Chapter 3
The robbery happened on a Thursday night.
At least, that was what the police report called it.
I had stayed late at the bank reviewing an audit file connected to one of Daniel’s vendors.
The information was incomplete, but the pattern was clear enough to frighten me.
False invoices.
Inflated renovation contracts.
Money leaving legitimate projects and returning through companies that existed only on paper.
I copied the relevant files to an encrypted drive.
Not the black flash drive from court.
Another one.
The first backup.
I left the office at 9:17 p.m.
My car’s dashcam activated when I pulled from the garage.
I did not notice the black SUV behind me.
Not at first.
Chicago traffic hides pursuit by making everyone appear to be following everyone else.
The SUV remained three cars back through two intersections.
Then one car back.
Then directly behind me as I turned onto a quieter road near the river.
A construction barrier appeared ahead.
Temporary.
Unlit.
Placed across one lane.
I slowed.
A dark sedan pulled in front of me.
The SUV blocked the rear.
Two men approached.
Their faces were covered.
One shattered the passenger window.
The other opened my door.
They demanded my handbag, laptop, and phone.
Ordinary robbery items.
Then one of them asked, “Where is the drive?”
That was when I knew.
A stranger might want money.
A stranger might want jewelry.
A stranger would not know about a drive created thirty minutes earlier.
I tried to move toward the horn.
A hand caught my throat.
Another force struck my ankle as I was dragged partly from the car.
I remember the sound of my own breath stopping.
The pavement.
A brown dress shoe near my face.
Not Daniel’s.
The driver’s.
Then the masked man said, “She saw the plate.”
A car approached in the distance.
The men fled.
The SUV followed.
I was found beside my open door with my foot fractured, my throat injured, and my handbag missing.
The laptop was gone.
The encrypted drive remained hidden inside the lining of my coat.
Daniel arrived at the hospital forty minutes later.
He held my hand.
Kissed my forehead.
Then asked whether the robbers had taken anything “unusual.”
May you like
That was the first moment I suspected my husband.
Read the full story 👉 The attackers asked for a drive they could not have known existed unless someone close to Claire had sent them.
