Natalie read it twice.

“He’s trying to frighten me,” she said.

“He has been frightening you for months,” I answered.

“Now you need a lawyer who works for you.”

CHAPTER 9: ANIKA PRICE

I called Anika Price from my car outside a neighborhood diner.

She answered on the fourth ring and asked whether I was alone.

I told her where the business card had come from.

Her silence lasted long enough for me to wonder whether the call had dropped.

Then she asked whether Evelyn was safe.

Anika explained that she had once worked as a compliance investigator for a healthcare administrator connected to Larchgate Services.

She left after discovering reimbursements submitted under several different names for the same young woman.

Her first complaint went nowhere because the supporting records had been classified as duplicate entries from a computer migration.

She later took private investigative work and continued gathering records that were lawfully accessible.

“I’ve never been able to prove who authorized the false death notice,” she said.

“But I know who benefited from pretending Lucy was gone.”

I asked whether Graham had stolen money.

Anika cautioned me not to turn a complicated arrangement into a single accusation.

There was a trust created after the car collision, insurance proceeds intended to support Lucy, and payments to facilities that sometimes never received the full amount billed.

Graham controlled several of the entities through nominees.

His control was more important than any single missing check.

I asked about the words on her card.

Anika said March was when Lucy had tried to contact Evelyn through Natalie.

Natalie had not been a random employee recruited for her secretarial skills.

Graham had learned that she previously handled a disputed reimbursement involving Lucy and hired her to find out what else she knew.

I sat motionless behind the wheel.

The affair had begun later, but Graham had selected my wife long before she believed he noticed her.

Anika asked whether I had any records that placed Lucy at Saint Agnes House.

I told her I would not share private material without Lucy’s permission.

She approved immediately.

“That’s what a decent witness sounds like,” she said.

She arranged to speak with Evelyn’s lawyer before giving further information.

After the call I stayed in the parking lot, watching customers carry paper cups through the cold.

Graham had treated every person in his orbit as a tool.

Natalie had accepted that bargain until she began to understand she was also being used.