-dollar cash bribe to Notary Public Hector Ramos to stamp the document without Olivia Vance present.”
Julian began hyperventilating, his manicured hands shaking violently as he tried to loosen his silk tie.
“Look... Mr. Hart... there has been a terrible misunderstanding!” Julian pleaded frantically, his arrogant facade collapsing into sniveling terror. “Olivia is unstable! She was working as a common house cleaner! I was only trying to safeguard the capital until the children reached eighteen!”
“You threw a mother and three nine-month-old infants onto a park bench in thirty-degree weather, Julian,” Caleb said, his voice dropping into a register colder than arctic ice.
“I was going to send her a monthly stipend once I settled in Spain!” Julian wailed, clutching his chest. “I swear on my mother’s grave! We are family!”
“Family does not starve babies to buy sports cars,” Caleb replied ruthlessly.
The two federal marshals stepped forward, their hands resting on their sidearms.
“Julian Vance,” Marshal Miller announced. “You are under arrest for Grand Larceny in the First Degree, Interstate Wire Fraud, Forgery, and Child Endangerment Conspiracy.”
Click. Snap.
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The heavy steel handcuffs locked around Julian’s wrists with a sharp, resonant crack that echoed through the bank suite.
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