Chapter 14 - The Prescription
Claire’s medical records showed a prescription for a powerful sedative filled two days before her death.
She had never been prescribed it.
The pharmacy signature was forged.
The prescribing physician had died six months earlier.
Alexander stared at the report.
“She was drugged.”
The toxicology samples from the original autopsy had supposedly been destroyed.
Then Jenna found an invoice.
A private lab had received preserved blood from the county examiner eleven months ago.
Paid for by Nolan Pierce.
The sample still existed.
The new test came back positive.
Claire had enough sedative in her system to impair balance and judgment before she reached the stairs.
“Vanessa didn’t just push her,” I said.
“She made sure she couldn’t fight back,” Alexander replied.
But the prescription pickup video changed everything again.
The woman collecting it was not Vanessa.
It was a Whitmore household employee.
Mrs. Evelyn Shaw.
The estate manager.
Sixty-two. Quiet. Loyal. Employed by the family for thirty years.
Alexander looked physically sick.
“Evelyn practically raised me.”
Vincent, arm in a sling, said, “Then we ask her why.”
They found Evelyn in the old greenhouse behind the guest house.
She didn’t deny it.
“Your father asked me,” she said.
Alexander stopped.
“My father was dead six years before Claire.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Not your father.”
She nodded toward the family portrait visible through the greenhouse windows.
“Your uncle, Thomas.”
Alexander’s face hardened.
Thomas Whitmore was chairman emeritus.
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He was also the one person who controlled the board if Alexander was removed.
And he was currently on a private jet headed to Dallas.
