Daniel Reese lived in North Carolina now.<\/p>\n
He had not returned to Missouri after his last deployment.<\/p>\n
That fact carried weight before he explained why.<\/p>\n
Travis remained at Melissa's kitchen table with Hale beside him and Deputy Brooks near the doorway. Bethany sat across the room, Kaylee playing quietly at her feet with markers and construction paper.<\/p>\n
Reese spoke slowly.<\/p>\n
"I met Kurt through my girlfriend."<\/p>\n
Travis and Bethany exchanged a look.<\/p>\n
"Same setup?" Travis asked.<\/p>\n
"Maybe."<\/p>\n
"What happened?"<\/p>\n
"My girlfriend was staying at my place while I was overseas. Kurt became her friend."<\/p>\n
"Friend?"<\/p>\n
"At first."<\/p>\n
Reese's laugh held no humor.<\/p>\n
"Then boyfriend."<\/p>\n
Bethany looked down.<\/p>\n
Reese continued.<\/p>\n
"He convinced her I was screwing her financially. Told her she should have rights to the house because she'd been living there."<\/p>\n
Hale took notes.<\/p>\n
"Was she on title?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Lease?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Power of attorney?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Travis knew the rhythm already.<\/p>\n
"What did Kurt do?"<\/p>\n
"He moved in."<\/p>\n
Of course.<\/p>\n
"Then?"<\/p>\n
"They created a lease."<\/p>\n
"Your signature?"<\/p>\n
"Supposedly."<\/p>\n
Travis's hand tightened around the phone.<\/p>\n
"Did it look like yours?"<\/p>\n
"Good enough to scare me for about five minutes."<\/p>\n
Hale asked, "Did they file anything regarding children?"<\/p>\n
"No kids."<\/p>\n
That difference mattered.<\/p>\n
Reese said, "Kurt started receiving mail there. Registered some business crap to the address. Changed utilities around. By the time I got home, he had paperwork everywhere."<\/p>\n
"What was he trying to accomplish?"<\/p>\n
"Leverage."<\/p>\n
The word was simple.<\/p>\n
Hale stopped writing.<\/p>\n
Reese continued.<\/p>\n
"He knew he couldn't magically own my house. But he could make removing him expensive, slow and ugly."<\/p>\n
Travis understood.<\/p>\n
Kurt did not need to win.<\/p>\n
He needed to make resistance costly.<\/p>\n
"He offered to leave if you paid him," Travis said.<\/p>\n
Reese paused.<\/p>\n
"Twenty thousand."<\/p>\n
Bethany closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
Travis leaned back.<\/p>\n
"And your girlfriend?"<\/p>\n
"Gone before I got home."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"She figured out what he was doing."<\/p>\n
Bethany looked up sharply.<\/p>\n
"Did he threaten her?"<\/p>\n
Another pause.<\/p>\n
"Who is that?"<\/p>\n
"Bethany."<\/p>\n
Reese understood without explanation.<\/p>\n
His tone softened.<\/p>\n
"Yeah."<\/p>\n
"What did he do?"<\/p>\n
"Nothing he could be easily arrested for."<\/p>\n
Bethany's jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
"That's exactly what he does."<\/p>\n
Reese heard the certainty.<\/p>\n
"Then you know."<\/p>\n
She nodded even though he could not see.<\/p>\n
"He'd stand in doorways," she said. "Take my keys. Give them back before I could say he stole them."<\/p>\n
"Yep."<\/p>\n
"He'd move my phone."<\/p>\n
"Yep."<\/p>\n
"Read messages?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Tell you everybody was trying to turn you against him?"<\/p>\n
Reese sighed.<\/p>\n
"Every day."<\/p>\n
Travis listened.<\/p>\n
