I crouched low, where he had to look at my face.

“You never asked what I did before I became a ‘bureaucrat,’ Garrick.” I drew out my credentials and showed him the retired badge. “Fourteen years, FBI Violent Crimes.

You really should have checked my past before you threatened my family.”

The charges came down hard: unlawful firearm possession by a felon, interstate stalking, identity theft, wire fraud, witness intimidation, aggravated assault, domestic battery, and repeated violations of a protective order.

Garrick tried to pin it on his cousin, but the cousin took a federal plea and testified against him. Bank records laid out every illegal transfer. The medical reports demolished his story that my mother was clumsy.

And the encrypted recordings preserved his threats in his own voice.