Chapter 13 - The Door Across the Hall.
The apartment building remained partially sealed because investigators had not finished documenting the damaged hallway.
Derek should not have been able to enter.
According to the security footage, he did not use the front entrance.
He came through the service stairwell with a key.
Harris showed Lena the video on his tablet.
Derek appeared at 3:42 p.m., wearing a baseball cap and carrying a narrow black case.
He walked past his own apartment without stopping.
Then he unlocked the door across the hall.
Apartment 3B.
Lena stared at the screen.
"Nobody lives there."
"How long has it been empty?" Harris asked.
"Maybe six months."
Vincent looked at her.
"Who owns it?"
Lena did not know.
Harris did.
"A limited liability company called North Quay Holdings."
Naomi immediately searched state registration records.
The company had been created eight months earlier.
Its mailing address was the private mailbox store where Box 228 had been opened under Lena's name.
"Derek owns the apartment across the hall?" Lena asked.
"Not directly," Naomi said.
"But someone connected to the same mailbox controls the company."
A warrant search of 3B began that evening.
This time investigators found what Derek had removed from his office.
The locked apartment contained two filing cabinets, a laptop, a scanner, and stacks of blank forms.
There were copies of Lena's identification documents.
There were copies of Vincent's business records.
There were drafts of letters from Carol that she had never written.
There were even practice sheets covered with repeated versions of Lena's signature.
Rachel looked at photographs from the search and spoke very quietly.
"This changes everything."
Lena should have felt triumphant.
Instead, she felt watched.
The apartment had been twenty feet from her own front door.
For months, Derek had maintained a second room full of plans while she cooked dinner, folded laundry, and tried to understand why every disagreement left her questioning her memory.
"Was there a camera?" she asked.
Harris hesitated.
"One."
Vincent's face hardened.
"Where?"
"Pointed at the hallway."
Lena wrapped her arms around herself.
"So he knew who came to see me."
"Possibly."
Harris swiped to another photograph.
The camera storage contained dozens of short clips showing neighbors, delivery drivers, Carol, and Vincent's car during the visit two years earlier.
Derek had not merely described Vincent's presence.
He had archived it.
Then Harris showed them the laptop directory.
One folder was labeled COURT.
Another was labeled EXIT.
A third was labeled AFTER.
"Did you open AFTER?" Lena asked.
"Yes."
Harris's answer came slowly.
Inside were draft emails scheduled to be sent to Lena's former employer, two family friends, and her mother's church committee.
The messages described Lena as dishonest and unstable.
None had been sent yet.
Derek had prepared a second campaign in case the court petition failed.
Lena stared at the screen until the words blurred.
"He was going to keep going."
Rachel nodded.
"Until you stopped fighting or everyone around you stopped believing you."
Vincent looked toward Harris.
"Where is Derek now?"
Harris's phone rang before he could answer.
He listened for less than a minute.
Then his expression shifted.
"We have him."
Lena's chest tightened.
"Where?"
"He came back for the black case."
"At 3B?"
"No."
Harris looked at Vincent.
"At your office."
Vincent went still.
Harris continued.
"Your night receptionist stalled him and called us."
Lena felt a strange calm settle over her.
"What's in the black case?"
May you like
Harris looked down at the evidence list on his phone.
"That's the part you need to see for yourself."
