Chapter 12 - Twenty-Seven Names
The investigation spread across three states.
Federal agencies became involved.
Bank accounts were frozen.
Properties were seized.
Victims received letters explaining that financial records connected to them had been discovered.
Some had lost thousands.
Others millions.
Several had not lost money yet because Grant’s scheme had been interrupted.
Claire became a witness in multiple proceedings.
But she established boundaries.
She would testify when necessary.
She would not become a public symbol unless she chose to.
She would not let Grant occupy every remaining chapter of her life.
That mattered.
Recovery wasn’t a courtroom verdict.
It was ordinary life.
Buying groceries without looking over her shoulder.
Sleeping with the lights off.
Hearing footsteps without freezing.
Going into a basement again.
That last one took almost a year.
It happened at my house.
I needed a box of Christmas decorations.
Claire followed me downstairs.
Halfway down, she stopped.
I turned.
“You okay?”
She looked around.
My basement was nothing like Grant’s.
Warm lights.
Old photographs.
Robert’s ridiculous fishing equipment.
Boxes labeled badly in my handwriting.
Still, her breathing changed.
“We can go back.”
“No.”
She took another step.
Then another.
At the bottom, she touched the heating pipe.
For a moment neither of us spoke.
Then she tapped.
Three short.
Three long.
Three short.
I stared at her.
Claire smiled.
I tapped back five times.
Yes.
She laughed.
May you like
It was the first time our childhood code had sounded like something other than fear.
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