Chapter 6 - PHASE FOUR
I stared at the photograph until the words blurred.
Remove Amy.
The doctor asked if I needed to sit down.
“No,” I said. “I need to know who planned this.”
Detective Harper called a few minutes later. The Linden Street office was rented under the name Daniel Mercer. Inside, police found forged legal forms, copies of my financial records, and a calendar tracking my construction assignments.
“They knew when you would be out of town,” Harper said.
“Who is they?”
“We’re working on that.”
She paused.
“We also found a draft petition claiming your wife was mentally unstable and dangerous to the baby. It requested emergency guardianship for your mother.”
Amy covered her mouth.
The petition included statements from relatives who supposedly witnessed Amy neglect Frederick.
Betsy’s name was on the list.
When I confronted her in the hospital hallway, she looked horrified.
“I never signed anything,” she said. “Teresa asked me questions about Amy. She said she was worried. I thought she was being nosy, not building a case.”
“Did she ask anyone else?”
Betsy nodded slowly. “Almost everyone at the party.”
That explained the gathering. It had not only been a birthday celebration paid for with stolen money. It was a room full of possible witnesses Teresa could pressure, flatter, or manipulate.
Betsy sat down hard. “Connor, there’s something else. Teresa has a friend named Martin Vale. He calls himself a legal consultant. He was at Thanksgiving. Tall, gray beard, blue ring.”
Amy looked at me. “The voice on the recorder.”
I remembered the man only vaguely. He had asked too many questions about my mortgage and whether Amy’s name was on the deed.
Harper ran the name.
Martin Vale had once worked as a paralegal. He had been fired after accusations of document fraud, but never convicted.
Then a nurse approached us with a clear plastic evidence bag.
Inside was a small amber bottle found in Frederick’s diaper bag.
The label said CHILDREN’S VITAMINS.
The liquid inside was not vitamins.
A partial fingerprint had already been lifted from the cap.
It belonged to Teresa.
May you like
Before I could process that, Detective Harper called again.
“Connor,” she said, “your mother is gone.”
