Chapter 5 - the missing forty-eight hours)
Robert obtained Grace's medical records the following morning.
Martin helped.
At first nothing looked unusual.
Grace had visited her physician twice during the month before her death complaining of dizziness, weakness and episodes of rapid heartbeat.
Tests had been scheduled.
Nothing urgent had been found.
Then, two days before her death, she called the clinic and reported worsening symptoms.
The note in the file stated that she had been advised to go to the emergency department.
Grace never went.
Robert stared at the page.
"Why?"
Martin shook his head.
Sophia was listening from the doorway.
"Mom did go somewhere."
Robert turned.
"When?"
"That day."
"Where?"
"She didn't tell us."
Sophia explained that Grace had left the house around three in the afternoon.
She returned shortly before six.
Her face was pale.
She told the girls everything was fine.
But she immediately went upstairs and locked her bedroom door.
Robert checked Grace's phone records.
Her phone had been switched off from three thirteen until five forty-seven.
No calls.
No location history.
No messages.
Forty-eight hours later, she was dead.
Helen Price arrived with additional financial information.
One of Ethan's hidden companies had made a payment of fifty thousand dollars three weeks before Grace died.
The recipient was listed as Bellweather Consulting.
The company had been dissolved two years earlier.
Its registered address belonged to a medical supply warehouse outside Savannah.
Martin frowned.
"Medical?"
Robert felt a chill.
They traced the company owner.
Dr. Nathan Bell.
A former anesthesiologist.
His medical license had been suspended after allegations involving unauthorized prescriptions.
Robert immediately wanted to call police.
Martin stopped him.
"We need to be careful."
"My daughter may have been poisoned."
"We don't know that."
"There's a payment to a disgraced doctor."
"Connected to one of Ethan's companies. Yes. That is suspicious. It is not proof of murder."
Robert hated the word.
Murder.
Until that moment, he had not said it aloud.
Sophia was standing ten feet away.
She heard it.
Robert regretted it immediately.
But Sophia did not cry.
Instead she walked upstairs.
Minutes later she returned with Maisie.
The six-year-old carried a stuffed rabbit.
Sophia crouched beside her.
"Tell Grandpa what you told me."
Maisie looked frightened.
Robert softened his voice.
"Anything you remember is okay."
Maisie hugged the rabbit.
"Mommy didn't like her tea."
Robert looked at Sophia.
"What tea?"
Maisie answered.
"The tea Daddy made."
Robert's heartbeat accelerated.
"When?"
"The night Mommy got sick."
Martin moved closer.
"What did your mother say?"
Maisie squeezed her eyes shut.
"She said it tasted funny."
Robert crouched.
"Did you see your father make it?"
Maisie nodded.
"Was anybody else there?"
The little girl thought.
"A man."
Robert's throat tightened.
"What man?"
"I don't know."
"Where was he?"
"In Daddy's room."
"Could you describe him?"
Maisie shook her head.
Then suddenly she tapped her nose.
"He smelled bad."
"Bad how?"
"Like the doctor's office."
Martin and Robert exchanged a glance.
"Medicine?"
Maisie nodded.
Sophia went pale.
Robert stood.
A disgraced physician.
A secret payment.
A strange-tasting drink.
A woman dead forty-eight hours later.
It was enough to justify going to law enforcement.
But before Robert could make the call, the doorbell rang.
A uniformed courier stood outside.
He handed Robert a small padded envelope.
"No return address."
Robert signed.
Inside was a disposable phone.
It rang almost immediately.
Robert answered.
A distorted male voice spoke.
"You should have let the notebook stay buried."
Robert looked at the girls.
"Who is this?"
"You have something that doesn't belong to you."
"The notebook belongs to my daughter."
"No."
The voice was calm.
"It belongs to people who will do whatever is necessary to keep it quiet."
Robert's hand tightened.
"If you threaten my grandchildren again, I will spend the rest of my life finding you."
The caller laughed softly.
"You still think this is about Ethan."
The line went dead.
Robert stared at the phone.
Sophia stood beside him.
"What did he say?"
May you like
Robert looked at his granddaughter.
"He said we're looking at the wrong person."
