Chapter 9 - WHAT HE TOOK FROM MY SAFE
The safe was still locked when police reached the lake house.
That was the good news.
The bad news was that someone had opened it before.
Digital logs recorded an entry eleven weeks earlier.
At 2:14 a.m.
Using my backup code.
I had never given Ben that code.
But my father had known it.
Dad sat in the hospital family room with his head in his hands.
“I wrote it down once.”
“Where?”
“In my office.”
“Was Ben ever there?”
Dad looked at Lauren.
She answered.
“Hundreds of times.”
Inside the safe, nothing obvious was missing.
The old will remained.
Property deeds remained.
Jewelry remained.
But Julian knew my records better than I did.
After reviewing the contents, he looked at me.
“Your MedAxis acquisition binder is gone.”
My stomach tightened.
The sale of my medical software company had made me wealthy.
The binder contained transaction records, tax elections, stock-transfer documents, and copies of several confidential side agreements.
“Why would Ben want that?”
Julian did not answer immediately.
Then he asked:
“Did MedAxis retain any deferred payments?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“About twelve million over five years.”
“When is the next payment?”
I thought.
Then understood.
“Next month.”
Lauren stared.
“You still get twelve million dollars?”
“Not at once.”
Julian opened his laptop.
“The deferred payment beneficiary is Miranda personally.”
“So?”
“So if she dies before full distribution, the remaining amount follows the estate instructions in the original sale agreement.”
I looked at him.
“My old estate instructions.”
He nodded.
Before that week, my parents had been the primary beneficiaries.
Which meant Ben did not just know about my will.
He knew exactly when another large payment was coming.
Detective Hale entered.
“We found the truck driver.”
Everyone stood.
“Where?”
“A motel outside Newark.”
“Is he alive?”
“Yes.”
My shoulders dropped.
The detective continued.
“And he’s talking.”
The driver admitted someone paid him to delay my trip by causing a minor collision.
Not kill me.
Just hit the rear quarter of my car at low speed.
But the brakes on his truck failed unexpectedly, turning a staged crash into a near-fatal one.
“Who hired him?” I asked.
Detective Hale placed a photograph on the table.
Ben.
Lauren started sobbing.
But the detective wasn’t finished.
“The driver says Ben told him Miranda needed to miss a meeting.”
“What meeting?”
I looked at Julian.
He looked equally confused.
Then he checked my calendar.
The day of the crash, I had been scheduled to meet someone at 4:00 p.m.
Not a banker.
Not an investor.
A former MedAxis engineer named Ethan Cole.
Julian frowned.
“Why were you meeting him?”
I remembered.
Ethan had emailed me saying he discovered something in the old acquisition records.
Something he refused to send electronically.
May you like
Something he said could affect my family.
And suddenly my accident had a second possible motive.
