Chapter 9 - THE TOWN THAT KNEW ONLY HIS STORY
By the end of the week, Derek’s version had spread through church groups, school-parent pages, and former customers.
He said Elena suffered a pregnancy-related breakdown.
He claimed she attacked him, abandoned the business, and invented abuse after learning she might be responsible for Travis Bell’s death.
Martha visited the small Baptist church where the family had attended Christmas services. She told the pastor that Derek was a devoted father being punished for “expecting discipline and traditional values.”
Three women from the church sent Elena messages urging her to forgive him.
One said daughters needed their father more than they needed a perfect mother.
Elena changed her number.
The girls’ new school required a copy of the protective order and a list of approved adults. Callie began checking the parking lot through the classroom window. June cried whenever a truck slowed outside the shelter.
CPS opened a formal family assessment.
Felicia did not accuse Elena of causing the violence, but she asked why Elena had remained after the first assault.
“Because he controlled the money.”
“Why didn’t you call your sister?”
“Because I told her Derek was a good husband.”
“Why didn’t you tell the clinic sooner?”
“Because I thought silence kept him from hurting the girls.”
Each answer sounded weaker than it had inside Elena’s head.
Kay Bell initially refused to cooperate with state investigators.
“My husband’s dead, and all of you are protecting yourselves now,” she told Elena by phone.
“You have every reason not to trust me.”
“Your name is on his paperwork.”
“I know.”
Elena offered no excuse.
The following day, Kay delivered Travis’s payroll roster and photographs of the defective harness to the investigator. She did not do it for Elena. She did it because her son would someday ask why his father never came home.
The state also interviewed former employees.
Several said Derek handled hiring, schedules, equipment, and cash payments. None had ever received instructions from Elena.
One former bookkeeper, Melissa Crane, remembered Martha bringing corporate documents into the office after Elena gave birth to June.
“She said Elena was recovering and Derek had power of attorney,” Melissa told investigators.
No valid power of attorney existed.
But digital filings showed Elena’s electronic signature had been used from an internet address connected to Martha’s house.
The evidence helped.
Then investigators found something worse.
Two years earlier, Mercer Residential Restoration had sold its equipment, customer list, and active contracts to M&M Home Services for one dollar.
M&M was owned by Derek and Martha.
The old company remained responsible for debts, taxes, insurance failures, and Travis’s death.
The new company held nearly all the income.
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Elena had not merely been named owner of a failing business.
She had been used as the container for everything Derek and Martha wanted to leave behind.
