Chapter 11 - THE SECOND TARGET
Michael sat beside me while Vanessa explained.
Margaret planned to control both Emma and Michael.
First me.
Then him.
Charles had prepared a competency petition claiming Michael suffered from grief-related instability after his father's death.
Dr. Keller had signed an evaluation.
Again.
Fake.
If both parents were legally compromised, Margaret would control Emma and the Patterson voting shares.
Michael looked destroyed.
"She was going to take my child and my company."
Vanessa nodded.
"And put you in treatment."
He stared at his sister.
"You knew?"
"Not all of it."
"Enough."
She cried.
"I'm sorry."
Michael's voice stayed flat.
"Sorry is not a door out of this room."
Brooks arrested Dr. Keller that afternoon.
He talked fast.
Margaret paid him to create false psychiatric records.
Charles handled the filings.
Keller also admitted something else.
Richard had not died from a heart attack.
Keller had been called to the house after Richard collapsed.
He found signs of poisoning.
"Why didn't you report it?" Brooks asked.
Keller looked terrified even years later.
"Charles threatened my license. Margaret threatened my family."
"What poison?"
"I don't know. Something fast."
Richard's body had been cremated.
No second autopsy possible.
But Maria remembered the drink.
Richard always had tea at night.
Margaret brought it to him.
The broken glass on the recorder.
Michael left the interview room and threw up in the hallway.
I stood beside him.
He wiped his mouth.
"I signed her papers."
"Yes."
"I defended her for years."
"Yes."
He looked at me.
"You hate me."
"I don't have time to decide what I feel about you."
That hurt him.
Good.
Then Brooks emerged.
"We froze Emma's trust transfer."
For the first time in days, I breathed.
"Margaret?"
"Still missing."
Then her face tightened.
"Rachel, there's another filing."
A federal court petition.
Filed that morning.
It claimed you planned to flee the country with Emma.
Attached were airport records.
Two tickets to Mexico City.
One adult.
One child.
May you like
Purchased using your credit card.
Departure time: 6:10 a.m. tomorrow.
