Chapter 7 - SOMEONE ENTERED MY MOTHER’S HOSPITAL ROOM AT 2:13 A.M.
We had missed something.
Two nights after Mom nearly drowned, someone entered her hospital room at 2:13 a.m.
Security footage showed a man wearing scrubs.
Face masked.
Badge turned backward.
He stayed three minutes.
Mom had been asleep.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
At the time, hospital security assumed staff.
Now Sloan showed me the enhanced image.
The man walked like Thomas.
Not proof.
But enough to make me sick.
“What could he have done?”
Sloan said:
“We don't know.”
Mom’s medication chart showed no anomaly.
IV untouched.
Oxygen unchanged.
Then a nurse remembered something.
When she entered at 2:20, Mom’s bedside phone had been off the hook.
Why?
Mom remembered waking briefly.
“A man asked whether I wanted anything.”
“Did you see him?”
“Not clearly.”
“Voice?”
She hesitated.
“Familiar.”
“Thomas?”
She went silent.
Then nodded.
My uncle had possibly entered a hospital room where my mother lay recovering from attempted murder.
Why?
To hurt her?
Check whether she could identify something?
Or scare her?
Sloan obtained phone records.
Thomas’s cell had been turned off between 1:40 and 3:10.
His attorney called it coincidence.
Then Mom remembered what the man said before leaving.
“He said, ‘You should have signed it.’”
I stared.
“Signed what?”
“I don't know.”
Then she did.
The proxy agreement.
Months earlier Thomas asked Mom to sign a corporate voting proxy “for convenience.”
She refused.
If she died, the trust shifted toward me.
If she became incapacitated and had signed the proxy, Thomas could control company votes.
She refused both routes.
So perhaps Thomas changed strategy.
Lauren's debt created opportunity.
A desperate woman.
A corrupt half-brother.
A vulnerable mother.
A family trust.
Sloan built the case slowly.
Then Thomas made a mistake.
He contacted me.
“Andrew, this has become ridiculous.”
I laughed.
“My mother was nearly murdered.”
“And you think I did it?”
“I think you're involved.”
“This is Lauren manipulating everyone.”
“Then come talk to police.”
Silence.
“Thomas?”
“I have rights.”
“So does Mom.”
His tone changed.
“You always were sentimental.”
That sentence chilled me.
“About my mother?”
“About everything.”
“Did you send someone into her hospital room?”
He hung up.
Bad answer.
Then Lauren requested to speak with me.
Against Sloan’s advice, I agreed.
Through glass.
Jail phone.
Lauren looked smaller.
No makeup.
No polished clothing.
Still beautiful.
That bothered me.
Monsters should look different.
Most don't.
“I'll tell you everything,” she said.
“In exchange for?”
“Protection.”
“From Thomas?”
Her eyes widened.
That was confirmation.
“You already know.”
“Enough.”
Lauren started crying.
“He found me before the wedding.”
“How?”
“Colin owed him money.”
“Thomas financed Colin?”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“He knew about Graham.”
My blood went cold.
“What about Graham?”
Lauren looked down.
“I pushed him.”
There it was.
A confession to another death.
“Why?”
“He attacked me.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“Or is that what you'll tell prosecutors?”
Lauren looked up.
“He was violent.”
“Then why hide the marriage?”
“Because nobody would believe me.”
Maybe true.
Maybe not.
“And my mother?”
Lauren's face collapsed.
“I wanted her scared.”
“You pushed her toward a lake.”
“I thought the chair would stop at the lip.”
“You chose the section with no railing.”
“Thomas chose it.”
“What?”
She whispered:
“He gave me the route.”
My uncle had selected the place.
Lauren carried it out.
“Why?”
“Because Rose was supposed to die.”
I stared.
“You just said you wanted her scared.”
“I did.”
“Thomas didn't.”
Exactly.
Lauren thought she was manipulating Mom into assisted living.
Thomas wanted an actual death.
Maybe Lauren realized too late.
Maybe not.
“Why didn't you stop the chair?”
She began shaking.
“I froze.”
“That answer died the first time you used it.”
Then she said:
“Because Colin told me Thomas would kill me if I ruined the plan.”
Cowardice.
Fear.
Greed.
None excused what she did.
I ended the call.
As I stood, Lauren pressed her hand against the glass.
“Andrew.”
I looked back.
“Thomas knows about the backup drive.”
“What backup drive?”
She stared.
Then realized she had said too much.
Inside Keller Medical Systems, someone had been copying financial records.
May you like
Records Thomas was willing to kill for.
And my mother apparently possessed them without knowing.
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