Chapter 4 - Red and Blue LightsThe red and blue emergency strobes painted the workshop walls in a dizzying rhythm.
Grant froze instantly, his hands loosening around my neck as three armed police officers swarmed the room. Within seconds, heavy tactical boots pinned Grant face-down to the concrete, snapping steel handcuffs onto his wrists with a sharp click.
"Suspect secured!" an officer shouted into his shoulder radio.
Another officer pulled Vanessa away from Harold, reading her her rights as she screamed obscenities and thrashed against the cuffs. "You can't do this! Do you know who my husband is? My father built half the homes in this county!"
I rolled onto my side, coughing violently as fresh air flooded my burning lungs. Harold scrambled over, offering a steady hand to help me up.
"Are you alright, Captain?" Harold asked, his breathing ragged.
"I'll live," I rasped, clutching my ribs. I looked toward the doorway.
Stepping into the workshop through the shattered frame was Detective Sergeant Marcus Vance, a veteran investigator with the Cook County financial crimes unit. He held a tablet displaying real-time financial tracking data.
Vance looked down at Grant, who was spitting curses from the floor, then at Vanessa in handcuffs. He walked over to Harold and took the navy-blue folder.
"Appreciate the call, Mr. Bennett," Vance said, flipping open the file. "These wire transfer logs and corporate shell company records are the exact missing puzzle pieces we needed for the federal grand jury indictments. Mercer’s Ponzi scheme spanned three states."
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Vanessa stopped thrashing. Her face went completely blank, the reality of her situation finally crashing down upon her. "Federal... indictments?"
"Conspiracy, embezzlement, wire fraud, and now attempted extortion and assault with a deadly weapon," Vance recited calmly, snapping the folder shut. "You and your husband aren't just losing a house, Mrs. Mercer. You're looking at twenty years in federal prison."
