Chapter 9 - Grandma Rose
“No.”
Gabriel said it before I could.
Richard remained silent.
Daniel stepped toward him.
“Look at me.”
Richard didn't.
“Did you have anything to do with Rose's death?”
“No.”
Too fast.
Gabriel moved.
I grabbed his arm.
“Not here.”
Peter laughed as police took him away.
“You people really don't know your own family.”
Richard was arrested for financial crimes.
Adrian was arrested again for violating bail conditions, witness intimidation, and involvement in Vanessa's abduction.
Peter faced charges of his own.
Yet all I could think about was Grandma.
Rose Mercer.
The woman who taught me how to drive.
How to negotiate.
How to recognize a liar.
She had died fourteen months after my wedding.
I remembered Richard attending the funeral.
He had hugged me.
Told me Grandma was proud.
I suddenly wanted to tear my own memory apart.
Daniel contacted an investigator.
The medical records were reopened.
Luke searched old correspondence.
Noah traced payments.
Then we found something.
Three days before Grandma's death, Richard transferred $180,000 to a physician named Dr. Warren Bell.
Bell had signed Grandma's death certificate.
Gabriel wanted him arrested immediately.
Daniel stopped him.
“A payment proves nothing.”
“It proves enough.”
“No. It proves we ask questions.”
Dr. Bell had retired to Florida.
Investigators located him that afternoon.
He initially refused to speak.
Then Daniel sent him copies of the bank transfer.
Two hours later, Bell called back.
He wanted immunity.
That told us almost everything.
We listened from a conference room while the investigator interviewed him.
Bell's voice shook.
“Mrs. Mercer had been reviewing financial records.”
“What happened?”
“She discovered unauthorized documents.”
“Created by Richard Cole?”
“Yes.”
“What did he ask you to do?”
A pause.
“He didn't ask me to kill her.”
Gabriel clenched his fists.
“What did he ask?”
“To adjust her medication.”
I stopped breathing.
Bell continued.
“Rose had severe hypertension. Richard knew that.”
“What medication?”
Bell named it.
“What happened after you changed the dosage?”
“She suffered a stroke.”
My vision blurred.
“Did Richard expect that?”
“I don't know.”
“Did you?”
Silence.
Then Bell whispered, “I knew it was possible.”
I stood and left the room.
Gabriel found me in the hallway.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
“I should have been there,” I whispered.
“You were twenty-two.”
“I was on my honeymoon.”
“You didn't know.”
“Richard did.”
Gabriel's eyes filled.
I had only seen my eldest brother cry twice.
At Mom's funeral.
At Dad's.
“This wasn't your fault.”
I looked at him.
“I brought the Coles into our family.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“Rose invested before you married Adrian. Richard was already in our lives.”
That was true.
But grief doesn't care about logic.
That evening, prosecutors moved toward conspiracy charges.
Richard's attorneys began negotiating.
Then a message arrived from Adrian in jail.
He wanted to speak to me.
Alone.
I almost refused.
Then his lawyer delivered the reason.
Adrian claimed he had evidence proving Richard hadn't acted alone.
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And according to him, the second person involved was one of my brothers.
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