Chapter 10 - THE SIGNATURE
The forged insurance policy transformed the investigation.
The document had been prepared by an agent connected to Diane’s charitable foundation.
The agent claimed Jason personally delivered the paperwork.
Jason denied it.
He said Diane had asked him for a sample of my signature to update estate documents.
“What estate documents?” Eleanor asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You gave your mother a sample of your wife’s signature without asking why?”
Jason rubbed his forehead.
“She handled our financial planning.”
“She stole eighty thousand dollars from Emily.”
“I didn’t know the total.”
“You knew she was transferring money.”
“I knew about some of it.”
The room became still.
I looked at him.
“How much?”
“Twenty thousand.”
“You told me our investment account lost value.”
“I was going to replace it.”
“With what?”
“My bonus.”
“You didn’t receive a bonus.”
“I expected one.”
“You lied.”
“I was scared.”
“Of me?”
“Of Mom.”
I stood.
“No.”
“You were afraid your mother would be angry.”
“You were never afraid of what your lies would do to me.”
Jason began crying again.
His tears no longer moved me.
The insurance investigator determined that someone had accessed my private health information to complete the application.
The policy listed medication I had taken after Lily’s birth.
Only Diane’s files and my former clinic contained that information.
Detective Bell asked whether anyone had ever tried to harm me physically.
I remembered a winter night six months earlier.
I had become violently ill after dinner at Diane’s condo.
Jason insisted I was exhausted.
Diane told me to sleep in the guest room rather than go to the hospital.
I woke fourteen hours later with no memory of the night.
At the time, I blamed wine.
I had consumed half a glass.
Bell requested my old medical records.
The next day, he found an emergency blood test ordered by a doctor I did not remember seeing.
The results showed a powerful sedative in my system.
The amount was far beyond a normal prescription dose.
“Why wasn’t this reported?” I asked.
“The clinic noted that your husband said you accidentally doubled your medication.”
“I wasn’t taking that medication.”
Bell’s face hardened.
“Then someone lied.”
Jason claimed he remembered nothing about the test.
Diane’s former housekeeper remembered everything.
Rosa stated that she found me unconscious in the guest room and demanded Jason call for medical help.
She also remembered seeing Diane rinse a small glass vial in the kitchen sink.
When Rosa questioned her, Diane threatened to have her deported.
Rosa had legal residency.
The threat worked anyway.
Fear rarely needed facts.
It only needed authority.
The prosecutor expanded the investigation.
Jason was no longer merely a witness.
He became a potential accomplice.
After learning this, he called me from a number I did not recognize.
I almost ended the call.
Then he said, “My mother tried to kill you.”
My entire body went cold.
“What did you say?”
“I found something in her desk.”
“What?”
“A letter.”
“To whom?”
“Her insurance agent.”
May you like
His voice broke.
“She wrote that she needed the policy active before your next anniversary.”
