Adrian Holst, who had introduced himself to Vivian as Daniel Brennan, was charged within 48 hours with conspiracy, attempted murder, insurance fraud, and identity fraud. The two cases from Michigan and Phoenix were reopened. New evidence was found in both. The driver from Monday morning made a deal and named everyone. The recording from a small cracked phone in a boy's pocket became the cornerstone of the prosecution. Vivian was charged as a co-conspirator. She did not contest the charges.
Her lawyer told the court she wished to enter a plea. The judge accepted it. Richard did not attend most of the proceedings. He had been there once at the first hearing and that had been enough. There were some things he had decided that a man did not need to watch twice to understand. In the weeks that followed the house changed. Not in the way houses change after a death, but in the way houses change after a long fever finally breaks.
Richard moved his bedroom to a smaller room on the east side where the morning sun came in through clean windows. He sold the cars he did not use. He gave Anthony a permanent position with the company with a salary that made Anthony argue with him for 20 minutes before accepting. He hired a new household manager, an older woman named Doris who had run a small bed and breakfast in Vermont for 30 years, and the house began for the first time in a long time to feel like a place where people actually lived.
Tessa Walker stayed. Richard had asked her if she wanted to and she had taken 3 days to think about it and then she had said yes. She moved into a larger residence on the property, a small cottage with a real fireplace and a sunroom in the back. Elijah enrolled in a new school in the fall. Richard paid for it and for the one after it and for whatever would come after that. He did not call it a gift.