Chapter 3 - THE CLAIM)
Two investigators arrived at the hospital before sunset.
One was Detective Laura Reyes from the county family protection unit.
The other was not a police officer.
His name was Benjamin Cole, and he worked for an insurance company Mark recognized immediately.
Northland Mutual.
The company handling Liam’s injury claim.
Mark looked from Cole to Detective Reyes.
“Why is the insurance company here?”
Cole placed a thin folder on the table.
“Because your household has an active product liability claim involving the patio heater.”
“I know.”
“What you may not know is that the claim was amended eleven days ago.”
Mark frowned.
“Amended how?”
“The projected damages increased.”
“How much?”
Cole opened the folder.
“The original notice estimated medical expenses and potential future treatment at approximately one hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
Mark nodded.
That sounded familiar.
“The amended demand is for one point eight million.”
Mark stared at him.
“That’s impossible.”
Cole turned a page around.
At the bottom was a signature.
Mark Carter.
Again.
Not his signature.
“We received this electronically from the attorney of record.”
“I don’t have an attorney.”
Cole and Reyes exchanged a look.
“Your wife retained one.”
“Without telling me?”
“The representation agreement says you attended a video consultation.”
“I did not.”
Cole slid another document forward.
Mark’s driver’s license had been copied into the file.
Below it was a signed authorization.
Then came several photographs.
Liam’s arm.
The graft.
The dressing.
Close-up images taken at different stages.
Some Mark had seen.
Some he had not.
Cole tapped three of them.
“These were submitted after the May 18 clinic visit.”
Mark looked at Liam, who was sitting on the hospital bed playing quietly with a puzzle provided by a nurse.
“Why would she increase the claim?”
Cole chose his words carefully.
“The amended filing asserts that Liam’s graft is failing, that he will likely require multiple additional procedures, and that he has suffered permanent loss of function.”
Mark stared at him.
“The doctor just said the graft might be fine.”
“That’s consistent with the earlier prognosis we received.”
Detective Reyes leaned forward.
“Mr. Carter, we are investigating whether someone had a financial reason to make Liam’s recovery appear worse than it was.”
Mark suddenly understood.
He wished he did not.
“No.”
No one responded.
He shook his head harder.
“No.”
Cole said, “We are not drawing conclusions yet.”
“She wouldn’t hurt him for an insurance claim.”
Reyes held his gaze.
“You called her behavior in the yard what?”
Mark remembered the hose striking Liam’s bandaged arm.
Karen’s contemptuous expression.
The muddy water.
The sentence.
That brat needs to be taught a lesson.
His certainty collapsed.
Cole continued.
“There is another issue.”
Mark almost laughed.
Of course there was.
“What?”
“The manufacturer’s engineering inspection found no defect in the patio heater.”
Mark looked up sharply.
“What?”
“The valve assembly passed testing.”
“But Karen said it exploded.”
“The burn pattern did not strongly support an explosion. Our experts believed there may have been a localized ignition from released propane.”
Mark thought about Liam’s story.
A hissing sound.
Karen ordering him to move the heater.
Karen clicking the ignition.
“She knew it was leaking.”
“We don’t know what she knew.”
Liam spoke from the bed.
“She did.”
Everyone turned.
The boy had stopped touching the puzzle.
“What do you mean?” Reyes asked.
Liam looked at Mark.
“She said it before.”
“Said what?”
“That the heater was stupid.”
Mark frowned.
“When?”
“The day before.”
Liam swallowed.
“She was talking to someone on the phone.”
“About the heater?”
“She said, ‘That old thing leaks if you move the tank wrong.’”
Mark felt his stomach twist.
The heater was four years old.
He had bought it himself.
He had never noticed a leak.
But Karen apparently had.
Reyes asked Liam if he remembered anything else.
He nodded.
“She said she needed pictures.”
Mark leaned closer.
“Pictures of what?”
Liam shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
The detective wrote something down.
Then Mark remembered the storage facility.
“What was in those boxes?”
Reyes answered.
“We have officers securing the unit now. We’re obtaining a warrant.”
“Can Karen access our house?”
“Unless there’s a court order preventing her, legally that question becomes complicated. But given the current investigation, I strongly recommend you do not return there alone tonight.”
Mark looked at Liam.
“I’m not taking him back there.”
Reyes nodded.
“Good.”
Mark’s sister lived thirty minutes away.
He called her.
Rachel answered on the second ring.
“What’s wrong?”
Mark had no idea how to summarize the day.
“Can Liam and I stay with you tonight?”
Rachel immediately said yes.
She asked no questions until they arrived.
Liam fell asleep in her guest room before nine.
Mark sat at Rachel’s kitchen table with cold coffee between his hands.
He told her everything.
The hose.
The hidden clinic visit.
The forged signature.
The insurance claim.
The heater.
Rachel listened without interrupting.
When he finished, she looked pale.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
Mark looked at her.
“What?”
“I didn’t like Karen being alone with Liam.”
“You’ve told me you two don’t get along.”
“No.”
Rachel shook her head.
“That’s not what I mean.”
Mark waited.
“Last Christmas, Liam asked me if parents could divorce someone because they were mean when nobody else was there.”
Mark’s chest tightened.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I called you the next morning.”
Mark searched his memory.
Christmas.
Long work hours.
Karen and Rachel arguing.
A dozen missed calls.
Then he remembered.
Rachel had said she was worried about Liam.
He had dismissed it as part of her dislike of Karen.
“What else?”
Rachel looked down.
“In February, I found him sitting in my car during your birthday dinner.”
“What?”
“He said he needed quiet.”
“Why?”
“He had spilled juice.”
Mark said nothing.
“Karen told him he had embarrassed her in front of everyone. She made him clean the floor three times because she said he kept doing it wrong.”
Mark remembered seeing Liam cleaning.
He had thought his son volunteered.
Rachel continued.
“When I told Karen to leave him alone, she smiled and said I was making him soft.”
Mark covered his face.
“How did I not see this?”
“Because she was different when you were there.”
It was the simplest answer.
And the most painful.
Mark’s phone rang.
Detective Reyes.
He answered immediately.
“We got into the storage unit,” she said.
“What did you find?”
“Medical supplies. Copies of insurance records. A prepaid phone. Several external hard drives.”
Mark stood.
“And?”
There was a pause.
“One of the boxes contains photographs of Liam.”
His hand tightened around the phone.
“What kind?”
“His arm. His bandages. Some appear to have been taken while he was sleeping.”
Mark’s knees weakened.
Reyes continued.
“But that isn’t the strangest thing.”
“What is?”
“We found photographs of your backyard taken before the accident.”
Mark stopped breathing.
“How long before?”
“Two days.”
“What are they pictures of?”
“The patio heater.”
May you like
Reyes paused.
“Specifically, close-up photographs of the propane connection.”
