The afternoon sun beat down mercilessly on the gravel pathways behind the manicured rose gardens of the Vance estate.
Evelyn: David! Over here! Open the passenger door right now!
David: Get in the damn car, Evelyn! The entire north gate is swarming with state troopers!
Evelyn threw two heavy designer travel bags into the back seat of the idling sedan, her emerald gown torn at the hem.
Evelyn: Did you get the bearer bonds from the hangar safe?
David: The hangar was locked down twenty minutes ago! His security team changed the electronic passcodes!
Evelyn: That idiot husband of mine figured everything out. We need to reach the airfield before they ground private flights!
Before David could put the sedan into gear, a heavy black commercial SUV slammed into the front bumper of their car, pinning it against the stone boundary wall.
David: What the hell was that!
Carter stepped out from the SUV's driver seat, holding a cold metal tablet displaying real-time bank freezing notifications.
Carter: Step out of the vehicle, David. Both of you.
David: Back off, Vance! You don't know who you're dealing with!
David reached toward the glove compartment, but three uniformed state troopers leveled tactical rifles through his driver-side window.
Trooper: Hands on the wheel! Do not move or you will be neutralized!
David raised his trembling hands in the air, his face pale with panic.
David: Don't shoot! She planned everything! She told me Vance was a senile fool who wouldn't notice a few million missing!
Evelyn: Shut up, you coward! Don't say another word without an attorney!
The trooper wrenched the passenger door open and pulled Evelyn out onto the sharp limestone gravel.
Evelyn: Get your hands off me! I am the mistress of this estate! I am Mrs. Carter Vance!
Carter: You are nobody, Evelyn. Your marriage license was voided the minute we confirmed your Florida marriage to David Miller was never legally dissolved.
Evelyn gasped, thrashing against the steel handcuffs being clicked around her manicured wrists.
Evelyn: That's a lie! We signed annulment papers in Reno twelve years ago!
Arthur: The Reno court records were audited this morning, Mrs. Miller. The judge who allegedly signed your decree was deceased two years prior to the filing date.
Evelyn: Carter, please! We were happy! Think about the life we built together over these last four years!
Carter: You poisoned my evening tea while planning to abandon my motherless child in a locked institution.
Evelyn: I was doing what was best for the family fortune! That little girl is weak, just like her mother was!
Carter leaned down until his eyes were level with Evelyn's frantic, calculating stare.
Carter: Lily's mother had more grace and strength in her pinky finger than you will ever possess in your entire miserable existence.
A federal agent walked over holding a clear evidence bag containing several small glass vials recovered from Evelyn's purse.
Agent: Mr. Vance, the lab technicians confirmed traces of concentrated liquid scopolamine inside these dropper bottles.
Carter: Book them both under federal racketeering, bigamy, grand larceny, and attempted capital murder.
Agent: With pleasure, sir. They won't be eligible for bail anywhere in the fifth circuit.
Evelyn screamed obscenities as the officers shoved her into the rear cage of the patrol car, her designer shoes abandoned in the dirt.
Carter: Take them off my property.
The patrol cars pulled away in a roar of sirens and flashing red lights, leaving the quiet Texas heat hanging over the estate.
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