“An extortion case involving three million?” Detective Grant looked up sharply at Captain Shaw, clearly surprised by the amount, but after a moment he seemed to understand why the case had been handed to him.
Ethan Pike was dead, and Walter and Martha Pike obviously had no intention of letting the matter go quietly.
Judging from the scene they had caused in the lobby that morning, they would probably have been perfectly happy to tear Grant apart themselves if given the opportunity.
Assigning him to another investigation for a while was therefore not necessarily a bad idea, and if the extortion case turned out to be as straightforward as Captain Shaw claimed, Grant might even come away from it with a significant arrest to his name.
Still, something about the complainant’s name bothered him.
“Daniel Hart?” Grant rubbed his chin as he searched his memory.
“Isn’t that the man whose wife, Vanessa Hart, was reported for having an affair not long ago?
I thought he was preparing to go through divorce proceedings.” He frowned.
“So how did his wife’s lover suddenly end up extorting three million from him?” The contrast was strange enough to make Grant suspicious.
Adultery itself was primarily a private marital matter and gave the police little reason to become involved, but extortion was entirely different, especially if the amount involved reached three million.
What Grant could not understand was how a man already preparing to divorce his unfaithful wife had somehow found himself transferring millions to her lover.
Captain Shaw merely shook his head.
“Who knows?
The complainant is waiting in the lobby right now, and according to the preliminary report, the evidence is solid.
Verify everything yourself, and if it checks out, make the arrest.” Grant was still puzzled, but there was no reason to argue.
“All right.
I’ll handle it.” Captain Shaw nodded and waved him away.
Once Grant disappeared down the corridor, Shaw’s expression gradually became more somber.
He glanced through the nearby window toward Martin Hayes, whose thin figure was still visible inside the interview room, and let out a long sigh.
“People really know how to make a mess of their lives.” Daniel Hart was sitting on a public bench in the police-station lobby when Grant found him.
Unlike the average victim of a three-million-dollar extortion, however, Daniel did not look particularly miserable.
If anything, he was having difficulty suppressing the smile on his face.
“That bastard really did exactly what Adrian said he might do.” Daniel muttered under his breath, almost sounding impressed.
“Three million.
I actually transferred it, and you were stupid enough to take it.” The thought alone made his mood considerably better.
After returning home from his consultation with Adrian, Daniel had started following the strategy they had discussed.
When his wife’s lover contacted him again and threatened him over the private videos, Daniel had preserved the communication, transferred the demanded money, kept every available record, and then gone directly to the police.
The man had apparently assumed that Daniel’s willingness to pay meant he was frightened enough to remain silent.
Daniel was very much looking forward to seeing how long that confidence lasted.
“Are you Daniel Hart?” The voice beside him pulled him from his thoughts.
Daniel looked up and found Detective Grant standing there with a file in his hand.
“That’s me.” He immediately composed himself.
Since the detective was clearly here to deal with his complaint, Daniel opened the folder he had brought and began removing documents.
“Detective, I prepared everything you might need.
This is the call record from last night, these are the messages he sent me, and these are the transfer records.” Grant accepted the papers and began examining them.
The situation was remarkably clear.
The other man had contacted Daniel first, referred to private videos involving Vanessa, threatened to distribute them unless Daniel paid, specified an amount, and then provided the information necessary to receive the money.
Daniel had subsequently made the transfer.
Grant flipped through the documents again.
The evidence was almost suspiciously well organized.
He looked up.
“You knew this man was having an affair with your wife, and you knew your wife was participating voluntarily, but when he demanded money from you, you still transferred three million?” Daniel’s expression immediately became solemn.
He remembered Adrian’s advice about keeping his explanation consistent with the actual sequence of events.
“I was scared.” Grant stared at him.
Daniel sighed heavily and continued with impressive sincerity.
“My wife cheated on me, yes, but that doesn’t mean I stopped caring about her overnight.
He had private recordings of her and threatened to spread them around.
At the time, I panicked and didn’t know what else to do.” His face became increasingly serious.
“The things he said were frightening.
I was anxious, humiliated, terrified, and honestly not thinking clearly, so when he demanded the money, I transferred it.” Grant watched him for a moment.
“And now?” “Now I’ve calmed down and realized that I shouldn’t have let myself be manipulated like that, which is why I came here.” Grant remained silent.
He looked down at the evidence again and then back at Daniel.
There was something strange about the man’s explanation, although the documents themselves were difficult to argue with.
The timeline was clean, the communications were preserved, the transfer records matched the demand, and even the relevant contextual information had been organized in a way that made the entire sequence easy to follow.
Grant narrowed his eyes.
“Did a lawyer help you prepare this?” Daniel’s eyebrows rose slightly.
“Why do you ask?” “Because most people don’t walk into a police station with their evidence arranged like a case file.” Grant tapped the documents in his hand.
