Chapter 9 - THE DOCTOR'S FILE
Vaughn broke after six hours.
Not because Dominic threatened him.
Federal investigators did.
Sarah had contacted the U.S. Attorney after the trust transfers crossed state lines.
Vaughn admitted falsifying Catherine's competency reports.
He altered Natalie's therapy records.
He signed Gregory's fake death certificate.
And he changed Catherine's medication.
"Did you kill her?" the prosecutor asked.
"I was told to increase her sedatives."
"By whom?"
"Preston Hale."
"Why?"
"She kept trying to call outside lawyers."
Dominic listened from another room.
His mother's last months came back to him.
She had slept constantly.
Slurred words.
Missed dinners.
Dominic had accepted Vaughn's explanation.
Cancer.
Pain medication.
He had been busy expanding Mercer shipping into Europe.
He remembered signing a private-care authorization because Preston said Catherine needed peace.
Sarah placed the document in front of him.
His signature.
"I gave Vaughn control."
Natalie said quietly, "You didn't know."
"I didn't ask."
That mattered.
The Mercer habit again.
Trust the system when the system served you.
Then Vaughn gave investigators one more name.
Brooke Harrington.
She had visited Catherine twice before her death.
Brooke had not yet officially met Dominic.
"She told me we met at a Boston fundraiser two years later."
Vaughn described Brooke delivering trust documents to Preston at Catherine's clinic.
So Brooke's relationship with Dominic had been planned before Catherine died.
Before she ever smiled at him across a ballroom.
Then Gabriel found a security photograph from the clinic.
Brooke walking beside Preston.
Behind them, Malcolm Harrington.
And one more person.
Owen Shaw.
Natalie's husband.
Alive.
Three years before his supposed accident.
"Why was Owen meeting them?"
Then Sarah zoomed in.
May you like
Owen was not walking with them.
His hands were zip-tied in front of him.
