Chapter 8 - THE BASEMENT TURNED THE DIVORCE INTO A CRIME SCENE
Police sealed the building.
One bone became several.
Human remains.
Adult male.
Estimated buried more than twenty years.
Victor’s attorney stopped taking calls.
Melissa girlfriend disappeared from media.
Court hearing postponed.
Forensics began.
Who was buried beneath Catherine’s old café?
Catherine went pale when told.
“There was a man.”
“What man?”
Former cook.
Name:
Thomas Reed.
He disappeared shortly before fire.
Victor said Thomas stole cash and ran.
Police report existed.
No body.
No investigation beyond missing-person entry.
Could remains be Thomas?
DNA comparison with surviving brother.
Match.
Thomas Reed.
Cause of death:
Blunt-force trauma to skull.
Not fire.
He died before building burned.
My stomach turned.
Did Victor kill him?
Catherine cried.
“I heard them arguing.”
About what?
Thomas caught Victor stealing.
From café.
From payroll.
He threatened Catherine.
Victor confronted him.
Then Thomas vanished.
Days later café burned.
Possible sequence:
Murder.
Hide body.
Burn restaurant to destroy evidence.
Insurance payout.
Victor begins new life.
But proof?
Twenty-three years old.
Then safe records.
Thomas kept notebooks.
He suspected Victor.
One note:
V.H. removing cash nightly.
Another:
If anything happens, talk to Melissa.
Melissa Hale.
Victor’s sister.
She knew.
Maybe that was why she planned to cut Victor from family business.
Then Thomas wrote:
Victor says Catherine will take blame if books come out.
Same pattern even then.
Women as shields.
Then a cassette tape.
Old.
Damaged but recoverable.
Conversation.
Thomas:
“You’re stealing from both of them.”
Victor:
“Keep your voice down.”
“Catherine and Melissa.”
Silence.
Victor:
“You want money?”
Thomas:
“I want you out.”
Then tape stopped.
No murder.
But motive.
Then police interviewed Melissa Hale.
She finally admitted:
Victor came to her the night Thomas disappeared.
Bloody shirt.
Told her there had been “an accident.”
Asked for money.
She gave him $20,000.
Helped him leave town for two days.
Why?
Brother.
Fear.
Then later realized Thomas missing.
She confronted Victor.
He threatened to say she helped cover murder.
That may be why she agreed to fake death after car crash later.
Victor had leverage on everyone.
Melissa spent twenty years terrified because she had unknowingly assisted him after a possible killing.
Then Catherine remembered something.
The night of fire, Victor had bruised knuckles.
He said kitchen equipment fell.
Always accidents.
The state reopened Thomas Reed homicide.
Victor was questioned.
Denied.
“Thomas attacked me.”
There.
First admission of confrontation.
“He came at me with a bottle. I pushed him.”
“What happened?”
“He fell.”
Could be accidental homicide.
Then why hide body and burn building?
Victor stopped talking.
His attorney stepped in.
But police had enough to investigate obstruction, arson, concealment.
Then hidden basement records contained a second shock.
Original restaurant partnership draft.
Catherine — 50%.
Melissa Hale — 30%.
Thomas Reed — 20%.
Victor — 0%.
Victor had not been owner.
He was Catherine’s husband helping manage.
Again.
He later rewrote story as founder.
Thomas stood between him and ownership.
Then Thomas died.
Café burned.
Melissa disappeared.
Catherine divorced.
Victor reset.
Then found me.
Pattern fully visible.
The question became:
Did he target me because I had money?
Maybe yes.
Did he plan to repeat entire structure?
Maybe.
Then forensic investigator found my name in an old notebook dated before I met Victor.
EVELYN CARTER? Wait my maiden name unspecified. Need choose. Let’s say Evelyn Brooks. But notebook says E.B. maybe. Better not.
Entry:
VICTOR: woman at bank, inheritance, restaurant interest.
Date six months before our first date.
My stomach dropped.
He had seen me before.
How?
I worked at a bank? Not established.
Maybe I had met with commercial broker about investing my inheritance.
Victor heard.
He targeted me.
Grace’s investigator traced.
Six months before we “met” at neighborhood fundraiser, I attended a small-business workshop.
Victor attended too.
Photo.
I never remembered him.
He did.
Later, he asked organizer for my contact information under guise of networking.
Then we “randomly” met again.
Not random.
He selected woman with inheritance and willingness to work.
He rebuilt after Catherine using me.
Twenty years.
I felt nauseated.
Did he ever love me?
Probably.
That was the cruelest possibility.
People can love and exploit simultaneously.
Love does not sanitize exploitation.
Then homicide investigators searched Victor’s townhouse.
Found passport.
Cash.
Departure plans.
Country:
Portugal.
Flight next morning.
He was preparing to flee.
Court revoked passport.
Police detained under separate evidence issues.
Victor’s empire started collapsing.
Restaurants closed temporarily under receiver? Not all; employees need jobs. Receiver kept them operating.
Employees panicked.
I visited flagship location.
First time since separation.
Kitchen staff hugged me.
Some cried.
One older dishwasher, Rosa, said:
“We always knew it was yours too.”
That sentence mattered more than court valuation.
Then staff brought me a box.
They had found it above old office ceiling.
Victor hid documents when receiver arrived.
Inside:
Cash.
Fake passports.
And a photograph.
Victor with Thomas Reed.
Taken after the date Thomas supposedly died.
Impossible.
Timestamp maybe wrong.
Photo developed date one month after disappearance.
Thomas alive?
But DNA remains matched brother.
Could another relative?
Then back of photo:
TOM - MIAMI - KEEP QUIET.
If Thomas lived after disappearance, whose remains were basement?
DNA said sibling match, not necessarily Thomas exact if no direct sample.
The brother assumed Thomas.
Could be another brother?
Family had two brothers.
One deceased:
Michael Reed.
Reported drowned twenty-five years ago.
No body recovered.
My head spun.
Maybe basement remains were Michael.
Thomas could have lived.
Then police reopened identities.
A man named Thomas Reed had used Social Security number in Florida for eight years after disappearance.
Then stopped.
He might still be alive.
If so, he could explain the entire original crime.
Investigators located last employer.
Restaurant supplier.
Owner said Thomas went by Tom Richards.
Left thirteen years ago.
Destination:
Chicago.
Returned?
Then current property search.
Thomas Richards.
Age sixty-four.
Living fifteen miles from me.
Alive.
Police interviewed.
He said:
“Victor didn’t kill me.”
Everyone froze.
“Then who is in basement?”
Thomas answered:
“My brother.”
Michael Reed.
And Victor did not kill Michael either.
“Who did?”
May you like
Thomas looked exhausted.
“Catherine.”