“The sequence is clear, the communications are preserved, the payment can be traced, and everything relevant is separated from everything that isn’t.
Someone knew what they were doing.” As he spoke, Grant suddenly thought of Martin.
If Martin’s case had been documented this cleanly from the beginning, especially the exact sequence of events during the confrontation in Pine Hollow, perhaps there would have been far less uncertainty about what happened.
Daniel noticed the change in his expression.
“Detective, are you looking for a lawyer?” Grant looked up.
“What?” “You suddenly looked like you were thinking about someone else’s case.” Grant gave him a strange look before shaking his head.
“It’s nothing.
There’s just another case where I wish the client had a dependable attorney.” Daniel immediately became interested.
“If you need a recommendation, I know someone.” Grant almost laughed.
“I don’t.” “I’m serious.
There happens to be an extremely capable lawyer here in Greenwood City.” “No need.
The client already has someone in mind.” Grant returned his attention to the file.
“The bar association should be contacting Blackwood & Reed Law Firm in the next couple of days.” Daniel froze.
“Blackwood & Reed?” Grant glanced at him.
“Yes.” Daniel’s eyes immediately lit up.
“Are they going there for a young attorney?” Grant paused.
Daniel leaned forward.
“His last name is Cole, right?
Adrian Cole?” This time Grant was genuinely surprised.
“How did you know?” Daniel blinked before breaking into a grin.
“So it really is Adrian.” He had only been guessing based on the name of the firm, but apparently the coincidence was real.
Grant looked at him suspiciously.
“You know him?” “Know him?
He’s the lawyer who advised me.” Grant glanced down at the perfectly organized extortion evidence in his hands.
Then he looked back at Daniel.
Suddenly, several things made slightly more sense.
Daniel leaned comfortably against the bench, wearing the expression of someone who had already learned an important lesson.
“In that case, you really don’t need to worry too much about your other client.
I’m not saying Adrian will definitely win whatever case you’re talking about, because I don’t even know the details, but if he agrees to take it, I’d be surprised if he didn’t find some angle everyone else missed.” Grant’s curiosity grew.
“What exactly did that lawyer do for you to trust him this much?” Daniel’s smile deepened.
What had Adrian done?
He had told Daniel to rethink the divorce entirely, explained how to reorganize his finances without simply handing Vanessa whatever she demanded, suggested that his father could legitimately charge him rent, discussed reducing his own company salary if there were proper business reasons, and somehow turned “I refuse to divorce my cheating wife” into a revenge strategy.
Then, almost as an afterthought, Adrian had warned him what might happen if Vanessa’s lover tried to use those private videos to demand money.
And now that man was sitting in police custody.
Daniel had met plenty of lawyers before Adrian, but most of them had simply told him what the law prevented him from doing.
Adrian seemed far more interested in discovering what the law still allowed.
If it had been socially acceptable, Daniel felt he could almost have bowed to the man in gratitude.
He had no idea whether Adrian was equally capable in a homicide case, but at this point, Daniel was willing to place a rather unreasonable amount of faith in him.
“Detective, you don’t need the whole story.
All I can tell you is that whenever Adrian looks like he’s thinking, someone else should probably start worrying.” Grant’s expression became increasingly strange.
Daniel grinned.
“Trust me.
Attorney Cole definitely has something up his sleeve.” Grant studied him for several seconds before shaking his head.
“Let’s hope you’re right.” He gathered the evidence and stood.
“I still don’t understand you, though.
Your wife cheated on you, someone just extorted three million from you, and somehow you look happier than half the people walking into this station.” Daniel’s smile only widened.
“That’s because you’re looking at the situation from the wrong angle.” Grant decided he did not want to ask.
“All right.
Let’s go pick him up.” Once the evidence had been verified, the arrest itself was almost embarrassingly simple.
Vanessa’s lover had not even attempted to flee after receiving the money, apparently convinced that Daniel had been far too frightened the previous night to involve the police.
When officers arrived and placed him under arrest, the man looked completely bewildered.
He could not understand how the same Daniel Hart who had sounded terrified during their previous conversation had calmly transferred the money, preserved every message, and reported him the following morning.
Daniel watched him being brought into the station and finally stopped trying to hide his satisfaction.
He laughed.
Loudly.
Perhaps even a little arrogantly.
Grant, meanwhile, watched the suspect being escorted away before his thoughts returned to Martin Hayes.
His expression gradually lost its amusement.
He let out a quiet sigh.
Sometimes the world seemed remarkably unfair.
Daniel had been humiliated and betrayed, yet with the right advice, he had found a way to turn the situation around.
Martin had spent ten years searching for his abducted daughter, finally reached her, and within minutes had found himself facing the possibility of losing his freedom.
Grant looked toward the holding area.
“Good people really do seem to get the worst end of the deal.”