Chapter 6 - The Missing Codicil
My father died in a car crash twelve years earlier.
Officially, the weather caused it.
Heavy rain. A slick bridge. Too much speed.
I had accepted that because grief makes simple answers attractive.
Now I was staring at his handwriting and wondering how many simple answers had been purchased for me.
"Who witnessed the codicil?" I asked.
Mother rubbed her forehead.
"A private attorney named Samuel Price and Father's longtime secretary, June Mercer."
"Where are they?"
"Price died five years ago. June disappeared after Henry's funeral."
Clara sat beside Mother.
"Disappeared how?"
"Resigned. Moved. No forwarding address."
I called Leo.
"Find June Mercer."
"How far back?"
"Twelve years. Start now."
Then I called the general counsel for Hale Meridian and requested every trust amendment filed in the thirty days before my father's death.
The answer came within an hour.
Nothing.
No codicil.
No draft.
No billing record from Samuel Price.
Marcus had been trustee then.
Marcus was trustee now.
By evening, Mother was exhausted. Clara helped her upstairs.
I stayed in the office reading old board minutes until the words blurred.
At nine forty, Leo called.
"We found June."
I sat up.
"Where?"
"Vermont. Small town outside Montpelier. Lives under her married name now."
"Call her."
"Already did."
"And?"
A pause.
"She hung up when I said your name."
That told me enough.
"We're going tomorrow."
A sound came from the hall.
Glass.
Then Clara shouted.
I ran.
Mother was on the floor outside her bedroom.
Her wheelchair had tipped sideways.
Clara knelt beside her, shaking.
"Don't move her."
Mother's breathing was shallow.
A medication bottle rolled beneath the console table.
The private nurse came running.
She looked at the label and went pale.
"This isn't her prescription."
I grabbed the bottle.
Same pharmacy label. Same patient name.
Different dosage.
Nearly four times stronger.
Clara looked at me.
"She took one twenty minutes ago."
The nurse reached for her emergency kit.
"Call an ambulance. Now."
As I dialed, I noticed something on the floor beside Mother's hand.
A small strip of black plastic.
I picked it up.
May you like
It was part of a tamper seal.
Someone had opened Mother's medication before she ever touched it.
