Chapter 7 - The bags come out
Police did not drain the pool immediately.
A water-recovery team documented the scene.
Photographed visible bags.
Retrieved them carefully.
Five contractor bags.
No bodies.
No human remains.
That fact spread slowly because rumors traveled faster.
The contents:
A water-damaged laptop.
Two external hard drives.
Paper bank statements.
Business invoices.
Several checkbooks.
A small desktop accounting terminal.
Two old smartphones.
A portable document scanner.
A manila file containing photocopies of Laura’s driver’s license and Social Security card.
Three credit-card mailers.
A damaged notary stamp belonging to someone else.
And construction invoices from companies Laura did not recognize.
Why dump paper in water?
Because Warren panicked.
Water does not reliably erase financial records.
Cloud services exist.
Banks exist.
Copies exist.
But frightened people do unsophisticated things.
The cloudy pool looked like a grave.
It was actually a badly chosen evidence shredder.
That distinction mattered.
My mistake with the skimmer moved one bag before retrieval.
Officers documented it.
Defense later argued I might have opened or altered the bag.
I had not.
Body camera showed the moment.
The tear already partly visible.
Still:
May you like
Chain-of-custody argument.
My anger had given Warren’s attorney material for free.
