Mark walked back to the foyer and pulled open the heavy wooden door.
A detective in a dark trench coat stood under the bright porch light.
Detective Ross: Mr. Mark Sterling?
Mark: Yes, Detective, I was just about to report a major crime.
Detective Ross: We were actually looking for a woman named Victoria Vance.
Mark: She was just here, she fled the house minutes ago.
The detective pulled out a thick yellow folder filled with printed photographs.
Detective Ross: Victoria Vance is an alias she uses for high-stakes fraud.
Mark: Fraud? She tried to push my daughter off the balcony!
Detective Ross entered the foyer and looked at the high indoor balcony above.
Detective Ross: She targets wealthy widowers with large life insurance policies and estates.
Mark: She wanted the family trust fund that belongs to Lily.
Detective Ross: In two other states, she successfully drained bank accounts and disappeared.
Mark felt a cold chill run down his spine as he heard the truth.
Victoria had planned this whole relationship from the very first day they met.
She had studied his wealth, his recent loss, and his vulnerable emotional state.
Mark: She acted like she cared about me and my daughter.
Detective Ross: It was all a cold act to steal your estate, sir.
Martha stepped into the hallway, holding a legal document she found upstairs.
Martha: Sir, look at what was sitting inside her forgotten handbag.
Mark took the paper and saw a fake power of attorney document.
Victoria had forged Mark's signature on the papers to transfer his assets.
Mark: She was planning to take everything tomorrow morning.
Detective Ross: This document gives us all the legal proof we need to arrest her.
Mark: Where could she have gone without her bag and keys?
Detective Ross: Officers have already set up roadblocks around this neighborhood.
Mark looked back toward the quiet kitchen where Lily was resting safely.
He knew Victoria was desperate now that her major plan had fallen apart.
A desperate criminal with nothing left to lose was extremely dangerous to everyone.
Mark decided he would not just sit back and hide inside his house.
He stepped out onto the wide stone porch alongside the police detective.
They saw red and blue light flashing through the trees at the main gate.