Chapter 9 - My Father’s Last Night
Grant wanted to meet alone.
That was never going to happen.
Detective Cole arranged the meeting while making him believe I had agreed.
He chose an abandoned commuter station outside the city.
Rain poured across the empty platforms.
I remained inside an unmarked police vehicle two blocks away.
Cole wore a concealed microphone.
Grant arrived twelve minutes late.
He carried a backpack.
He also carried a gun.
The arrest team moved immediately.
Grant ran.
He reached the stairwell before two officers tackled him.
The gun skidded across wet concrete.
Inside his backpack was a recorder.
Not the one I had used.
An older digital model.
Grant shouted that Diane would kill everyone if police wasted time arresting him.
Cole ignored him.
The recording was transported to the station.
Forensic technicians copied it.
Then we listened.
My father’s voice filled the room.
He sounded angry.
“You stole from my daughter.”
Evan answered.
“It isn’t what you think.”
“Don’t insult me.”
Then Diane spoke.
“You always disliked him.”
Dad laughed once.
“I disliked his character.”
“You mean you disliked losing control of Mara.”
“I’m protecting her.”
“From her husband?”
“From both of you.”
My chest tightened.
Dad had known everything.
The recording continued.
He told them he had changed the trust.
Evan would never access another dollar.
He had already contacted federal authorities.
Then came silence.
Diane’s voice became strangely gentle.
“Richard, you look pale.”
“I’m fine.”
“Sit down.”
“I said I’m fine.”
A glass moved across a table.
Dad coughed.
Then his breathing changed.
I grabbed Nora’s hand.
“Call an ambulance,” Dad said.
Nobody did.
“Evan.”
More coughing.
“Call.”
Diane answered.
“No.”
My sister began sobbing.
The recording captured my father collapsing.
Evan panicked.
Diane did not.
“What did you give him?”
Evan asked.
“Enough.”
My vision blurred.
Then Dad made one final sound.
A weak breath.
And Diane said the sentence that would stay with me forever.
“He should have minded his own family.”
The recording stopped.
No one in the room moved.
Cole finally turned toward Grant.
“You recorded this?”
Grant nodded from behind the interview room glass.
“Why?”
“Insurance.”
“Why didn’t you help him?”
Grant looked down.
Because the truth was obvious.
He was not there to save my father.
He was there to protect himself.
The recording gave prosecutors what they needed to charge Diane with murder.
But Diane was still missing.
Grant offered one more piece of information.
“She has a way out of the country.”
Cole asked where.
Grant smiled bitterly.
“She won’t leave without the money.”
“What money?”
“The money Richard hid before he died.”
I turned toward him.
“What money?”
Grant looked directly at me.
“Your father moved nearly four million dollars the morning he confronted them.”
May you like
Then he said something that changed the entire search.
“He put it somewhere Diane cannot access without you.”
