Chapter 16 - The Parking Garage
Police told me not to respond to Leonard.
So naturally, I wanted to do exactly the opposite.
Dad had survived open-heart surgery less than two days earlier. He could barely walk to the bathroom without help.
The idea of him somewhere with Leonard made it impossible to think straight.
Then Harris got the first break.
Hospital cameras showed Dad leaving through a service elevator beside a man in maintenance coveralls.
The man was not Leonard.
It was Carl Renner, the notary.
His car entered a parking garage three blocks away.
Police found it on the fourth level.
Empty.
Natalie and I waited with Priya across the street while officers searched.
“I did this,” Natalie whispered.
I did not answer.
“I gave them access to you. To your papers. To your life.”
“This is not the time.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
I turned to her.
“My father may be dying in a parking garage because people thought they could manipulate me through my own wife.”
She flinched.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know you are.”
That surprised her.
“It just doesn’t fix it.”
A radio crackled.
Harris ran toward the garage.
We followed until an officer stopped us.
Ten minutes later, paramedics rushed inside.
I pushed forward.
“Is it Raymond?”
Nobody answered.
Then I saw Dad.
He was sitting in a wheelchair under a concrete beam, an oxygen mask on his face, furious as hell.
Alive.
I nearly dropped.
“Dad.”
He pulled the mask aside.
“Took you long enough.”
I laughed and cried at the same time.
Carl Renner had apparently panicked when police cars appeared. He left Dad in a stairwell and tried to walk out.
He was arrested two floors below.
“Did Leonard tell him to take you?” I asked.
Dad nodded.
“Carl kept saying he only needed the tape.”
“Did you have it?”
Dad gave me a tired look.
“Do I look stupid?”
“No.”
“Then stop asking stupid questions.”
That was my father.
But the relief did not last.
Harris came over with his phone in hand.
“Carl is talking.”
“And?”
“He says Leonard ordered the forged disclaimer, the hospital grab, everything.”
“Good.”
“Not good enough.”
“Why?”
“Leonard left his house thirty minutes ago. His phone is off.”
Harris looked directly at me.
May you like
“And the title company just received an electronic instruction to transfer Parcel 14C before midnight.”
