Kelsey: Miller, secure the basement safe before the forensics unit arrives.
Officer Miller: Right away, Captain. Should I bring up the paper files?
Kelsey: Bring everything. Bank statements, property deeds, and every piece of mail in his room.
Kelsey walked through the quiet hallway, stepping over the broken frame of the front door.
She pulled out her personal phone and dialed her family's probate lawyer.
Lawyer Hayes: Kelsey? Did you find your mother?
Kelsey: We got here just in time, Hayes. Ryan was beating her in the kitchen.
Lawyer Hayes: Dear God... is Margaret okay?
Kelsey: She's on her way to St. Jude with severe bruising and possible head trauma. But she's alive.
Lawyer Hayes: Thank heaven. Did you secure the house?
Kelsey: Ryan is in handcuffs. We caught him red-handed with a bat in his hand.
Lawyer Hayes: That gives us everything we need for an emergency restraining order and immediate revocation of any proxy rights.
Kelsey stepped into Ryan's bedroom, looking at the mess of empty liquor bottles and unpaid bills scattered across his desk.
Kelsey: Hayes, he mentioned a fake deed transfer from last month.
Lawyer Hayes: I checked the county land registry this morning, Kelsey. A quitclaim deed was filed two weeks ago transferring the house to Ryan's LLC.
Kelsey: Can we void it immediately?
Lawyer Hayes: Absolutely. With the criminal charges filed today, the judge will freeze all assets and void the transfer within twenty-four hours.
Miller walked into the room holding a thick black binder filled with financial documents.
Officer Miller: Captain, look at this. He opened three new credit lines in your mother's name last fall.
Kelsey: How much?
Officer Miller: Over eighty thousand dollars. All withdrawn in cash at casino ATMs.
Kelsey: Hayes, did you hear that?
Lawyer Hayes: I heard it. That adds grand larceny and identity theft to his felony counts.
Kelsey flipped through the pages of the binder, her eyes scanning line after line of fraudulent transactions.
Kelsey: He took her life savings, Hayes. My dad left her four hundred thousand dollars in a high-yield trust fund.
Lawyer Hayes: Where is the trust money now?
Kelsey: It looks like he transferred two hundred thousand to an offshore account last Tuesday.
Miller held up a small thumb drive found inside the desk drawer.
Officer Miller: Found this taped under the keyboard, Captain. Looks like encrypted account passwords.
Kelsey: Hand that over to cyber forensics immediately. If that money is still in transit, I want it frozen before nightfall.
Officer Miller: On it, boss.
Kelsey sat down on the edge of the desk, taking a deep breath as the anger inside her chest burned hot.
Kelsey: My father took Ryan into our home when he was fifteen years old. He raised him like his own son.
Lawyer Hayes: Some people only see family as an asset to drain, Kelsey.
Kelsey: He isolating my mother for six months. He intercepted her phone calls and blocked my numbers.
Lawyer Hayes: How did you finally figure out what was happening?
Kelsey: Her neighbor, Mrs. Gable, threw a note over the backyard fence yesterday afternoon. She heard my mom screaming through the kitchen window.
Kelsey stood up, tightening her tactical belt as she grabbed her gear.
Kelsey: I'm heading to the hospital now, Hayes. I want you to meet me at the courthouse tomorrow morning at eight.
Lawyer Hayes: I'll have the emergency asset recovery petitions ready for the judge's signature.