Chapter 4 - Behind the Furnace
The nurses pushed me out while Dad’s heart rate jumped.
Natalie hurried toward me.
“What happened?”
“He got agitated.”
“What did he say?”
I looked at her.
“Nothing I understood.”
For the first time in eight years of marriage, I lied to my wife without feeling guilty.
I hated how easy it felt.
Priya was still downstairs. I found her near the coffee kiosk and told her about the blue folder.
“Do not go alone,” she said.
“It’s my father’s house.”
“That is exactly why you should not go alone. If somebody accessed sealed records, forged filings, or entered his home, we need to preserve whatever is there.”
“Forged filings?”
She studied me.
“I was going to wait until your father was stable.”
“Don’t.”
Priya pulled a page from her folder.
It was a notarized disclaimer of beneficial interest.
My name appeared at the bottom.
Grant A. Mercer.
The signature looked like mine.
It wasn’t.
“What the hell is this?”
“Filed six months ago. It states that you disclaim any claim to the Bennett trust property in exchange for one dollar and other consideration.”
“I’ve never seen this.”
“I believe you.”
“Who gets the property?”
“A holding company called Ashford Renewal Partners.”
“Who owns that?”
“We’re still tracing it.”
I looked toward the ICU elevators.
Natalie was gone.
My stomach tightened.
I called her.
No answer.
Again.
No answer.
I drove to Dad’s small brick house with Priya following behind me.
His truck was gone.
The front door was closed, but the deadbolt was unlocked.
Dad always locked that door.
Always.
I pushed inside.
“Dad?”
The house smelled like dust, coffee, and the cedar blocks he kept in every closet.
Nothing seemed disturbed until we reached the basement.
The metal door to the furnace closet hung open.
I felt cold all over.
Behind the furnace was an old wooden shelf.
On it sat an empty space in the dust shaped exactly like a legal-size folder.
Priya crouched.
“Someone removed something recently.”
I noticed a torn piece of blue cardboard near the wall.
Then I heard a floorboard creak upstairs.
I held up a hand.
Priya froze.
Another creak.
I moved toward the stairs.
“Who’s there?”
No answer.
I reached the kitchen just in time to see the back door swing shut.
I ran outside.
A silver SUV was pulling away from the curb.
I knew that car.
I had made the last three payments on it.
May you like
Natalie was behind the wheel.
