Chapter 13 - THE LAST PERSON I SUSPECTED
We changed hospitals.
No public record.
Private security.
Only five people knew the new location.
Irene.
Me.
Marcus.
Ruiz.
And my executive assistant, Natalie.
Natalie had worked for me eleven years.
She remembered my coffee order, my investors’ birthdays, and every password reset I had ever forgotten.
She had cried when Dad died.
She organized my wedding.
She bought Irene’s baby shower gift.
I trusted her.
Which should have warned me by then.
Ruiz asked for a list of everyone with access to my travel plans.
Natalie was at the top.
She knew I was flying to London.
She knew the hotel.
She knew the duration.
She knew the exact window when Mom and Carla believed I’d be away.
I called her from the hospital.
“Austin! Oh my God. I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Where are you?”
“Office.”
“Stay there.”
Pause.
“Why?”
“Police need to ask some questions.”
Another pause.
Longer.
“About what?”
“My canceled flight.”
She hung up.
Ruiz immediately called officers.
By the time they reached my office, Natalie was gone.
Her computer had been wiped.
Her phone was in a desk drawer.
But she made one mistake.
The parking garage camera caught her entering a black Mercedes.
Registered to Charles Fenwick.
I felt stupid.
Again.
Marcus didn’t bother comforting me.
“Did Natalie have access to trust records?”
“Yes.”
“Travel?”
“Yes.”
“Board documents?”
“Yes.”
“Your signature samples?”
“Everything.”
He nodded.
“There’s your inside source.”
The conspiracy became clear.
Fenwick managed the financial theft.
Mom benefited.
Carla helped with documents.
Creighton built the incompetency story.
Drew handled surveillance and intimidation.
Natalie fed them my schedule and corporate access.
Every part had a purpose.
Except one.
“What did Natalie get?”
Ruiz answered.
“We found a shell company paying her.”
“How much?”
“Nearly nine hundred thousand over four years.”
I stared through the window.
“Cheap.”
Marcus looked at me.
“For betraying you?”
“For helping destroy my family.”
That night, police tracked Fenwick’s Mercedes through highway cameras.
North toward Nevada.
Then west.
The signal disappeared near Kingman.
Natalie’s credit card was used at a gas station.
Security footage showed her alone.
She looked terrified.
She bought water, a burner phone, and bandages.
Ruiz zoomed in.
There was blood on Natalie’s sleeve.
“Maybe Fenwick is injured,” I said.
“Or Natalie is.”
Ten minutes later, the burner phone activated.
It called me.
I answered.
Natalie whispered, “Austin?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Where are you?”
“I didn’t know he’d hurt Irene.”
My jaw clenched.
“You knew enough.”
“I thought it was financial.”
“You helped forge papers declaring me incompetent.”
“I know.”
“You gave them my schedule.”
“I know.”
“You helped drug my wife.”
“No!”
Her voice cracked.
“I never knew about the drugs.”
“Then tell me where Fenwick is.”
Silence.
“Natalie.”
“He’s gone crazy.”
“Where?”
“He says everyone betrayed him.”
“Where is he?”
She started breathing faster.
“There’s an old mining property near Oatman.”
Ruiz was already writing.
Natalie whispered, “Austin, he has Margaret.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He took your mother from the hospital.”
“That’s impossible.”
“He had help.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Then I heard a man’s voice in the background.
Natalie gasped.
The call ended.
Police raced toward Oatman.
Twenty-three minutes later, Ruiz received another message.
A video.
Fenwick stood inside a dark building.
My mother was tied to a chair behind him.
Natalie was on the floor.
Fenwick looked directly into the camera.
“Austin, bring the original trust evidence.”
He smiled.
“Or you lose the last family you have left.”
I stared at the screen.
My mother had abused my wife.
Stolen from me.
Possibly helped kill my father.
And yet Fenwick was right about one thing.
May you like
She was still my mother.
The question was whether saving her would destroy everyone else.
