Chapter 6 - SAMUEL PARKER'S WARNING
The flash drive contained twenty-seven files.
Bank transfers.
Emails.
Photographs.
Recorded conversations.
Samuel Parker had spent nearly two years investigating Rebecca.
What he discovered went far beyond stolen company money.
Rebecca had worked with Victor Cole to create fraudulent identities.
They forged records.
They moved money.
They helped wealthy clients hide assets behind fake companies.
And once, according to Samuel’s notes, they had helped a man disappear after authorities began investigating him.
Detective Bennett studied the evidence.
“This could put Cole away for years.”
Claire looked at her.
“Then why didn’t my father go to the police?”
“He was building the case.”
Samuel’s final recording answered the question.
His face appeared on the computer screen.
He looked tired.
“If you are watching this, Claire, I may have waited too long.”
Ethan leaned closer.
Samuel continued.
“I discovered that Rebecca knows I’ve been investigating her.”
He looked away from the camera.
“If anything happens to me, do not assume it was natural.”
Claire whispered.
“Dad died of a heart attack.”
Bennett looked at her.
“Was there an autopsy?”
Claire shook her head.
Samuel’s recording continued.
“There is one person I have not identified.”
Ethan listened carefully.
“Cole keeps referring to someone as the Architect.”
Bennett paused the recording.
“The Architect?”
Claire frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“We don’t know.”
Samuel believed this unidentified person organized the financial side of Cole’s operations.
Rebecca feared the Architect.
Even Cole seemed to answer to them.
Samuel had written one final note.
The Architect has access to legal records before they become public.
Someone inside government.
Bennett stood.
“This changes everything.”
If Samuel was right, Richard, Rebecca, and Cole had help.
Someone with access to official records could have prepared Claire’s fraudulent death certificate.
Someone could have altered hospital documents.
Someone could have made questions disappear.
Ethan remembered something.
“The doctor.”
Claire turned toward him.
“What doctor?”
“The night Richard said Mom died.”
Ethan’s voice became quiet.
“A doctor came to the house.”
Claire stared at him.
“There was no doctor.”
Ethan described the man.
Gray hair.
Thin glasses.
Black medical bag.
He stayed for approximately twenty minutes.
Afterward, Richard told Ethan his mother had died.
Bennett immediately requested security footage from nearby homes.
One camera had captured the doctor’s car.
The license plate led to a name.
Dr. Henry Lawson.
Claire recognized it.
“He signed my father’s death certificate.”
Silence filled the room.
Samuel Parker had died under Lawson’s care.
Now the same doctor had apparently helped Richard declare Claire dead.
May you like
Bennett reached for her phone.
“We need to find him before Richard does.”
