Chapter 2 - THE SECOND MAN
Police vehicles surrounded the funeral home within minutes.
Paramedics carried Claire outside while officers searched every room for Richard.
He was already gone.
Detective Laura Bennett arrived as Ethan sat beside the ambulance.
Claire had been given oxygen and wrapped in a blanket.
Ethan refused to leave her.
Detective Bennett crouched beside him.
“You did something incredibly important today.”
Ethan stared at the ground.
“I almost didn’t believe what I heard.”
“But you did.”
“My stepdad told me I was imagining it.”
Bennett glanced toward the funeral home.
“People who are hiding something often want everyone else to doubt themselves.”
Claire suddenly reached for Bennett’s sleeve.
“There’s someone else.”
Bennett leaned closer.
“Who?”
Claire looked around as though she expected someone to be listening.
“I don’t know his real name.”
“What does Richard call him?”
“Mr. Cole.”
Ethan noticed the change in Detective Bennett’s expression.
She recognized the name.
“Who is he?”
Bennett hesitated.
Then she stood.
“Claire, I need you transported to the hospital immediately.”
“Tell me.”
Claire’s voice strengthened.
“Who is Cole?”
Bennett exchanged a look with another officer.
“Victor Cole.”
Claire went pale.
Bennett continued.
“He’s been investigated before for identity fraud, forged documents, and financial crimes.”
Ethan looked between them.
“What does that have to do with Mom?”
Claire closed her eyes.
“Everything.”
At the hospital, Ethan stayed outside the examination room while Bennett interviewed Claire.
Nearly an hour passed before the detective came out.
She sat beside Ethan.
“Your mother believes Richard planned this for months.”
“Why?”
“Money.”
Ethan frowned.
“We’re not rich.”
Bennett didn’t answer immediately.
“Your mother might be.”
Ethan stared at her.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
According to Bennett, Claire’s father had died two years earlier.
Ethan remembered his grandfather only vaguely.
He had lived in another state.
Claire rarely spoke about him.
Bennett explained that the grandfather had owned land outside Denver.
The property had recently been sold to a development company.
Claire’s inheritance was worth more than Ethan had ever imagined.
Nearly nine million dollars.
Ethan shook his head.
“Mom never told me.”
“She didn’t know.”
The inheritance paperwork had arrived six weeks earlier.
But Claire had never seen it.
Richard had.
Bennett opened a folder.
“We found a copy of a document inside Richard’s car.”
“What document?”
“A death certificate.”
Ethan swallowed.
“For Mom?”
Bennett nodded.
“It was prepared nine days before she supposedly died.”
Ethan stared through the hospital window.
Nine days before.
Richard had prepared to make Claire legally dead before anything had even happened.
Bennett’s phone suddenly rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed immediately.
“When?”
She stood.
“Lock the hospital entrances.”
Ethan felt cold.
“What happened?”
May you like
Detective Bennett looked at him.
“Someone just tried to enter your mother’s room using a hospital employee badge.”
