Chapter 8 - UNIT 417
The storage unit was forty miles away.
I had never seen it.
The contract listed Claire Bennett as renter.
The signature was Michael’s.
He had used my name because he apparently believed no one would search for a unit connected to me.
Inside Unit 417 were twelve banker’s boxes.
Michael had kept everything.
Vendor invoices.
Bank transfers.
Email printouts.
Photographs of meetings.
Copies of internal audits.
One box contained Preston’s private investigator reports.
There I was.
Photographed outside Sophie’s preschool.
At a grocery store.
At Michael’s funeral.
Sophie appeared in some images.
Three years old.
Holding my hand.
I felt physically sick.
Cole took the reports.
One page contained a handwritten note attributed to Preston.
Bennett’s weak point is family.
I sat on the concrete floor.
Eight years later, Sophie was still the weak point.
Or Preston thought she was.
He had never understood something.
People you love can make you vulnerable.
They can also make you dangerous.
The financial documents showed millions moved through inflated construction contracts.
Several companies were fake.
Others belonged to friends of Preston.
Margaret signed approvals.
Richard Vale had begun preparing a disclosure package for federal investigators.
Then he died of cancer.
Michael died months later.
Again, Cole warned me.
“Neither death proves foul play.”
“I know.”
But then we opened the last box.
Medication records.
Richard’s.
Michael had copied them.
Alongside them was a lab report from a private testing company.
The report concerned a supplement Richard had been taking while undergoing cancer treatment.
Heavy metal contamination.
Extremely high.
Cole’s expression changed.
“Where did this come from?”
I shook my head.
A handwritten note from Michael answered.
Richard asked me to test the powder Margaret gives him every morning.
Do not tell her yet.
My throat tightened.
The substance was never named.
The sample was nearly a decade old.
And there was no proof Margaret had intentionally contaminated anything.
But there was enough for Cole to contact detectives who had handled Richard’s death.
Then we found a photograph.
Margaret standing inside Richard’s bedroom.
Holding the same supplement container.
May you like
On the back, Michael had written one date.
Six weeks before Richard died.
