Chapter 15 - Nathan’s Last Note
The backyard search began at sunrise.
Briggs brought two detectives and a crime-scene technician.
Wren led them past the greenhouse toward the southern edge of the property, where Nathan had once planned a vegetable garden.
“There.”
A patch of ground near a young maple looked ordinary.
Ground-penetrating tools found disturbed soil.
Sixteen inches down, police recovered a waterproof document pouch.
Inside were copies of financial records.
Another flash drive.
And an envelope.
HELEN.
Nathan had written his mother’s name across the front.
Helen opened it with shaking hands.
Mom,
I don’t know how much time I have to fix this.
I made choices I am ashamed of. I helped Cole hide the Scottsdale loss. I forged Evelyn’s signature on the home-equity line because I thought I could repay it before she ever knew.
I became afraid of losing the company and behaved like losing my integrity was cheaper.
It wasn’t.
Cole has been accessing things he should not have access to.
My accounts.
My phone.
Possibly my medical records.
Yesterday my pharmacy confirmed a prescription change I never authorized. I asked them to investigate.
If anything happens to me, please do two things.
Protect Evelyn and Wren from the consequences of my mistakes.
And do not let Cole make me the only guilty man in the room.
I love you.
Nathan.
Helen pressed the note to her mouth.
Evelyn looked away to give her privacy.
The pharmacy name appeared at the bottom.
A handwritten reference number.
Briggs photographed it.
“This could help us obtain the internal investigation Nathan requested.”
Helen wiped her face.
“He knew I’d fight.”
Evelyn nodded.
“He knew.”
The flash drive contained another clue.
Security footage from Nathan’s study.
Nathan had installed a small interior camera without telling Evelyn.
Most clips were mundane.
Then they found the night before Nathan died.
10:58 p.m.
Nathan entered.
11:42 p.m.
Cole appeared.
Wren had been right.
Cole had returned.
He used a side door.
Inside the study, there was no audio.
But Cole and Nathan argued.
Nathan pointed toward the door repeatedly.
Cole refused to leave.
At 11:51, Cole picked up Nathan’s medication organizer.
Nathan grabbed it away.
Cole shoved him.
Not hard enough to knock him down.
But unmistakably.
At 11:57 Cole left.
At 12:04 Nathan sat at the desk and wrote something.
Then he looked directly toward the hidden camera.
The final frame showed him holding up a piece of paper.
The writing could not be read.
The original paper was not in the buried pouch.
“What happened to it?” Evelyn asked.
Briggs rewound the footage.
Nathan folded the note and put it in his jacket.
At the hospital, Nathan’s jacket became part of his personal effects.
Helen had collected them.
Cole had handled them.
Helen’s face went white.
“He took the note.”
“Maybe,” Briggs said.
Helen stood.
“No. I remember that jacket.”
She drove home with police and searched the garment bag.
The jacket lining had a tear near the inner breast pocket.
Helen slipped two fingers through.
Something crackled.
A folded piece of paper had fallen between the lining and outer fabric.
Nathan’s handwriting.
Short.
Messy.
Cole came back tonight.
He knows I found the portal access.
If he changes the medication again, pharmacy reference 9184 proves I reported it.
He says if I expose Bracken Ridge, he’ll make sure Evelyn loses the house and Wren loses everything.
I’m going to the board tomorrow.
N.
Helen sat down hard.
“The board meeting.”
Evelyn remembered.
Nathan had died at 8:14 Thursday morning.
The emergency board meeting had been scheduled for ten.
He never made it.
Briggs carefully bagged the note.
The pharmacy investigation report linked to reference 9184 arrived that afternoon under subpoena.
It confirmed Nathan had personally reported the unauthorized dosage change twenty-four hours before his death.
The pharmacy had begun reversing the prescription.
But Nathan had already been taking the higher dosage for more than a week.
The report documented the suspicious electronic alteration.
The prosecutor authorized an arrest warrant application.
They were finally moving.
Then Wren disappeared from the kitchen.
Evelyn saw the back door open.
“Wren?”
She ran outside.
Her daughter was halfway across the yard.
“Wren!”
The child turned.
“Someone’s by Dad’s hole!”
Beyond her, near the maple, a man straightened.
May you like
Cole.
He held a shovel.
