Chapter 4 - The Man at the Door
Grant entered with both hands visible.
He looked exhausted.
His hair was damp with rain.
There was a dark bruise along his jaw.
Detective Cole searched him before allowing him near me.
He carried no weapon.
Only a flash drive.
Nora stood between us.
“You sent the flowers.”
Grant nodded.
“You threatened my sister.”
“I warned her.”
“You told her she should have stayed unconscious.”
Grant looked confused.
“I never wrote that.”
Cole immediately placed the flower card on the table.
Grant stared at it.
“That wasn’t mine.”
“Then what was your message?”
He swallowed.
“I put a note inside the flowers.”
The police had never found one.
Grant said his note contained a phone number and four words.
ASK ABOUT THOMAS BELL.
Someone had replaced it.
That meant another person had reached the flowers before they entered my room.
Someone who knew Grant was trying to contact me.
Grant sat down slowly.
He had worked for Evan’s firm for nine years.
At first, the fraud had been small.
Inflated management fees.
Unauthorized transfers.
Clients signing documents they did not fully understand.
Then Diane became involved.
She introduced wealthy widows.
Retired businessmen.
People recovering from strokes.
People whose children lived across the country.
“Evan handled the paperwork,” Grant said.
“Diane handled trust.”
I felt sick.
“And you?”
Grant looked at the floor.
“I handled the books.”
Nora’s voice hardened.
“So you helped them.”
“Yes.”
At least he did not lie.
Grant said he finally tried to stop after one client lost more than two million dollars.
Evan blamed the irregularities on him.
Grant lost his license.
His reputation disappeared.
But he kept copies.
“Why didn’t you go to police?”
“I was guilty too.”
“You still are.”
“I know.”
Cole asked about my father.
Grant took a long breath.
“Your father noticed money disappearing before you did.”
My heart pounded.
“He contacted me privately.”
“When?”
“Two weeks before he died.”
Dad had known.
Grant gave him records showing Evan’s shell accounts.
Thomas Bell helped Dad prepare new trust restrictions that would permanently block Evan from accessing my inheritance.
But Dad died before they were filed.
Thomas kept copies.
Then Thomas died too.
I could barely speak.
“Was my father murdered?”
Grant’s expression answered before his mouth did.
“I don’t know.”
It was not enough.
I leaned forward despite the pain.
“What do you know?”
Grant looked at Cole.
Then back at me.
“Three days before your father died, Diane bought a prescription medication under someone else’s name.”
Cole’s pen stopped moving.
Grant continued.
“It can cause dangerous heart rhythm problems if combined with certain blood pressure drugs.”
My skin turned cold.
“Did she give it to him?”
“I never saw that happen.”
“But?”
“I heard her tell Evan that your father was becoming a problem.”
Nora cursed.
Cole asked for the flash drive.
Grant handed it over.
“It contains account records, emails, recordings, and names.”
“Names of who?”
“Everyone they stole from.”
Cole plugged the drive into an isolated police laptop.
A folder appeared.
Inside were dozens of files.
Then Nora pointed at the screen.
“Mara.”
I followed her finger.
One folder had my name.
Another had my father’s.
And a third was labeled simply:
NORA BENNETT.
My sister stopped breathing.
“What the hell?”
Grant turned pale.
“I didn’t create that folder.”
Nora looked at him.
“Then who did?”
May you like
Grant whispered.
“Diane.”
