Chapter 5 - THE DOCTOR WHO NEVER SAW GABRIEL
Dr. Malcolm Pierce said he prescribed the emergency cardiac medication after speaking with Adrian by telephone.
He had not examined Gabriel that week. Adrian described symptoms and claimed Gabriel's regular cardiologist was unavailable. Pierce relied on the healthcare proxy and an old treatment summary.
The package contained the same type of medication found in the recovered syringe.
Pierce insisted he authorized use only under supervision by a licensed clinician. Adrian was not one. The written instructions supported him, although the prescription itself was medically questionable.
The palliative-care letter Adrian showed the court was also genuine—but six months old. It authorized comfort care during a terminal decline, not unsupervised injections or restraints.
Gabriel was seriously ill, but his cardiologist did not consider him terminal.
Adrian had assembled real documents into a false picture.
Keene countered with Gabriel's medical history. He had missed appointments, concealed fainting episodes from the board, and instructed staff to minimize his condition. If Gabriel woke, he could face claims that he misled shareholders while negotiating the sale.
Rebecca admitted that risk.
Gabriel had also used Ellie in his private investigation. Three days before the library incident, he asked her to carry the phone in her backpack because Adrian searched adult briefcases but ignored a child's things.
The decision was indefensible.
The independent guardian restricted Gabriel's contact with Ellie even before he regained consciousness. Protecting the company had distorted his judgment too.
Financial investigators traced Adrian's consulting package through Northbridge. Most was disclosed poorly but not necessarily illegal. A separate five-million-dollar payment to a shell company called Chestnut Advisory had no stated services.
Chestnut Advisory paid Dr. Pierce's clinic two hundred thousand dollars labeled executive wellness research.
Pierce denied knowing Adrian controlled the shell company. Bank records showed the payment preceded the prescription by four months, not days. It suggested a financial relationship, but not a direct payment to poison Gabriel.
Then police recovered the smashed phone's physical storage chip.
Among partially deleted files was a video Ellie had recorded accidentally two nights earlier. It showed Adrian entering Gabriel's bedroom and changing labels on two medication bottles.
The image was distant and silent.
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Adrian said he corrected labels Sheila had attached to the wrong bottles.
Sheila said the labels had been correct.