Some of his anger toward Bethany remained.<\/p>\n
But another emotion was entering beside it.<\/p>\n
Recognition.<\/p>\n
Kurt's behavior was patterned.<\/p>\n
Practiced.<\/p>\n
Reese continued.<\/p>\n
"When I wouldn't pay him, he filed suit claiming I'd authorized him to manage the property."<\/p>\n
"The case Hale found."<\/p>\n
"Yeah."<\/p>\n
"Why was it dismissed?"<\/p>\n
"I got an attorney. He stopped showing up."<\/p>\n
"That simple?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Reese's voice changed.<\/p>\n
"He stripped the place before he left."<\/p>\n
Travis looked toward the window.<\/p>\n
"What do you mean?"<\/p>\n
"Appliances. Tools. Copper. Electronics. Anything easy."<\/p>\n
Bethany stood abruptly.<\/p>\n
"My God."<\/p>\n
Reese heard her.<\/p>\n
"If he's still in that house, secure it legally as fast as you can."<\/p>\n
Hale interrupted.<\/p>\n
"Daniel, do you have copies of your forged lease and filings?"<\/p>\n
"Every page."<\/p>\n
"Would you be willing to send them?"<\/p>\n
"Happily."<\/p>\n
She gave him her email.<\/p>\n
Reese asked Travis one final question.<\/p>\n
"Did Kurt get access to your military documents?"<\/p>\n
Travis looked at Bethany.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Then freeze your credit."<\/p>\n
The room went silent.<\/p>\n
Travis felt foolish for not thinking of it sooner.<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because mine got hit."<\/p>\n
Hale was already writing.<\/p>\n
"Identity theft?"<\/p>\n
"Credit card applications. One personal loan attempt. A business account."<\/p>\n
Travis stood.<\/p>\n
"Using your Social?"<\/p>\n
"Yep."<\/p>\n
Bethany whispered, "He had Travis's tax returns."<\/p>\n
That was enough.<\/p>\n
Hale pointed at the chair.<\/p>\n
"Sit and start making calls."<\/p>\n
For the next hour, the kitchen became an operations center.<\/p>\n
Credit bureaus.<\/p>\n
Banks.<\/p>\n
Mortgage servicer.<\/p>\n
Insurance.<\/p>\n
Army finance.<\/p>\n
Travis changed passwords and placed fraud alerts.<\/p>\n
Each call made the invasion feel larger.<\/p>\n
His house had not simply been occupied.<\/p>\n
His identity had been available inside it.<\/p>\n
At one bank, the fraud representative found a recent inquiry.<\/p>\n
Travis listened carefully.<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
Six days earlier.<\/p>\n
"Applicant?"<\/p>\n
His own name.<\/p>\n
"Loan type?"<\/p>\n
Personal.<\/p>\n
"Amount?"<\/p>\n
Twenty-five thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
His mouth went dry.<\/p>\n
"Approved?"<\/p>\n
"No. Additional verification required."<\/p>\n
Hale mouthed, Write everything.<\/p>\n
Travis did.<\/p>\n
"What address was listed?"<\/p>\n
The representative gave his home address.<\/p>\n
Of course.<\/p>\n
"Phone number?"<\/p>\n
Not his.<\/p>\n
Bethany wrote Kurt's number on a piece of paper.<\/p>\n
Travis compared it.<\/p>\n
Match.<\/p>\n
He looked at Hale.<\/p>\n
She nodded grimly.<\/p>\n
There it was.<\/p>\n
Not a theory.<\/p>\n
A direct link.<\/p>\n
They requested a fraud packet.<\/p>\n
By early afternoon Deputy Brooks had spoken to investigators in Travis's county.<\/p>\n
Nobody was ready to arrest Kurt solely from phone calls and photocopies.<\/p>\n
But the situation had changed.<\/p>\n
A detective named Alvarez wanted to interview Bethany formally.<\/p>\n
She agreed.<\/p>\n
Travis was surprised.<\/p>\n
Bethany noticed.<\/p>\n
"I'm done protecting him."<\/p>\n
