Chapter 4
Julian asked for a lawyer twelve minutes after admitting that Renata had blackmailed him.
Detective Park stopped the interview immediately.
Grant did not.
The moment Park turned off her recorder, Grant stepped toward his brother.
"What did she have on you?"
Julian stared at him.
"My attorney will be here soon."
"I'm not a cop."
"No. You're worse right now."
Grant's face tightened.
Julian leaned back against the hospital wall.
"You think I don't know what this looks like?"
"I think my wife is dead."
"So do I."
"And you lied for two years."
Julian looked toward Lily's room.
His voice dropped.
"I was ashamed."
Grant laughed bitterly.
"That's convenient."
"Do you think I wanted any of this?"
"I don't know what you wanted because apparently I haven't known you for years."
Detective Park stepped between them.
"Enough."
Grant looked at her.
"You heard him."
"I did."
"He admitted paying Renata."
"He admitted foundation money went to her. We still need documentation, intent, dates, and the reason."
Julian's eyes shifted.
Park noticed.
"Your lawyer can join us downtown."
Julian stood.
"Am I under arrest?"
"Not at this moment."
"Then I'm going home."
Park nodded.
"You're free to."
Grant stared at her in disbelief.
She ignored him.
Julian walked toward the elevator.
Before the doors closed, he looked at Grant.
"I didn't kill Alex."
Grant said nothing.
Julian's voice cracked for the first time.
"I loved her too."
The elevator doors closed.
Grant turned on Park.
"You're letting him walk."
"I'm letting him think he can."
That stopped him.
Park took out her phone.
"Two officers are following him. If he leads us to evidence, a person, or a location, that's more useful than a shouting match in a hospital."
Grant's anger did not disappear, but it became focused.
"Renata."
"Possibly."
Emma approached from Lily's room.
"She fell asleep."
Grant immediately looked through the doorway.
Lily was curled on her side beneath a hospital blanket, one hand tucked under her cheek.
Emma lowered her voice.
"She asked me to keep the light on."
Grant nodded.
"It stays on."
He looked exhausted now.
Older.
Emma remembered the man Renata had described when she first hired Emma almost a year earlier.
Grant is brilliant, but useless with feelings.
Grant doesn't notice domestic details.
Grant needs people who can manage him.
At the time, Emma had thought Renata was teasing.
Now she wondered how many descriptions had really been instructions.
How many people in the Callahan house had been taught what not to bring to Grant.
The next morning, police searched the current Callahan residence with a warrant.
Grant did not object.
He gave them every key.
Every access code.
Every device he owned.
Emma returned only long enough to identify the household areas Renata used most often.
The bathroom where she had found Lily was sealed for evidence.
The straightener lay inside a clear bag.
So did a ceramic cup from Lily's room.
Detective Park met Emma near the staff corridor.
"Show me where you keep your things."
Emma led her to a small employee locker room beside the laundry.
There were six lockers.
Hers was number four.
She opened it.
A bottle fell out.
It struck the tile and rolled.
Emma stared.
She had never seen it before.
Detective Park stopped her from touching it.
The label carried Emma's name.
Her full name.
EMMA MARIA TORRES.
The medication name matched the one detected in Lily's blood.
Emma's face went numb.
"No."
Park put on gloves.
"You've never seen this?"
"No."
"Is this locker locked?"
"Usually."
"Who has keys?"
"House management. Renata. Security."
Emma looked at the bottle again.
"My name is on it."
"I see that."
"I don't take this."
Park examined the pharmacy label without opening the bottle.
The dispensing location was a clinic across town.
The prescribing physician was Dr. Howard Pike.
Emma shook her head.
"I don't know him."
Park photographed the bottle.
"This could be very important."
Emma's voice rose.
"Important? It makes it look like I drugged her."
"It looks like someone wants us to consider that."
"You're considering it."
"I'm considering everything."
Emma stepped back.
Her hands began to shake.
"Renata said she'd destroy my job."
Park's expression softened.
"Emma, listen to me. A suspicious bottle discovered in an accessible staff locker is not proof that you administered anything to Lily."
"What if she made it look real?"
"Then we'll find where the prescription came from."
Emma thought of the threatening messages.
Her mother's hospital.
Her insurance.
Every weak point in her life that Renata seemed to know.
"She planned this."
"Maybe."
"No. She planned me."
Park looked at her carefully.
"Explain."
"Renata hired me."
That had not seemed important until now.
The Callahan family had used an agency, but Renata had conducted the final interviews.
She had asked Emma about her mother.
Her financial responsibilities.
Why she had left her previous job.
At the time, Emma had believed the questions were about reliability.
"What if she hired me because I was easy to control?"
Park wrote something down.
"That's a question worth asking."
Upstairs, another team searched Renata's bedroom.
Grant refused to call it their bedroom anymore.
He had slept there beside her for eight months.
Had proposed there.
Had once woken at two in the morning and found her staring at the ceiling. When he'd asked what was wrong, she had said she was afraid she could never live up to Alexandra.
He had held her.
Assured her she didn't need to.
Now he watched officers open the drawers where her clothes still sat folded with perfect precision.
An officer lifted a jewelry case.
Inside were earrings, watches, bracelets.
And a small keycard.
