SIGNATURE VERIFICATION REQUIRED.
Abigail had replied:
CLIENT IS COGNITIVELY IMPAIRED. WILL PROVIDE POWER OF ATTORNEY SOON.
I stared at those words until my vision blurred.
Soon.
Tomorrow’s psychiatric evaluation wasn’t about helping Mom.
It was about establishing a medical narrative.
A diagnosis Abigail could use.
A diagnosis that might help her gain control.
I printed everything.
At 3:40 a.m., I drove to an all-night shipping center fourteen miles away, copied the documents, scanned them to encrypted storage, and mailed a physical set to my former supervisor at the state attorney general’s office.
Then I called one person.
Martin Cole.
He had trained me during my first year in financial investigations.
He answered on the fourth ring.
“You better either be arrested or dying.”
“Neither.”
“Then call me after sunrise.”
“Someone’s trying to take control of my mother’s money.”
Silence.
Martin woke up immediately.
“Talk.”
I gave him the shortest version.
