Family Money(37)

I looked deeper into the files. From what I could tell, Joe and his father had represented the company on about a dozen general-litigation matters over about a year’s worth of time—so not long. Mostly disputes with truck drivers and issues with wholesalers and vendors. I pored over every word in these files, wondering if one of them could’ve entailed the mysterious multimillion-dollar settlement. I had skimmed them during my previous visit to the storage unit because they didn’t have Joe’s name on them. I reached the last file in the second box and found nothing related to a big settlement, nothing unusual at all about the files. So why had Joe secretly taken them from his old office after his supposed death thirty-five years ago?

I packed up the two boxes and put them back with the stacks of others. Then I closed the garage door to the unit and hit the stairs again. Inside the stairwell, I paused and stared out a window to the outside parking lot where I could see my Tahoe parked in its spot. I noticed that a black Ford Explorer was now parked across the parking lot. It had not been there when I’d entered the building. That didn’t necessarily concern me. Renters could come and go whenever they pleased. What did concern me was that I could see someone sitting in the shadows of the vehicle behind the steering wheel. The glow of a phone screen cast a slight bit of light on the driver’s face. But it wasn’t enough to tell anything about the driver. Plus, the driver wore a cap with the bill pulled down low.

Why was someone just sitting there? A passenger could be inside the storage building, and the driver was simply waiting on them. But then why park away from the building instead of up close like me? I was understandably feeling more paranoid since my meeting with Brian in Dallas and knowing I had stood face-to-face with a killer while inside my in-laws’ house the other night. I watched for another minute or so, waiting for movement of some kind—either the driver finally leaving, or someone coming out of the building and jumping in the passenger seat. But neither happened. I left my spot near the window and continued to descend to the ground floor. Then I pushed through the door to the parking lot. As I circled my Tahoe, I cast another quick glance toward the Explorer. But it was too difficult to tell if I was being watched.

Climbing behind the wheel, I started up my car and quickly backed out. Then I headed for the exit to the property. I paused as the automatic gate began to open, watching my rearview mirror the entire time, and slowly eased through the gate and up to the street. Just as I pulled into slight traffic, I noticed the headlights of the Explorer pop on behind me in the parking lot.





TWENTY-THREE


I kept my eyes on my rearview mirror. I couldn’t tell if the black Ford Explorer was following me. There were too many headlights behind me to make out anything. I sighed, shook my head, tried to convince myself I was being silly. Still, I kept my eyes on my mirrors. A couple of minutes later, I parked in my in-laws’ driveway. I wasn’t completely lying to Taylor about tonight. I still had intentions of going by my in-laws’—just not to look for framed photos. Instead, I planned to search every nook and cranny of Joe’s home office to see if I could find anything related to what I’d uncovered over the past twenty-four hours. Entering through the garage, I felt relieved when I heard the alarm beeping and waiting to be disarmed. I didn’t want to run into another intruder tonight. From a front window, I peeked out at the street. I didn’t spot the Explorer anywhere.

I headed straight to Joe’s home office and flipped on the lights. I started with a small closet that held a few legal boxes and a couple of plastic tubs. I pulled out the boxes. Like those in the storage unit, these were also labeled on the outside with black marker for certain clients. Joe still took on a case here and there when he felt like it. I pulled out each and every file and carefully reviewed the paperwork inside to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Nothing from the three boxes captured my attention. The plastic tubs held only miscellaneous office supplies like copy paper, pens, notepads, paper clips, and such. The tubs were probably what my father-in-law used when he’d cleaned out his work office for the last time a few years ago. I had already looked through the three drawers of files that were built into the wall of wood shelves behind Joe’s desk. But I wanted to check them again to see if I’d missed anything. I pulled out every file and spread them on the hardwood floor. Nothing peculiar jumped out at me.

Shifting my attention to Joe’s desk, I began pulling out drawers and sifting through the contents. The center drawer contained pens, pencils, markers, and various business cards that Joe had collected over the years. I reviewed each of the business cards and then put them back. The next drawer only housed mailing envelopes and labels. A third drawer contained a pile of old bills. The fourth drawer was stuffed full with probably every single handwritten card my daughters had ever given to my father-in-law. This made me pause a moment. I felt a catch in my throat and a sudden flood of grief for my daughters. There would be no more cards made for Papa. My girls had found such joy in creating them. Especially because Joe would go over the top in showing his appreciation for each and every one. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

I found something interesting in the bottom left drawer. A small black safe about the size of a shoebox with a small silver logo on it that said TurboVault. I pulled the safe out of the drawer and set it on the desk. There was a silver keypad on the front of the box along with a round silver handle. I tried to turn the handle, but it was locked. I had no clue what Joe might have used for the code. I typed in the code for the garage and a light next to the keypad blinked red. Then I typed in the original code for the house alarm. The light again blinked red. Damn. My eyes drifted back over to the name of the TurboVault logo, which looked familiar to me. Did Joe have a TurboVault app on his phone?