Chapter 65
Louise
“Make the case,” says Bruce Ghadiali, seated in a meeting room inside Grace Park Municipal P.D.
Louise drops a folder on the desk. “June eleventh of last year, Marlow Luckett is found unconscious outside Mortimer College’s athletic building on Woods Edge.
Road-rage incident, no question. By all accounts, he chased a car into the parking lot and cornered it.
When he got out, the other driver hit him and drove off.
He described the other driver only as a big white guy in his mid-thirties. ”
“Roughly describing Finley Brice.”
“He’s forty-two, but ballpark, yeah. And the responding officers, I’m not gonna say they worked themselves to the bone to find the driver, given their opinion of Marlow—but they did pull the ALPRs for that night.
A camera recorded Finley Brice’s license plate on Woods Edge, southbound, during the relevant time.
It checks, too, with what we know from Allison’s investigator, Jennifer Harper.
Finley stepped out on the missus every Wednesday night with a woman named Anna Cortese, who lives in some exclusive little subdivision up Woods Edge called Palomino Estates.
About the only way Finley Brice could drive home after his little liaison was the route that took him right past the Mortimer College parking lot. ”
“And what evidence do we have that this Marlow guy figured out who hit him?”
“Well, for one, Allison Brice wired him twenty-five thousand dollars on March twentieth.”
“Wow.”
“And check this out—we have a hit on a license plate camera two blocks from Allison’s house that morning around 5:30 a.m., about ninety minutes before she wires that money.”
“You think, what, he paid her a visit? Demanded money?”
“Something. I don’t know. But that wire transfer doesn’t lie.”
Bruce gets out of his chair, pacing. “I have questions.”
“So did I. Go ahead and ask.”
“For one, why didn’t she tell the police when this happened?”
“We think Marlow had proof of what happened in that parking lot that night,” says Louise. “Something to hold over Finley. He was blackmailing him. I’ll get to that in a minute.”
“Okay, but then—why does he go after Allison and not Finley?”
Louise shrugs. “Well, for one, history suggests that Marlow’s a lot more comfortable attacking women, right? And Finley, he’s not a small man. He’s nearly as big as Marlow.”
Cutty chimes in. “Maybe he thinks they’re a package deal. Husband and wife. He might even think threatening the wife makes the husband more likely to comply.”
“Finley had moved out of the house by then,” Louise adds. “But Marlow probably didn’t know that. Their breakup, from what we can tell, had just happened.”
“Okay.” Bruce leans against the wall. “But how do we go from all this to Marlow murdering Finley?”
“That gets us to the text messaging that night,” says Louise. “The night of April first.”
“Okay, right. You gave me a copy.” Bruce returns to his seat and starts reading them. “What does ‘OSB’ stand for?”
“Ohio Street Beach. It’s next to their condo, separated only by Lake Shore Drive.”
“Let me see this.” Bruce pulls up a map on his phone. “Their building’s right on Inner Lake Shore Drive, on the Erie-to-Ontario block. Directly east is Lake Shore Drive. Directly east of the Drive is…”
“Ohio Street Beach,” says Louise.
“And you think Finley was on the beach that night, not in his condo?”
“Circumstantial evidence would suggest so,” says Louise.
“We can’t know for sure. You know how cell site location data is, Bruce.
It can place the phone within a sector, a zone, not a pinpoint.
The distance between the condo and the Ohio Street Beach is about eight hundred feet.
We checked. And there aren’t any cell towers on Lake Michigan, right?
So the same cell tower covers both the condo and the Ohio Street Beach. ”
Bruce nods. “Yeah, CSLI evidence has its limitations. Bottom line, we have no way of proving whether Finley Brice was inside his condo, or standing on the beach on the other side of Lake Shore Drive, when he exchanged these text messages with Allison and Grayson.”
“Correct,” says Louise. “But based on the text messages, we have every reason to believe he was on that beach. So let’s walk through this. This all starts in the afternoon, when Grayson sends a text message to Finley. Look at your copy.” Louise looks at her own copy:
Time Log of Text Communications April 1, 2026
Time (p.m.): 3:13
Caller (Location): Grayson (River N.)
Recipient (Location): Finley (Condo)
Call Type: Text
Duration or Message: I’m in the city. I hope you had a nice dinner last night. Your girlfriend seemed to be enjoying herself. Maybe next time you cheat on Mom, don’t sit near a window. I’m coming over tonight. Seven o’clock. Don’t tell Mom.
Time (p.m.): 3:45
Caller (Location): Finley (Condo)
Recipient (Location): Grayson (River N.)
Call Type: Text
Duration or Message: Ok, we need to talk. You need to hear my side.
Time (p.m.): 8:32
Caller (Location): Grayson (Condo)
Recipient (Location): Finley (O.S.B.)
Call Type: Text
Duration or Message: Hello? I’m here waiting. What happened to meeting at condo over an hour ago WTF??
Time (p.m.): 8:56
Caller (Location): Grayson (Condo)
Recipient (Location): Finley (O.S.B.)
Call Type: Text
Duration or Message: OK I’m leaving, going to Mom’s, thanks for ghosting me!
“Okay,” says Bruce. “So Grayson has harsh words for Dad, he saw him cheating, and they agree to meet up at seven at the condo.”
“Right,” says Louise. “And we know from the lobby video that Grayson arrived at the condo a bit early, around 6:45 p.m. Pretty much as soon as he arrives, he calls his mother, who’s home in Grace Village.
A quick five-minute call. I assume that’s a do-you-know-where-Dad-is call.
And then Allison makes an even quicker call to Luke at his home, probably asking him the same question.
Then Allison calls her son back and they talk for a long time. ”
“Which makes sense,” says Bruce. “He’s upset. He saw Dad with another woman.”
“Right. Then at 8:32 p.m., right when that call ends, Grayson texts his father, griping at him for not showing up. Then one more goodbye text, a half-hour later, and that’s the last we hear from Grayson,” says Louise.
“He talks on the phone with his mother for long periods, but no texts. The rest of the texts are between only Finley and Allison. Turn the page.” Louise does so as well:
Allison (8:35 p.m.)
Where are you? Gray is at the condo. You were supposed to meet him there at 7, he said.
Finley (8:37 p.m.)
At OSB thinking and no I’m not contemplating jumping in tho its tempting
Allison (8:38 p.m.)
??? Must be 30 degrees outside. Why would you be at beach?
Finley (8:41 p.m.)
You know I like it here and hard to face grayson I’m not proud of what’s happened sometimes I think its better I disappear from all your lives.
Allison (8:44 p.m.)
Don’t talk like that. I know we are splitting but we can all move on from this. You will always have a relationship with Gray. And with me.
Finley (8:45 p.m.)
Not sure I’ll have any relationships after tonight
“So Finley tells Allison he’s at the Ohio Street Beach, he can’t face his son, he’s ashamed, etcetera. And then he drops kind of a doomsday message—he’s not sure he’ll have any relationships after tonight. What does he mean by that?”
Louise smiles. “You’re about to find out,” she says. “Flip the page.”