Chương 15
“This is getting official.”
“Yes.”
She dried her hands.
“He asked whether you were home.”
I opened my notes app.
“He asked if I was staying alone.”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“He asked how long you planned to stay.”
My head came up.
“You didn’t mention that.”
“I forgot.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That your rent was none of his business.”
Despite everything, I smiled.
She pointed at the phone.
“Put that down exactly.”
“He asked if you had signed a lease.”
My smile disappeared.
“Why?”
“Didn’t say.”
“Anything else?”
“He wanted your apartment number.”
“You only have one apartment.”
“I know.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That if he couldn’t identify the only stairs on the side of a garage, he had bigger problems.”
I stared at her.
She shrugged.
“He irritated me.”
I documented the time and her recollection.
Then I went back upstairs.
The wine still sat unopened.
I made toast and eggs instead.
The eggs came out rubbery.
I ate them anyway.
At nine twelve, Erica sent the screenshots she had promised.
There were more than I expected.
Months of messages.
Some flirtatious.
Some mundane.
Some painful in ways I did not anticipate.
Curtis complained about me forgetting to buy dry cleaning bags.
He complained that Arthur called him selfish.
He told Erica I had become boring.
She told him he sounded cruel.
He responded with a laughing emoji.
I almost stopped reading.
Then a message from March caught my attention.
C: He asked about Vanessa again.
E: Your dad?
C: Yeah.
E: What did he ask?
C: Whether I’d make sure she was okay.
E: That sounds normal.
C: Not with him.
E: Why?
C: Because he thinks I’m going to screw her over.
I sat very still.
Another message came two days later.
C: Need to know if he’s talking to Greer.
E: Isn’t Greer his lawyer?
C: Exactly.
E: Why don’t you ask your dad?
C: Because then he’ll know I care.
The ugliness of that sentence made me put the phone down.
Because then he’ll know I care.
Not about Arthur.
About the will.
I rubbed both hands over my face.
The phone buzzed again.
Erica.
There’s one thread I almost deleted.
I answered.
Why?
Because he asked me to.
A minute later, screenshots arrived.
The dates were six weeks before Arthur’s final hospitalization.
My stomach tightened immediately.
C: Can you ask Mark about competency challenges?
E: Who is Mark?
C: Your attorney friend.
E: Why?
C: Hypothetically.
E: No.
C: Erica.
E: Don’t drag me into family legal stuff.
C: I just need to know what makes a will change vulnerable.
I read the message twice.
Then the next.
E: Did your dad change his will?
C: I don’t know.
E: Then why are you worried?
C: Because Vanessa was in the room when Greer came over yesterday.
My skin went cold.
I remembered that day.
Samuel had come to the house.
Arthur had asked me to stay during the first few minutes because he was nauseated and wanted help sitting up.
Then Samuel asked for privacy.
I left.
Curtis had not been home.
Or so I thought.
I kept reading.
E: So?
C: She never leaves them alone.
That was a lie.
E: Ask her.
C: She’ll warn Dad.
E: Warn him about what?
C: Me asking.
The thread ended there.
I forwarded everything to Dana.
Then I sent Samuel a message asking if we could speak the next morning.
He replied ten minutes later.
Yes.
Do not discuss estate documents with Curtis.
I set the phone down.
My hands were shaking again.
Not because I had discovered some dramatic secret.
Because the pattern was becoming clearer.
Curtis had been watching.
Not Arthur’s health.
Not the marriage.
The estate.
He had tracked Samuel’s visits.
He had wondered what made a will vulnerable.
He had worried about competency challenges before Arthur signed the codicil.
That meant he had sensed danger.
And if Arthur had known Curtis was watching, then maybe the final clause had not been a speculative test at all.
Maybe Arthur had been responding to something.
I opened his handwritten letter again.
One sentence near the end stopped me.
I hope I was wrong about how badly he hurt you before someone stopped him.
I had read it as fear about the future.
Now it sounded different.
I picked up my phone and called Samuel despite the hour.
He answered on the fourth ring.
“Vanessa?”
“I’m sorry.”
“What happened?”
“Arthur knew more than you told me.”
There was silence.
Not confusion.
Silence.
I stood.
“What did Curtis do before Arthur changed the will?”
Samuel did not answer immediately.
Then he said, “That is not a conversation for the phone.”
My stomach dropped.
“So there is something.”
“Come to my office at eight tomorrow.”
“Samuel.”
“Eight.”
His voice was firmer now.
“And Vanessa?”
“Yes?”
“Bring the screenshots Erica sent you.”
I gripped the phone.
“How do you know about the screenshots?”
Another silence.
Then Samuel said the one thing that frightened me more than any answer.
“Because Arthur was not the only person who suspected Curtis was preparing for his death.”
I did not sleep much.
At seven thirty the next morning, I was already parked outside Samuel’s building with Arthur’s letter in my purse and Erica’s screenshots printed at a copy shop that had opened before dawn.
Samuel let me into his office himself.
He had no coffee waiting this time.
That frightened me more than if he had.
Dana arrived five minutes later, carrying a legal pad and wearing the same red glasses.
I looked from one of them to the other.
“You called her.”
Samuel nodded.
“I did.”
Dana sat beside me.
“Whatever he says, do not interrupt unless you need clarification.”
“That sounds ominous.”
“It is practical.”
May you like
Samuel opened a thin file I had not seen the day before.
“Approximately seven weeks before Arthur’s hospitalization, he called me and asked me to come to the house without informing Curtis.”