Detective Park examined it.
"Hotel?"
Grant looked closer.
"Bellweather."
The Bellweather Hotel was downtown.
He and Renata had attended a charity dinner there three months earlier.
Park handed the card to another detective.
"Check access records."
A second officer called from the closet.
"Detective."
Behind a row of garment bags, they found a locked metal document case.
Grant did not recognize it.
Police opened it under the warrant.
Inside were copies of medical records.
Alexandra's.
Lily's.
Emma's mother, Rosa Torres.
Emma stared at the name.
"Why does she have my mother's records?"
Park's face hardened.
The file included insurance summaries and appointment dates.
Someone had accessed private information.
There were also photographs.
Emma leaving St. Vincent's with her mother.
Lily walking into school.
Grant outside his office.
Julian getting into his car.
Dozens of images.
Grant picked up one before Park stopped him.
It showed Alexandra.
Alive.
Leaving a pharmacy three days before her death.
On the back, in Renata's handwriting, were two words.
Not enough.
Grant looked at Park.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
The next folder contained financial statements for the Callahan Family Foundation.
Highlighted transfers.
Marrow Consulting.
Smaller payments routed through charities and vendors.
At the bottom was a handwritten total.
$3,460,000.
Emma whispered, "She kept records."
Grant stared at the number.
"Why?"
Park answered.
"Insurance. Leverage. Pride. We don't know."
An officer appeared at the door.
"Detective, we have the Bellweather access history."
Park took the printout.
Renata's card had opened Room 1108 six times in the past two months.
The room was not registered to Renata Cole.
It was registered to Marrow Consulting.
Grant's eyes narrowed.
"Get a warrant."
Park was already making the call.
It took nearly three hours.
By then Lily had been discharged into Grant's custody under a safety plan that barred Renata from contact.
Grant refused to return to the main house.
He took Lily to a smaller guesthouse on the estate with Emma, two security officers, and a child advocate.
Emma wanted to go home.
Part of her desperately wanted her own bed and her mother.
But Lily would not release her hand.
Grant stood awkwardly near the guesthouse kitchen.
"You don't have to stay."
Emma looked at him.
"I know."
"I can arrange someone else."
"I know."
"Your mother—"
"She's with my sister tonight."
Grant nodded.
Then he said, "I'm sorry about your insurance."
Emma almost laughed.
"My insurance is still active."
"I mean that Renata used it against you."
Emma looked toward Lily, who was sitting at the table coloring.
"She used everything."
Grant followed her gaze.
"Not anymore."
The certainty in his voice frightened Emma more than comforted her.
Because men like Grant were used to fixing things with money, lawyers, and decisions.
This would not be fixed that way.
That evening, Detective Park called.
They had entered the Bellweather room.
No Renata.
But the room contained a printer, two prepaid phones, clothing, cash, and a laptop.
There was also a trash bin filled with partially burned papers.
One fragment had survived.
Grant drove downtown to see it.
Park placed the evidence photograph on a screen.
It was part of a legal document.
Only five lines were readable.
...upon marriage to Grant Callahan...
...trustee authority...
...Lily Alexandra Callahan...
...incapacity of surviving parent...
...Renata Cole Callahan...
Grant stared.
"That's impossible."
"What?"
"Renata told me she didn't care about a prenup. She signed one."
Park looked at him.
"This appears to concern a trust, not marital property."
Grant's stomach turned.
Alexandra had established a trust for Lily.
Grant was trustee while he was alive and competent.
If Grant became unable to serve, the successor trustee named in the original document was Julian.
Renata's name had never been part of it.
Unless someone had prepared an amendment.
Park asked, "Who is your estate attorney?"
"Charles Wynn."
"Who else has access to those documents?"
"Julian. Maybe my CFO. Renata knew Charles."
Park's phone rang.
She listened for less than a minute.
Then her eyes lifted to Grant.
"We traced the prescription bottle found in Emma's locker."
Emma, standing nearby, went still.
Park continued.
"The prescription is fraudulent. Dr. Pike died eleven months ago. The clinic's system was breached three weeks ago."
Grant exhaled.
"So Emma was framed."
"It strongly suggests that."
"And Renata?"
"The IP trail isn't complete."
Park's phone vibrated again.
This time it was the surveillance team following Julian.
She answered.
Then grabbed her coat.
"What?"
Park looked at Grant.
"Your brother didn't go home."
"Where did he go?"
"The Bellweather Hotel."
Grant stared.
Park continued.
"He entered through the parking garage twenty minutes ago."
"Renata's room?"
"We don't know yet."
Grant's phone lit up with an incoming call.
Julian.
Everyone froze.
Park motioned for him to answer and put it on speaker.
Grant did.
"Julian?"
His brother was breathing hard.
"Grant, listen to me."
"Where are you?"
"I made mistakes."
Park signaled an officer to trace the call.
Julian continued.
"I thought I could control her."
"Renata?"
"She has copies of everything."
"Where are you?"
"Don't trust the trust amendment."
Grant looked at Park.
"Why?"
"Because your signature is on it."
Grant felt cold.
"I never signed one."
"I know."
A crash sounded through the phone.
Julian gasped.
May you like
Then whispered, "She's here."
The call ended.
