Chapter 5 - Dad’s Second Recording
The recording was dated nine days before Dad died.
His voice sounded weak but completely clear.
“If this file is being played, then I ran out of time.”
Daniel sat beside me.
Detective Morales listened across the table.
Dad continued.
“Stephen Avery is helping your mother alter my medical records.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
Not suspicion.
A name.
A direct accusation.
Dad said he had begun noticing medication changes six months earlier.
He experienced unexpected dizziness after drinks Mom prepared.
His blood pressure dropped without explanation.
One evening, he woke in the hospital after collapsing at home.
The official explanation was dehydration.
Dad did not believe it.
So he hired a private nurse without telling Mom.
That nurse took independent blood samples.
Those tests found sedatives Dad had never been prescribed.
Dad confronted Mom.
She denied everything.
Then Avery appeared.
“He told me I was becoming paranoid.”
Dad’s voice sounded bitter.
“He said grief over my own declining health was making me suspicious.”
Morales paused the recording.
“Did your father have a terminal diagnosis?”
“No.”
“He had heart problems.”
“But nothing immediately fatal.”
She resumed.
Dad had planned to amend his estate.
He wanted Mom removed from Daniel’s financial arrangements.
He also planned to divorce her.
The paperwork was being prepared.
Then Mom found the documents.
Dad’s voice lowered.
“I made the mistake of keeping copies at home.”
“She knows.”
“Daniel saw her open the safe.”
“I think that is why she has become afraid of what he remembers.”
Daniel’s fingers tightened around his tablet.
Dad continued.
“If something happens to me, there are three people you must find.”
“First, attorney James Holloway.”
“Second, nurse Caroline Brooks.”
“Third…”
Static distorted the next name.
Then Dad said.
“Do not trust Avery.”
The recording ended.
Morales immediately searched the first two names.
James Holloway had died four years earlier.
But his law firm still existed.
Caroline Brooks was harder.
No current nursing license.
No listed address.
No obvious social media.
Then a search revealed why.
Caroline had changed her last name after marriage.
Caroline Brooks Bennett.
She now lived in Vermont.
Morales called.
The woman on the line went silent when she heard Dad’s name.
Then she asked.
“Is Daniel safe?”
I looked at Morales.
That was not the question of someone who had forgotten.
Morales answered.
“For now.”
Caroline took a long breath.
“I kept the samples.”
My heart stopped.
“What samples?”
She answered.
May you like
“Your father’s blood.”
“And I kept them because he told me one day his wife might claim he imagined everything.”
