Chapter 9 - Pierce Had One More Insider
Police reached the penthouse in six minutes.
Pierce was gone.
The ledger was safe because Daniel had already given the original to
investigators.
But the safe had been opened.
Nothing else appeared missing.
Then security found a second device.
A small wireless relay attached behind the alarm panel.
It had captured passwords for months.
That explained Daniel’s credentials.
Vanessa’s laptop.
Perhaps even Eleanor’s medical portal.
Pierce had not needed one insider.
Technology gave him access.
But someone still had to install the relay.
Building footage showed the answer.
Six months earlier.
A maintenance technician entered the penthouse.
The work order had been requested by Eleanor’s personal assistant.
Not Rachel.
Not Vanessa.
A man named Gregory Shaw.
Daniel frowned.
“My mother doesn’t have an assistant named Gregory.”
Eleanor recognized him immediately.
“He worked for Thomas.”
Gregory had been Hartwell Development’s head of private security.
After Thomas died, he vanished.
Laura’s face changed when she saw his photograph.
“He brought me to Harbor House.”
Pierce had medical control.
Gregory had physical control.
Thomas had financial control.
And Eleanor had provided legitimacy.
A complete system.
Daniel asked the hardest question.
“Why is it active now?”
Laura answered.
“Because the ledger can destroy people who are still alive.”
Investigators began contacting names.
Several were dead.
Some retired.
Three remained powerful.
A developer.
A former judge.
And Gregory Shaw.
Then they found something strange.
Gregory had been receiving monthly payments from an account created
after Thomas died.
Someone had continued paying him.
The account holder was Eleanor Hart.
Daniel stared at his mother.
She looked genuinely confused.
“I didn’t authorize that.”
The bank records showed electronic approvals.
Her credentials.
Her security questions.
Her device.
But Eleanor had complained for months that things were wrong.
Missing objects.
Changed medicine.
Strange conversations.
Maybe someone was not only trying to make her seem confused.
Maybe someone had been using that confusion as cover to operate as her.
Daniel examined the payment dates.
Every authorization occurred on nights Rachel recorded Eleanor as
unusually sleepy.
The sedative had not begun six months ago.
It had begun earlier.
Rachel was only the latest person administering it.
Daniel looked at Eleanor’s medication delivery records.
A private pharmacy had packaged her nightly pills.
One pharmacist signed the orders.
Dr. Samuel Pierce.
Daniel stared.
“He’s been drugging her through legitimate-looking prescriptions.”
Laura nodded.
“And Rachel increased the dose without realizing she was adding to what
Eleanor already had.”
That explained Eleanor’s worsening symptoms.
But not the payments.
Someone had used the windows when she was sedated.
Then Vanessa found one recurring login location.
The penthouse guest suite.
Daniel looked at her.
Only one person had lived there regularly during the past year.
His younger brother.
Matthew.
Daniel’s stomach dropped.
Matthew had unrestricted access.
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He knew Daniel’s passwords.
And he had been the person who insisted Eleanor was simply getting old.
