Chapter 18 - The Last Agreement
Matthew closed his eyes.
The detective pointed at the phone and mouthed, Keep talking.
“What agreement?” Matthew asked.
Jessica laughed.
“Don't do that. You know exactly what I'm talking about.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
Silence.
Then her voice became colder.
“The sale.”
My stomach tightened.
“What sale?” he asked.
“The house after she went into care. You agreed we'd list it immediately, challenge the trustee, and use the first distribution to pay Pike's lender.”
Matthew leaned against the storage-unit wall.
“I never agreed to sell it without her consent.”
“Oh, please. You signed the preliminary listing authorization.”
The detective's eyebrows rose.
Matthew looked sick.
“That paper was blank when I signed it.”
Jessica laughed again.
“Then maybe stop signing blank papers.”
The line disconnected.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Dana turned to Matthew. “Did you sign a blank form?”
He nodded.
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I said, “Why?”
“I thought it was for the assisted-living tour.”
“You thought wrong a lot.”
The laptop was taken as evidence. So were the documents.
Within two days, investigators found scanned copies of my signature, draft letters to banks, edited versions of Dr. Cole's notes, and emails between Jessica and Leonard Pike discussing “creating a persuasive incapacity record.”
Pike claimed he had never approved that language and had only provided general legal information. His bar complaint would become a separate matter.
More important to me, police found messages showing Jessica had purchased the medication found in my bottle using an old prescription from her own treatment history.
The case was no longer about a family argument.
It had become fraud, attempted financial exploitation, evidence tampering, and possible medication-related assault.
Jessica was arrested two counties away after using one of the stolen credit cards connected to the loan money.
When the detective called, I sat at my kitchen table and felt nothing at first.
Then Matthew said, “It's over.”
I looked at him.
“No.”
He seemed startled.
“The crime may be over. The damage isn't.”
He nodded slowly.
That afternoon, Evelyn brought me a final document recovered from Jessica's laptop.
A spreadsheet.
One column listed estimated assets.
One listed debts.
One listed people.
Beside my name was a number.
Beside Matthew's name were two words.
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