Chapter 6: The People Douglas Never Expected
Helen called the officer who had served the order.
I called Douglas.
“Put Bruce on the phone.”
“He’s asleep.”
“I heard you questioning him.”
“You heard a father talking to his son.”
“You told him he couldn’t leave.”
Douglas’s voice hardened.
“Come near this house and I’ll have you arrested.”
A knock sounded behind me.
Douglas’s best man, Colin, stood on the porch holding a laptop.
“I heard the recording at the church,” he said.
“You need to see what Douglas sent me.”
Helen let him inside.
“Why help us now?” I asked.
“Because I thought he was marrying you for your money.
I didn’t know the money belonged to Bruce.”
He opened a folder of messages.
One from Douglas read: **Once we’re married, I’ll have standing as Bruce’s father and access through her as trustee.
Six months, then I’m out.**
My hand covered my mouth.
Colin looked away.
“He asked me to take the brass key from Bruce’s jacket before the ceremony.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“The boy wouldn’t let me touch the ring box.”
Helen photographed every message.
“Will you testify?”
“If it gets Bruce away from him, yes.”
Another knock came.
An older woman stood outside gripping a grocery bag.
Douglas had introduced her to me once as his widowed aunt.
She looked at Colin.
“Is he here?”
“No, Evelyn,” Colin said.
She stepped inside and faced me.
“I’m Douglas’s mother.”
“He said his mother was de@d.”
“He tells people that when I refuse to clean up his messes.”
Evelyn took a notary stamp, a ledger, and an old phone from the bag.
“He used my stamp on those trust forms.
When I confronted him, he said you had approved everything.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because he threatened to stop paying for my assisted-living apartment.
I was ashamed.”
She placed the ledger in my hands.
“I moved out this morning.
He can keep his money.”
The entries matched every transfer from Bruce’s trust.
Beside each amount, Douglas had written a date and a destination.
“What is Northstar Holdings?” Helen asked.
“His private account,” Evelyn said.
“He renamed it after the bank questioned Mercer Family Consulting.”
My phone rang.
Douglas.
“You’ve been busy,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“Because my mother just emptied her room.”
Evelyn took the phone.
“You lied to me about that child.”
“I paid your rent.”
“You paid it with his money.”
“Give me the ledger.”
“No.”
“I’ll tell the court you helped me.”
Evelyn’s chin trembled, but she did not lower the phone.
“Then I’ll tell the court exactly when you forged my stamp.”
Douglas went silent.
Helen leaned close to the speaker.
“We’re filing to dissolve the emergency order.”
“You’re too late,” Douglas said.
“I found what Judy hid.”
A sharp cry came through the phone.
“Bruce?” I shouted.
The line disconnected.
Seconds later, Bruce’s watch sent a photograph.
It showed Douglas’s hand holding a small silver key—and behind it, an open floorboard beneath Bruce’s bed.
