Chapter 13 - The Woman in Gray
I remembered the funeral in fragments.
Rain against black umbrellas.
Daniel refusing to enter the chapel until Dadâs favorite song stopped playing.
Mom greeting people at the door.
A woman in a gray coat.
She had hugged Mom for a long time.
I assumed she was someone from the hospital.
Now Marcus showed us a photograph.
Evelyn Price.
Same woman.
Same gray eyes.
Same controlled smile.
She had stood ten feet from Daniel.
She had watched us bury our father.
Evelyn owned Meridian Haven, a network of private assisted-living facilities operating in five states.
Her public reputation was flawless.
Charity boards.
Hospital donations.
Awards.
Interviews about compassionate care.
But Dadâs green drive connected multiple suspicious deaths to facilities she controlled.
Federal agents quietly obtained warrants.
What they found was terrifying.
Patients had been declared incompetent using nearly identical psychological reports.
Several lost control of trusts or estates.
Money moved into management accounts.
Some patients died within months.
Others disappeared into long-term facilities and stopped receiving visitors.
Northbridge was only one piece of the system.
The following afternoon, Daniel received an email.
No sender name.
Just an attachment.
A photograph.
It showed me leaving the courthouse that morning.
The message beneath it contained one sentence.
YOUR FATHER SHOULD HAVE STOPPED LOOKING.
Daniel began shaking.
Harper moved us to a protected location.
Nobody outside law enforcement knew where.
Or so we thought.
That night, the fire alarm sounded at 2:06 a.m.
Harper opened our room door.
Smoke filled the hallway.
âMove.â
Daniel froze.
The alarm was too loud.
Red lights flashed.
His hands covered his ears.
I grabbed his tablet and headphones.
Harper pulled us toward the emergency stairwell.
Then a man stepped out of the smoke.
He wore a firefighter jacket.
But Harper saw the gun.
She shoved Daniel behind the concrete wall.
The first shot hit the railing.
Harper fired back.
The man disappeared into the smoke.
We ran downward.
Three floors.
Four.
Five.
At the lobby, federal agents surrounded us.
The building had not been on fire.
Someone had triggered the alarm.
The man posing as a firefighter escaped through a service exit.
But he left something behind.
A phone.
On it was a recent message from a contact saved only as E.
Take the tablet.
No unnecessary deaths.
Daniel stared at the words.
Then he typed.
âShe wants Dad.â
I understood.
Not Dad himself.
Dadâs evidence.
May you like
Everything Danielâs tablet had preserved.
Everything that could destroy Evelyn Price.
