Part 3 – Daniel’s Laptop Wasn’t the Real Target
The investigators initially believed Lauren and the man she was seeing wanted Daniel’s work laptop because it contained valuable company information. Then they recovered another message from Lauren’s phone, and it became clear that the laptop had only been the easiest way to reach something connected to me.
The message had been sent the night before everything happened.
Once you’re in Daniel’s laptop, find the folder with her name. We need the account information before she notices.
I read it twice.
“What account information?”
The detective explained that Daniel had recently helped me organize several household and investment accounts. Some documents were stored in an encrypted folder on his computer, but investigators had not yet determined exactly what Lauren believed she could access.
Daniel immediately understood.
“My company stock account.”
I looked at him.
Months earlier, my employer had issued me shares as part of a compensation package. Daniel had helped me organize the paperwork for tax purposes, and although he could not move the shares himself, his laptop contained documents showing where the account was held and how it was structured.
Lauren knew about it.
Not because I had told her directly, but because she had overheard Daniel and me discussing the paperwork while staying at our house.
The investigators recovered more messages.
Lauren had told the man she was seeing that I had “money sitting somewhere” and that Daniel handled most of our financial documents. From there, he apparently convinced her that accessing Daniel’s computer could reveal enough information to attempt further financial fraud.
That made her request for money two days earlier look different.
Daniel had refused to help her.
Instead of accepting that answer, Lauren had apparently decided to take what she believed we were withholding from her.
“I let her stay in our house,” I said.
Daniel reached for my hand.
“So did I.”
Neither of us had seen her as someone studying us. She was my younger sister, the woman who sat at our breakfast table, helped Chloe with homework, and complained about her apartment while we tried to help her get back on her feet.
But the messages showed how carefully she had been paying attention.
She knew which days I stayed late at work.
She knew Daniel’s home-office schedule.
She knew our garage camera was offline.
She even knew the cinnamon plug-in could help conceal that something inside the house smelled unusual.
Then the detective showed me the message that hurt most.
Daniel trusts me. He won’t suspect anything.
Lauren had understood exactly what gave her access.
Family.
When Chloe was finally discharged, she stopped at our front door and refused to enter.
“Is Aunt Lauren inside?”
I crouched beside her.
“No.”
“Is she coming back?”
“No, sweetheart.”
She searched my face.
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Only then did she take my hand and walk inside.
Daniel remained hospitalized longer, so that first night it was just Chloe and me. She followed me from room to room and became frightened when she smelled the faint cinnamon scent still lingering near the hallway.
I unplugged the air freshener and threw it away.
Later, I found her standing beside Daniel’s empty spot on the couch.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Why did Aunt Lauren do it?”
I struggled with the answer because Chloe was ten, and I refused to give her an adult burden she could not possibly understand.
“She made a very bad choice because she wanted something that didn’t belong to her.”
“Was she mad at Dad?”
“Maybe. But none of this happened because of anything you did.”
Chloe nodded, although I could tell she was still trying to make sense of how someone who painted her nails could also be responsible for the afternoon she nearly lost her father.
The investigation continued while Daniel recovered.
Then detectives found something on Lauren’s phone that changed the case again.
The man she had been seeing had not discovered our finances through Lauren.
He already knew about them before they met.
Investigators traced several messages backward and found references to my employer, my stock compensation, and even Daniel’s work schedule from weeks before Lauren claimed she had told him any of those details.
I looked at the detective.
“How could he know that?”
“That’s what we’re trying to determine.”
Then he placed a photograph in front of me.
It had been recovered from the man’s phone.
The picture showed Daniel leaving his office several months earlier.
Someone had been watching my husband before Lauren ever started staying with us.
And suddenly, I understood that my sister might not have brought a desperate stranger into our lives by accident.
Someone may have approached Lauren specifically because she was the easiest way into our family.
