Chapter 3 - THE PILL THAT WASN'T HIS
The laboratory report took three days.
Arthur hated every hour.
The pill from Elaine’s hand and two tablets inside his organizer contained a sedating prescription medication that had never been prescribed to him.
Bell did not discuss dosage.
She did not need to.
The medical review said the drug could worsen dizziness, confusion, fatigue, and low blood pressure when combined with Arthur’s legitimate medications.
Arthur stared at the report.
“Could it kill me?”
“Your doctor says the combination could be dangerous.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Bell held his gaze.
“We do not have evidence yet that anyone intended to kill you.”
Arthur hated the precision.
Then he remembered the weeks of exhaustion.
The mornings he woke with no memory of turning off the television.
The time he nearly fell in the shower.
Elaine saying:
Your heart medicine is making you old before your time.
Maybe she already knew why.
Then Arthur’s attorney, Mara Sloan, arrived.
“We need to discuss the Hale Family Land Trust.”
Arthur frowned.
“What does that have to do with pills?”
Everything, apparently.
Arthur controlled a trust created by his father.
Its largest asset was 140 acres of lakefront land inherited through three generations.
Developers had wanted it for years.
Current offer:
$21 million.
Arthur had rejected it.
Independent brokers once suggested the land could be worth much more.
Elaine favored selling.
“She said I was being sentimental.”
Mara opened another file.
Three months earlier, Elaine requested a copy of Arthur’s durable power of attorney.
The document named her temporary financial agent if Arthur became unable to manage affairs and two physicians certified incapacity.
Arthur stared.
“She was checking how to activate it.”
“Looks that way.”
Then Mara showed him correspondence.
Elaine had contacted a physician-consulting service asking how cognitive certification typically worked.
No crime by itself.
Then:
A proposed sale agreement for the lakefront property.
Draft signature line:
Elaine Hale, attorney-in-fact for Arthur Hale.
Arthur felt cold.
“She already had the contract.”
“Yes.”
“Who’s buying?”
Mara hesitated.
“Lake Meridian Development.”
Arthur knew the name.
What he did not know was who stood behind it.
Bell entered with a corporate search report.
One indirect investor:
Vale Property Partners.
Martin Vale.
Arthur looked at the lab result again.
May you like
The pills were not random.
They were part of a timeline.
