Chapter 8 - The Fire in the Study.
The papers ignited faster than Claire expected.
Eleanor dropped them into the wastebasket beside Richard's desk.
The detective crossed the room and smothered the flames with Richard's wool coat before they could climb the curtains.
Daniel grabbed his mother's wrist.
"What are you doing?"
Eleanor looked at his hand as if it belonged to a stranger.
"Protecting this family."
The detective separated them.
Eleanor was informed that she could not destroy potential evidence.
She smiled.
"Those were grocery receipts."
The detective lifted a half-burned page with gloved fingers.
A visible line read TRANSFER AUTHORIZATION.
Eleanor's smile disappeared.
Claire had never seen her lose control so quickly.
"You have no idea what Richard was doing before he died," Eleanor snapped.
"Then tell us," Claire said.
Eleanor turned toward her.
"He was giving everything away because a six-year-old smiled at him."
The words were ugly enough to expose something deeper than greed.
Richard had adored Lily.
He had taken her to museums, taught her to grow tomatoes, and once spent an entire afternoon building a cardboard castle because she had asked for one.
Eleanor had always called it indulgence.
Claire now understood that she had seen it as theft.
The police escorted Eleanor from the study while they secured the room.
She was not arrested yet.
The evidence was alarming but incomplete.
Before leaving, Eleanor stopped beside Daniel.
"If you stay with her, you will lose everything."
Daniel looked at Claire.
Then at the burned papers.
Then at the red marks still visible on Lily's shoulder in the photograph attached to the police report.
"Maybe everything is what needs to go," he said.
Eleanor's face hardened.
Claire did not mistake Daniel's sentence for redemption.
It was only the first time he had chosen discomfort over obedience.
Back at the secure apartment, Claire opened the first of Richard's flash drives on an offline laptop Margaret provided.
Most files were financial spreadsheets.
One folder was labeled WARD.
Inside were photographs of Steven Warren entering Eleanor's house on six different dates.
There were screenshots of payments routed through a consulting company.
There was also an audio file.
Richard's voice filled the small apartment.
He sounded tired.
"Eleanor, what did you give me?"
A woman's voice answered from farther away.
"Your heart medication."
"It isn't my heart medication."
"You are confused again."
Then came a man's voice Claire recognized from Lily's sessions.
Steven Warren.
"If he keeps refusing the evening dose, increase it gradually."
Claire stopped the recording.
Daniel stared at the laptop.
He had arrived with his attorney and police permission to hear the evidence.
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Claire played the rest.
Richard accused Eleanor of stealing from the foundation.
Eleanor told him no court would trust a confused old man.
Warren laughed.
Then Richard said something that changed the room.
"If I die before Friday, Margaret has everything."
A chair scraped violently in the recording.
Eleanor's voice became low and furious.
"You should never have put that child in the trust."
The file ended.
Daniel walked to the bathroom and vomited.
Claire sat alone with the laptop until Lily wandered out rubbing her eyes.
"Mommy, why is Daddy crying?"
Claire pulled her close.
"Because he finally heard something he should have listened to a long time ago."
Her phone rang.
The clinic physician's name appeared on the screen.
Claire answered immediately.
The preliminary toxicology results were back.
The doctor spoke carefully.
The substance in Lily's blood matched a sedating medication.
The amount was low but real.
May you like
Then the doctor added one more fact.
The medication could be dangerous for someone with Richard Bennett's heart condition.