"Good."<\/p>\n
She flinched at the flatness in Travis's voice.<\/p>\n
Kaylee climbed onto his lap.<\/p>\n
"Draw house."<\/p>\n
Travis looked down.<\/p>\n
She handed him a purple marker.<\/p>\n
"What kind?"<\/p>\n
"Our house."<\/p>\n
The words hurt.<\/p>\n
Travis drew a square.<\/p>\n
Kaylee corrected him immediately.<\/p>\n
"Need porch."<\/p>\n
He added one.<\/p>\n
"Three steps."<\/p>\n
He drew three.<\/p>\n
"Mommy window."<\/p>\n
Bethany looked away.<\/p>\n
Kaylee added a yellow circle over one upstairs window.<\/p>\n
"Sun?"<\/p>\n
"No. Duck."<\/p>\n
Travis smiled despite everything.<\/p>\n
"That's a terrible duck."<\/p>\n
Kaylee frowned.<\/p>\n
"Your duck bad."<\/p>\n
"Agreed."<\/p>\n
She took the marker away.<\/p>\n
The simplicity of it steadied him.<\/p>\n
He had spent the morning discussing deeds, fraud and criminal statutes.<\/p>\n
Kaylee only wanted her house to have the right porch.<\/p>\n
Detective Alvarez called Hale shortly after three.<\/p>\n
They spoke privately for several minutes.<\/p>\n
When Hale returned, her face was serious.<\/p>\n
"Nobody goes to the property."<\/p>\n
Travis stood.<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because law enforcement is seeking a warrant."<\/p>\n
"For the house?"<\/p>\n
"Specific areas and items."<\/p>\n
"My house."<\/p>\n
"Currently occupied by someone asserting residency."<\/p>\n
He hated the distinction.<\/p>\n
"What changed?"<\/p>\n
"The loan application helped. Reese's documents helped. Bethany's statement helped."<\/p>\n
Bethany looked pale.<\/p>\n
Alvarez had interviewed her by phone for nearly an hour.<\/p>\n
"What did you tell them?" Travis asked.<\/p>\n
"Everything."<\/p>\n
"Everything?"<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"The bank cards."<\/p>\n
Travis frowned.<\/p>\n
"What bank cards?"<\/p>\n
Bethany closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
Hale answered for her.<\/p>\n
"Kurt had mail sent to the house under business names."<\/p>\n
Travis stared.<\/p>\n
"How many?"<\/p>\n
"At least four envelopes Bethany remembers."<\/p>\n
"Why didn't you mention this?"<\/p>\n
Bethany's voice shook.<\/p>\n
"Because until today, I thought they were his."<\/p>\n
"Whose names?"<\/p>\n
"Companies."<\/p>\n
"Which companies?"<\/p>\n
She had written them down.<\/p>\n
Voss Residential Solutions.<\/p>\n
Midstate Relocation Partners.<\/p>\n
Blue Creek Housing Services.<\/p>\n
And one that meant nothing to Travis.<\/p>\n
Red Arrow Veterans Assistance.<\/p>\n
Travis stared at that last name.<\/p>\n
"Veterans?"<\/p>\n
Bethany nodded.<\/p>\n
Hale searched it.<\/p>\n
No obvious legitimate organization appeared.<\/p>\n
Daniel Reese had been military.<\/p>\n
Travis was military.<\/p>\n
The pattern sharpened.<\/p>\n
"They target service members," Bethany whispered.<\/p>\n
Hale corrected gently.<\/p>\n
"We don't know that yet."<\/p>\n
Travis looked at her.<\/p>\n
"You believe it."<\/p>\n
"I believe we have two examples."<\/p>\n
"How many do you need?"<\/p>\n
"Enough to prove it."<\/p>\n
Fair.<\/p>\n
Still infuriating.<\/p>\n
Hale's phone rang.<\/p>\n
She answered.<\/p>\n
Listened.<\/p>\n
Then her expression changed.<\/p>\n
"Understood."<\/p>\n
She ended the call.<\/p>\n
"Detective Alvarez found a third complaint."<\/p>\n
Nobody spoke.<\/p>\n
"Another deployed homeowner?"<\/p>\n
Hale nodded.<\/p>\n
"Two years ago."<\/p>\n
Travis felt his skin prickle.<\/p>\n
