Chapter 4 - DR. PRICE HAD ALREADY WRITTEN THE REPORT
Naomi called a forensic medical-record attorney.
Within an hour, we had enough information to become frightened.
Dr. Samuel Price had drafted a letter.
Not signed yet.
But drafted.
Rachel Lawson demonstrates increasing anxiety, paranoid financial ideation, insomnia, and impaired judgment.
I stared at the words.
“Paranoid financial ideation?”
Naomi almost smiled.
“You questioned unusual financial activity.”
“So they call that paranoia.”
“Yes.”
“What impaired judgment?”
“Apparently taking an unscheduled day off last month.”
I laughed bitterly.
“My son had the flu.”
“Facts are flexible when someone writes the conclusion first.”
Then we found another attachment.
A statement from Michael.
He described me checking bank balances “compulsively.”
He described me refusing to delegate.
He described emotional outbursts.
I had never seen it.
Then another statement.
From Michael’s mother.
Margaret Lawson.
My mother-in-law.
Rachel has become increasingly distrustful and controlling since inheriting her father’s controlling interest.
I stopped.
“Margaret is involved.”
Naomi said nothing.
I remembered Sunday dinners.
Margaret telling me Michael deserved more authority because “a husband should not feel like an employee in his own marriage.”
Margaret asking why my father left the company shares only to me.
Margaret joking that the Lawson name had been “built around Michael now.”
But Lawson was my maiden name.
Michael had taken it professionally after we married because the company name opened doors.
I had thought it was romantic.
Maybe he had thought it was useful.
Naomi asked.
“Who knows about your Lake Geneva trip?”
“Michael.”
“Margaret.”
“Vanessa.”
“My assistant.”
“Cancel it?”
“No.”
I looked at her.
“If we cancel, he knows Daniel told me.”
Naomi studied me.
“You want him to proceed.”
“Yes.”
“That creates risk.”
“I know.”
“What if he changes the plan?”
“Then we need to see the change.”
She was silent.
Then nodded.
“We do this with law enforcement.”
I looked at her.
“Already?”
“Rachel, your husband is discussing forged incapacity documents and moving millions of dollars.”
“We are past marriage counseling.”
By noon, a financial crimes detective had Daniel’s recording.
Detective Luis Ramirez listened without interruption.
Then he looked at me.
“Does your husband know his son recorded this?”
“No.”
“Keep it that way.”
I nodded.
Ramirez asked.
“Are you willing to leave Friday exactly as planned?”
My stomach tightened.
“Yes.”
“Then we let Michael believe the clock starts when you walk out.”
I looked at Daniel’s watch lying on the table.
Three days.
May you like
Michael believed those three days belonged to him.
We were about to find out what he planned to do with every hour.
