Chapter 6 - THE RED BOOK
Christopher did not deny knowing about the red book.
That frightened me.
We were at his Scottsdale home with Toby asleep upstairs under federal protective monitoring.
I looked at my father across the library.
“What is it?”
“A ledger.”
“Of what?”
“Payments.”
“Yours?”
“Some.”
“Michael’s death?”
Christopher’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
“Then why would Mom say that?”
“Because one payment looks terrible without context.”
He explained.
Three days before Michael died, Christopher paid $75,000 to a private medical clinic.
The same clinic that treated Michael’s cardiac condition.
I stared.
“Why?”
“Michael asked me to.”
“For what?”
“A confidential diagnostic procedure.”
Michael suspected someone had tampered with his medication.
He wanted independent toxicology.
“What did they find?”
Christopher looked toward Nina.
She opened a report.
Michael had elevated levels of a cardiac drug not included in his prescribed regimen.
Not automatically fatal.
But dangerous.
Michael believed Marion had been altering his pills.
My stomach turned.
“Did he go to police?”
“He intended to.”
“Then he died.”
“Yes.”
“Why wasn’t there an autopsy?”
“Marion refused.”
Of course.
The red ledger documented Christopher’s payment to the clinic.
If presented without the medical report, it could make Christopher look like he had secretly paid a doctor shortly before Michael died.
“What else is in the ledger?”
“Frank’s transactions. Marion’s. Mine. Land payments.”
It was the complete financial history of the original Phoenix property deal.
Enough to expose everything.
“Where was it?”
Christopher looked ashamed.
“With your mother.”
“You gave it to her?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“Michael did.”
Why would Michael give evidence to Marion?
He hadn’t.
Nina found an old note.
Michael had hidden the ledger in our childhood home.
After his death, Marion found it.
She kept it as leverage.
Against Christopher.
Against Frank.
Eventually against me.
Then investigators found Chad’s hidden cloud account.
A folder named FAMILY.
Inside were photographs of red ledger pages.
Chad had seen it.
Probably years earlier.
That explained how he knew the land trust clause.
How he knew a fraud conviction would suspend my beneficial interest.
“How long has Chad been planning this?” I asked.
Nina checked file creation dates.
“First photograph uploaded five years ago.”
Five years.
Our son was one.
My marriage had already become an operation.
Then another folder appeared.
TOBY.
I felt sick.
Inside were custody notes.
School records.
Medical files.
And a DNA report.
I stared at the header.
PATERNITY ANALYSIS.
Alleged father:
Chad Hart.
Child:
Toby Hart.
Result:
May you like
EXCLUDED.
Chad was not Toby’s biological father.
