Chapter 7 - THE LAWYER WHO WROTE THE TEST
Samuel Avery had represented Grandma for twenty-two years.
He helped create the victims trust.
He drafted the five-million-dollar checks.
He coordinated her medical evaluations and preserved Grandpa’s confession.
We believed he was protecting her.
In reality, he had been waiting.
Bank records showed Avery transferred forty million dollars into a network of international accounts minutes before Richard’s arrest.
He also copied information identifying victims and beneficiaries.
“He cannot access the central trust,” David explained. “But he can steal from the liquid reserve.”
“Why would he wait until now?” I asked.
Grandma looked devastated.
“Because Richard kept him frightened.”
Attorney Avery had served both sides.
He helped Grandma hide assets while secretly informing Richard of legal changes. He delayed investigations, redirected evidence, and ensured Richard remained close enough to react.
The Christmas checks had been his idea.
“He told me they would identify who trusted me,” Grandma said.
“They also exposed the trust to Richard,” I replied.
“Yes.”
Avery had designed the test so someone would cash a check and activate the investigation.
Then, during the chaos, he could steal money.
He expected every family member to dismiss Grandma as senile.
He did not expect me to complete the transfer before Richard arrived.
That changed his plan but not his goal.
Federal investigators traced him to a private airport.
His plane had already departed.
The passenger list included Dr. Malcolm Reeve.
Reeve had escaped custody during a hospital transfer after claiming chest pain.
The two men were heading toward Belize.
Interpol alerts were issued.
But Grandma believed the stolen forty million was only part of the plan.
“Avery always said the trust needed a living purpose,” she said.
“What does that mean?”
“He pushed me to create a final distribution event after my death.”
Attorney Avery’s documents stated that when Grandma died, the trust would divide among verified victim families unless a living heir successfully challenged the trust first.
If the challenge succeeded, administrative control passed to the attorney of record.
Avery.
He needed Grandma declared incompetent or dead, then required me to contest the trust.
Richard’s guardianship case would have created the first condition.
My expected legal challenge would create the second.
Avery had manipulated both sides.
“He wanted you and Richard fighting,” Marcus said.
“Yes,” Grandma replied. “While he positioned himself as neutral.”
Authorities detained Avery’s plane in Houston after it reported mechanical trouble.
Avery was arrested.
Reeve was not aboard.
The passenger manifest was falsified.
Avery refused to speak without immunity.
Then investigators showed him account records proving the stolen funds never reached Belize.
Someone intercepted the transfer.
Forty million dollars moved into an account controlled by Dr. Reeve.
Avery began talking.
He claimed Reeve threatened him.
“Reeve has copies of every medical file,” he said. “He knows which deaths Richard caused. He also knows which ones Evelyn caused.”
I turned toward Grandma.
“What does that mean?”
She went pale.
Avery explained that twenty-six years earlier, Grandma discovered one of Richard’s hired men preparing to abduct me from school.
She confronted him inside a warehouse.
The man died after falling from a loading platform.
Grandma never reported it.
“I pushed him,” she said quietly.
“Was he armed?” Detective Ramirez asked.
“Yes.”
“Did he threaten Claire?”
“He said Richard wanted her moved somewhere I would never find.”
Grandma had killed to protect me.
But Avery claimed there was another death.
Dr. Helen Shaw’s brother, Thomas Shaw, had tried to blackmail Grandma after discovering Helen’s remains might be beneath the greenhouse.
He died in a car crash sixteen years ago.
Grandma admitted paying him money but denied arranging the crash.
Avery possessed correspondence suggesting she contacted a private security company days before his death.
“Did you?” I asked.
“I hired them to recover Helen’s medical records.”
“Did you know they would hurt him?”
“No.”
Again, the terrible border between ignorance and deliberate blindness.
Grandma’s silence had enabled more harm than we knew.
Reeve called me that evening.
“I have the original report from Catherine Whitaker’s death,” he said.
“Turn yourself in.”
“I need protection.”
“From whom? Richard is in custody.”
“Richard was never the only person ordering deaths.”
“Who else?”
“Evelyn.”
I looked at Grandma.
She sat across the room, unable to hear the call.
“What are you claiming?”
“Catherine intended to take Claire and leave the family. Evelyn feared Richard would chase them and kill everyone.”
“You murdered Catherine.”
“I administered the medication.”
“On whose order?”
A long pause.
“Evelyn’s.”
I wanted to reject it immediately.
But Grandma’s face changed when I repeated the claim.
She did not look surprised.
“Is it true?” I asked after ending the call.
She lowered her eyes.
“I told Reeve Catherine needed to be calmed.”
“With digitalis?”
“No. He said he would give her a sedative.”
“Why was she being sedated?”
“Catherine had packed a car. She planned to take you out of state that night.”
“She was trying to save me.”
“I believed sudden flight would provoke Richard.”
“So you stopped her.”
“I asked for one night to create a safer plan.”
“She died during that night.”
Grandma’s tears fell silently.
“I did not order her death.”
“But you contacted the same doctor who helped Richard kill Grandpa.”
“I did not know Reeve was involved then.”
The claim might have been true.
It might also have been another way of avoiding responsibility.
I stepped away.
“You protected me by taking every choice from the women who loved me.”
Grandma did not answer.
Reeve demanded the remaining liquid reserve from the trust in exchange for evidence clearing or implicating Grandma.
I refused.
He responded by sending a photograph of Rosa unconscious inside a medical room.
He had abducted her during the confusion after Avery’s arrest.
Behind Rosa stood a wall of refrigerated containers.
Embryos.
Eggs.
Genetic samples.
Reeve had moved material from the burned fertility clinic before the fire.
Including the embryo created from Marcus and me.
May you like
His message read:
THE WHITAKER LINE BELONGS TO WHOEVER CONTROLS THE LAB.
