Reopening Richard's Case
Chapter 05 - Reopening Richard's Case
Detective Farrah Nasser arrived within the hour, moving through the penthouse with a careful, methodical thoroughness that Adrian found himself grateful for, despite the specific horror of watching his own home treated as an active crime scene.
She photographed Claire's injuries personally, collected the letter and financial documents into evidence bags, and requested access to the full security system logs going back as far as they extended.
"I want to be direct with you both," Farrah said, once her initial assessment concluded. "If your father's death connects to this financial fraud, reopening a three-year-old accident investigation is going to require considerable evidence before any court takes the possibility seriously. I don't want to give you false hope about how quickly this might move."
"I understand," Adrian said. "I just need it actually investigated properly this time, regardless of how long it takes."
Farrah nodded, already coordinating with the original accident investigator, a retired detective named Wren Ostrander who had handled Richard Kane's case three years earlier and, once briefed on the new evidence, agreed to review his own original findings with fresh, considerably more suspicious eyes.
"I remember that case," Ostrander told Farrah, during their initial call. "Something about it always bothered me, honestly. The road conditions that night were bad, but not bad enough, in my professional opinion, to fully explain the specific way his vehicle went off that embankment. I noted it in my file at the time, though nothing concrete enough to pursue further given the resources available then."
"What kind of inconsistency," Farrah asked.
"Brake fluid levels," Ostrander said. "Lower than I'd have expected for a vehicle serviced as recently as his was. I flagged it, requested a more detailed mechanical inspection, and was told the case had already been closed as accidental before my request cleared the department's backlog."
Farrah felt her instincts sharpen considerably at that detail, understanding that Ostrander's original suspicion, dismissed at the time for lack of resources, might finally have the corroborating evidence it needed to be taken seriously.
"I want that vehicle's remaining components reexamined," Farrah said, "if they're still in storage anywhere. And I want a full financial forensic review of the Kane family trust, cross-referenced against Desmond Cole's personal accounts."
Adrian, informed of this expanding investigation, felt the full, devastating shape of his father's death finally, completely rearranging itself in his understanding, a tragic accident potentially revealed as a calculated murder, concealed successfully for three entire years by people he'd trusted completely.
May you like
"How do I tell people," he asked Claire, once Farrah had left to coordinate the forensic review. "That my father might have been murdered by my own mother. How do I say that to anyone."
"You say it exactly like that," Claire said gently. "Honestly, and only once you actually have proof strong enough to say it with confidence. I don't think there's a version of this that doesn't hurt considerably, Adrian. I think you're allowed to grieve that, even while you're also fighting for the truth."
