Chapter 6 - Caroline’s Evidence
Caroline agreed to fly in.
She brought a refrigerated medical transport case and a stack of old notes.
Dad had hired her privately eight months before his death.
He told her he believed someone was altering his medication.
At first, Caroline thought stress was making him suspicious.
Then she saw it happen.
Mom brought Dad a nightly drink.
Twenty minutes later, his speech became slurred.
His balance failed.
Caroline quietly collected blood.
The independent laboratory found benzodiazepines and another sedative.
Neither had been prescribed.
Dad asked her to repeat the test twice.
Same result.
Caroline documented everything.
Then Avery confronted her in the hospital corridor.
“He asked why I was interfering.”
She told him she had been privately retained by the patient.
Avery said the family no longer required her services.
Dad disagreed.
The following week, Caroline’s nursing agency received a complaint accusing her of stealing medication.
She lost her placement.
The complaint came from Gregory Voss.
Caroline looked at the recent photograph.
“That’s him.”
She had seen Gregory talking to Mom more than once before Dad’s final hospitalization.
Not romantically.
Professionally.
Secretively.
Caroline handed Morales a sealed envelope.
“Your father gave me this the last time I saw him.”
Inside was a copy of Dad’s original estate amendment.
Mom had been removed as Daniel’s financial guardian.
The independent trustee was supposed to be James Holloway’s firm.
The amendment was signed and notarized.
It predated Dad’s death by eleven days.
I stared at it.
“Why wasn’t this filed?”
“Your father planned to file it himself after one final meeting.”
“What meeting?”
Caroline checked her notes.
“With Richard Keller.”
Mom’s attorney.
The same attorney connected to Dr. Avery’s guardianship cases.
Dad had gone to Keller because he believed Keller represented the family trust.
Instead, Keller apparently warned Mom.
Morales leaned back.
“So Keller knew your father intended to remove her.”
Caroline nodded.
“Two days later, he was hospitalized.”
Daniel suddenly typed.
“Red folder.”
I looked at him.
“What red folder?”
“Dad gave Keller red folder.”
Caroline stared at Daniel.
“You were there?”
Daniel nodded.
He had waited in the reception area during Dad’s meeting.
He remembered Keller taking a red folder.
He remembered Mom arriving later that afternoon.
And he remembered something nobody had asked him.
“Keller said problem fixed.”
Morales looked at me.
The conspiracy was getting larger.
Mom.
Gregory.
Avery.
Keller.
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Maybe Dad had not died because one desperate wife wanted money.
Maybe several people depended on his silence.