"Against Kurt?"<\/p>\n
"Against Darren."<\/p>\n
The brothers.<\/p>\n
"What happened?"<\/p>\n
"Complaint withdrawn."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Unknown."<\/p>\n
Bethany whispered, "Darren isn't the stupid brother."<\/p>\n
Travis looked at her.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
She hugged herself.<\/p>\n
"Kurt always talks like Darren is useless."<\/p>\n
"But?"<\/p>\n
"But Kurt calls him whenever something serious happens."<\/p>\n
The attempted pickup.<\/p>\n
The older complaint.<\/p>\n
A role was emerging.<\/p>\n
Kurt created paperwork and relationships.<\/p>\n
Darren handled pressure.<\/p>\n
Hale asked Bethany whether Darren had ever been inside the house.<\/p>\n
"Once."<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"About two weeks ago."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Kurt said he was helping move boxes."<\/p>\n
Travis stood.<\/p>\n
"What boxes?"<\/p>\n
"The business records."<\/p>\n
The same boxes in Travis's garage, closet and office.<\/p>\n
Hale immediately called Alvarez.<\/p>\n
Travis paced.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, Darren had been inside moving boxes.<\/p>\n
Nine days ago, the declaration was filed.<\/p>\n
Six days ago, a loan application was made in Travis's name.<\/p>\n
This morning, Darren tried to collect Kaylee.<\/p>\n
They had not been improvising.<\/p>\n
They had a sequence.<\/p>\n
A purpose.<\/p>\n
Travis stopped pacing.<\/p>\n
"What if the boxes aren't theirs?"<\/p>\n
Bethany looked confused.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"What if they're from the other houses?"<\/p>\n
Hale stopped mid-sentence on the phone.<\/p>\n
Travis continued.<\/p>\n
"Reese said Kurt stripped his place."<\/p>\n
Bethany's face changed.<\/p>\n
"You're saying stolen property?"<\/p>\n
"Documents. Electronics. Whatever."<\/p>\n
Hale relayed the thought to Alvarez.<\/p>\n
Then she listened.<\/p>\n
"Okay."<\/p>\n
She ended the call.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"Alvarez says that's exactly why nobody touches the house."<\/p>\n
Travis sat.<\/p>\n
For the first time all day, he felt the strange sensation of being ahead of his anger instead of dragged behind it.<\/p>\n
The system was moving.<\/p>\n
Slowly.<\/p>\n
But moving.<\/p>\n
His phone buzzed.<\/p>\n
A security notification from his email provider.<\/p>\n
New login attempt.<\/p>\n
He opened it.<\/p>\n
Location: his hometown.<\/p>\n
Device: unknown Windows computer.<\/p>\n
Time: three minutes ago.<\/p>\n
Travis looked at Hale.<\/p>\n
"Kurt's still trying."<\/p>\n
Then a second alert appeared.<\/p>\n
Password reset request.<\/p>\n
Not email this time.<\/p>\n
His mortgage account.<\/p>\n
And beneath it, one chilling line:<\/p>\n
REQUEST INITIATED FROM REGISTERED PROPERTY ADDRESS.<\/p>\n
Kurt was inside the house.<\/p>\n
Right now.<\/p>\n
Using Travis's information.<\/p>\n
And he apparently had no idea law enforcement was already preparing to come through the door.<\/p>\n
Daniel Reese lived in North Carolina now. He had not returned to Missouri after his last deployment. That fact carried weight before he explained why. Travis remained at Melissa's kitchen … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12764,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12736\/revisions\/12764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}