Chapter 7 - The Breaking Point
Ledger Vesper was a desperate man, and a desperate man is a dangerous one.
At midnight, a dark, unmarked sedan pulled up to the curb outside Casper Lund’s pottery studio. Two men in heavy jackets and ski masks stepped out, carrying heavy iron crowbars and cans of industrial lighter fluid.
Ledger had realized where the threat was coming from. If Maren had found a lawyer like Harrison Vance, she must have found evidence. And the only place she had been spending her time was that old, forgotten pottery studio. He wanted everything reduced to ash before sunrise.
The men broke the front window glass with a loud crash, stepping into the dark, earthy-smelling studio. They raised their crowbars, ready to smash the rows of pottery lining the shelves, ready to shatter the locked oak cabinet to pieces.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a calm, booming voice resonated from the shadows.
The overhead fluorescent lights suddenly slammed on, blinding the two intruders.
Standing near the back kiln was Casper Lund, holding a heavy double-barreled shotgun leveled directly at their chests. Sitting next to him on a wooden stool, casually sipping from a thermos of hot coffee, was Harrison Vance. Beside them stood two uniformed state police officers.
"We’ve been expecting you boys," Harrison said with a cold, pleasant smile. "Ledger is so incredibly predictable. When a rat gets cornered, he always tries to burn the maze down."
The intruders dropped their crowbars immediately, raising their hands in total surrender.
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Within an hour, the men were in the back of a police cruiser, singing like canaries to avoid a heavy arson and breaking-and-entering charge. They explicitly confessed that Ledger Vesper had paid them five thousand dollars cash to destroy the studio and every piece of pottery inside it.
The trap had officially snapped shut. Ledger hadn't just committed financial fraud anymore; he had just orchestrated an attempted arson and destruction of evidence, caught red-handed by the state police.
