Chapter 10 — The Truth Was Out of the House

Within minutes, sirens.

They rose out of the quiet Pacific Heights streets and grew louder, and then blue and red light was flashing against the drapes, and there were heavy boots on the front steps and a fist pounding the door.

“San Francisco Police!

Open the door!”

I watched Raymond’s whole careful world collapse in his face in the space of a breath.

The officers came in with state investigators and a search warrant naming extortion, unlawful drugging, and the production of blackmail material, and it did not take them long to find, in a hidden safe in Raymond’s study, the physical heart of the operation: hard drives, land deeds, fraudulent contracts, recording equipment.