Clara and Evelyn spent the next afternoon sitting inside a quiet private investigator's office in downtown Chicago. The investigator, a retired police detective named Hank, flipped through the financial records with a sharp, practiced eye.
Hank paused on a bank statement belonging to the commercial real estate firm, pointing his finger at a series of large wire transfers. The transactions were processed just forty-eight hours before the couple left for their honeymoon trip.
Hank: These funds were routed through an offshore account in the Caribbean.
Clara: Is that where the company keeps its reserve capital?
Hank: No, ma'am, this looks like an untraceable payout to a private contractor.
Evelyn: Can you trace who authorized those specific transfers?
Hank typed rapidly into his desktop computer, pull up corporate registry documents and digital signatures attached to the transactions. The digital signature on every single outgoing transfer matched Richard's personal security key.
Hank: Richard signed off on three separate payments totaling two hundred thousand dollars.
Clara: That monster paid those men to kill my son and his bride!
Evelyn: We need to take this straight to the federal prosecutor immediately.
Hank: Hold on, we need concrete proof connecting those transfers to the mercenaries.
Hank picked up his phone and made a quick call to an informant within the state police forensic department. He requested a full review of the phone records recovered from Julie's smartphone, which was found at the scene.
An hour later, Hank received a digital file containing the cloud backup of Julie's last selfie video. He opened the file on his large monitor, adjusting the audio levels to clear up the background noise.
In the background of the video, just before the couple reached the bend in the path, a small black SUV was parked near the tree line. Hank zoomed in on the vehicle's license plate, running the numbers through a private vehicle database.
Hank: That vehicle belongs to a private security firm owned by an ex-military officer.
Clara: Does Richard have connections to that security firm?
Hank: He hired them last year for corporate security at his downtown penthouse.
Evelyn: We finally have the connection we need to lock him away forever.
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