Chapter 7 - REDWOOD GARDENS
Redwood Gardens looked peaceful from the highway.
Stone entrance.
Trimmed hedges.
White columns.
A small fountain.
Nothing about it suggested fear.
That was the point.
Agent Beck entered with a federal warrant at 6:42 a.m.
Claire accompanied investigators as a medical consultant.
Ethan remained at home with Margaret.
Vanessa had been transported to a federal holding facility.
For the first time in months, the house felt quiet.
Margaret sat near the kitchen window.
“You should hate me.”
Ethan looked at her.
“For what?”
“For keeping your father’s secret.”
“I was scared.”
“You were grieving.”
“I still should have told you.”
Ethan sat beside her.
“We can argue about that when this is over.”
Margaret gave him a tired smile.
“Your father would say the same thing.”
Ethan’s phone buzzed.
Claire.
He answered immediately.
“We found the records room.”
Her voice sounded strained.
“What’s in it?”
“Everything.”
Claire stood beneath Redwood Gardens in a windowless basement filled with metal cabinets.
Patients’ names covered thousands of files.
Some had red stickers.
Some blue.
Some black.
The black files belonged to patients with significant financial holdings.
Investigators discovered competency assessments written before the patients had even entered the facility.
Several doctors had signed evaluations on dates they were not working.
Court petitions were prefilled.
Asset transfers were drafted in advance.
In one cabinet, Claire found Margaret Blackwood’s file.
She had never been admitted.
Yet her file already existed.
Claire opened it.
The first page was a proposed intake date.
Friday.
Three days away.
The second page described Margaret as confused, aggressive, and incapable of recognizing family members.
None of it was true.
The third page named Vanessa Blackwood as temporary guardian.
The fourth transferred voting authority over Margaret’s shares.
Claire called Ethan.
“You need to hear this.”
She read the documents.
Ethan stared at his mother.
Margaret looked toward the floor.
“What else?”
Claire hesitated.
“There’s a medical directive.”
Ethan’s chest tightened.
“What directive?”
“It limits hospital transfer.”
“Meaning?”
“If your mother became seriously ill, Redwood could decide whether to send her to a hospital.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Ethan’s voice became cold.
“Who signed it?”
“Judge Wells.”
“Already?”
“Yes.”
Ethan stood.
“The guardianship hearing hadn’t happened.”
“I know.”
“That means the outcome was decided.”
“I know.”
Then Claire noticed another page.
A beneficiary-change request.
She read the name.
Northstar Fiduciary Partners.
Ethan said nothing.
Claire continued searching.
She found nineteen similar files.
All belonging to wealthy residents.
All showing the same pattern.
Competency loss.
Guardianship.
Asset transfers.
Restricted outside contact.
Then the building alarm suddenly sounded.
Red emergency lights flashed.
Claire looked toward the stairwell.
Smoke began curling beneath the records-room door.
Someone had started a fire.
Federal agents shouted upstairs.
Claire grabbed Margaret’s file.
An investigator pushed her toward the exit.
“Leave it.”
“We have enough photographs.”
Claire moved.
Then she heard something.
A weak banging sound.
Not from the hallway.
From behind another metal door.
She stopped.
“Did you hear that?”
The investigator pulled her arm.
“We need to evacuate.”
The banging came again.
Claire ran toward the door.
It was locked.
“Someone’s inside.”
The agent radioed for help.
Smoke thickened.
Another agent arrived with a tool.
The lock broke.
Inside was a tiny storage room.
An elderly man sat in a wheelchair.
His wrists were restrained to the armrests.
Claire rushed toward him.
“Sir, can you hear me?”
His eyes opened.
He looked terrified.
The name on his wristband read SAMUEL DEAN.
Claire knew it instantly.
Samuel Dean was the patient whose daughter she had spoken about.
The man believed dead two years earlier.
Claire stared at him.
“You’re alive.”
Samuel moved his lips.
Barely a whisper emerged.
“They told my daughter I died.”
Claire’s blood ran cold.
Federal agents rushed him toward the exit.
As they reached the parking lot, flames burst through a basement window.
Agent Beck stood beside a black SUV.
“Fire investigators found an ignition device.”
“Who started it?” Claire asked.
Agent Beck looked toward the road.
“Judge Wells entered the property twelve minutes before we arrived.”
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
Claire looked toward Samuel Dean.
Agent Beck followed her gaze.
“If he talks, this case changes.”
Samuel heard her.
He lifted one trembling hand.
“I’ll talk.”
Then he looked directly at Claire.
“But you need to protect Ethan Blackwood.”
Claire frowned.
“Why?”
Samuel’s eyes filled with fear.
“Because Vincent wasn’t trying to steal his company.”
May you like
“He was trying to hand it to Eleanor.”
“And Eleanor doesn’t leave owners alive.”
