Chapter 9
The sterile smell of the municipal records office was suffocating, but David barely noticed it as he laid out Clara’s original death certificate across the narrow metal counter. Beside it sat the new investigative dossier Detective Vance had compiled on Elena. Evelyn stood quietly beside him, her hand resting firmly on his arm as the senior archivist pulled the archived files from the basement vaults.
"An exhumation order isn't easy to get, Mr. Vance," Detective Vance cautioned, leaning against the counter with a cup of black coffee. "We need probable cause beyond suspicion. Elena’s recent actions against Lily give us grounds to investigate her past behavior, but opening a three-year-old closed case requires concrete forensic anomalies."
David slid a medical receipt across the counter. It was an invoice for a rare cardiac-suppressant pharmaceutical shipped to the penthouse three weeks before Clara’s sudden death—a medication Clara had never been prescribed by her primary physician, but one that Elena had signed for using a forged medical authorization form.
Detective Vance picked up the receipt, his eyebrows drawing together as he scanned the pharmaceutical serial numbers. "Where did you find this?"
"In a hidden compartment of Elena’s vanity drawer that Sarah discovered while packing her personal items for the police," David answered, his voice remarkably steady despite the storm raging inside him. "Elena ordered it using a dormant medical foundation account that Clara had set up before she passed. It's a paralytic agent that mimics severe respiratory arrest, making it virtually undetectable in standard post-mortem tox screens unless specifically tested for."
The detective looked up from the paper, his expression grim. "That’s all the probable cause a judge needs. I’ll draft the emergency exhumation and re-testing petition immediately. If Elena poisoned Clara to secure her marriage to you and gain access to the family estates, she isn't just looking at attempted murder—she’s facing a capital murder charge."
As Detective Vance hurried off to the courthouse, David walked out of the records office into the bright afternoon sunlight. The city around him moved with indifferent speed, oblivious to the dark web of betrayal being unraveled beneath its polished surface. He pulled out his phone and called Sarah at the penthouse.
May you like
"How is Lily?" he asked immediately.
"She’s wonderful, sir," Sarah’s voice came through the speaker, warm and reassuring. "Her grandmother is reading her a story, and her oxygen levels have been optimal all morning. You don't need to worry about a thing here."
