The kitchen was very still. " He's not doing this just to you," Rex said. Arthur closed his eyes. " How many people are in that county alone who fit the same description?" Dutch said quietly not to anyone in particular, just thinking out loud.
Widowed, no close family, property, savings. Someone Daniel could position himself next to by playing the concerned community member. Rex was already reaching for his phone. Uh uh Carla Webb answered on the second ring. " Tell me about Helen Marsh."
Rex said. A pause. " Where did you get that name?" " Arthur knows her. Daniel mentioned being involved in her estate.
Same Dr. Leak." Carla's silence lasted 4 seconds this time. " Rex, I've been making calls since 7:00 this morning. I found two other names besides Arthur with connections to Leak and overlapping financial arrangements pointing toward the same management structure Daniel set up. Helen makes three."
Another pause. " This isn't a family taking advantage of one elderly man. This is an operation." The word landed in Rex's chest like a stone dropped into still water. Operation.
Not a desperate son. Not a single act of greed. A deliberate, structured, repeating system for identifying isolated elderly people, gaining their trust, arranging medical cover, taking control of their assets. " How long has it been running?" Rex asked. "
I don't know yet." Carla said. " But the earliest case I can link to Leak is 7 years ago. A man named Thomas Webb, no relation to me, out of Deer Lodge, died in a care facility 2 years after his son was granted guardianship. The estate was liquidated within 6 months of the death."
Rex said nothing. " I've already contacted the state AG's office." Carla said. " They're listening, but Rex, I need documentation. Bank records, the supplements analysis, anything that shows a pattern.
Because right now I have circumstantial connections and a very compelling narrative, and that's not enough." " Dutch's guy in Great Falls will have the supplement analysis today." Rex said. " And the financial records?" " Working on it."
Rex said. He hung up. Dutch was already looking at him. " How bad?" " Worse than we thought," Rex said.
From the table, Arthur said, "How many people?" Rex looked at him directly because Arthur deserved that. " At least three confirmed, probably more." Arthur put both hands flat on the table in front of him. He pressed them down hard against the wood like he was trying to hold something steady himself, the table, the floor beneath it. "
They all thought they were alone," Arthur said. " Yes," Rex said. " They all thought nobody was coming." " Yes." Arthur looked at his hands.
His jaw worked once. Then he looked up at Rex with something in his eyes that hadn't been there on the bridge last night, something that had been buried under months of isolation and chemical fog and a son's careful, systematic dismantling of everything that made a person feel like a person, anger. Real, coherent, fully formed anger. " Then we have to stop him," Arthur said. " Not just for me, for all of them."
Rex looked at the old man sitting at a kitchen table in a borrowed house in the middle of Montana and felt something shift in his own chest. " That's exactly what we're going to do," Rex said. The supplement analysis came back at 2:40 in the afternoon. Dutch took the call, listened, made two notes on a paper towel, and then held it out to Rex without a word. Rex read the two notes.
The first one said scopolamine derivative high dose. The second one said Consistent with pharmaceutical-grade production. Not over-the-counter. scopolamine, used medically in controlled doses for motion sickness and certain surgical applications. Used in other far less legitimate context to produce exactly what Arthur had been experiencing.
Confusion, memory gaps, disorientation, a presentation that in an elderly patient looked indistinguishable from accelerating dementia. And in a patient who was already being evaluated by a compliant physician, it produced exactly the kind of documentation that made guardianship applications very clean and very difficult to challenge. Rex sat with that for a moment. Then he thought about the careful practiced warmth of Daniel Brennan's smile in the diner that morning. The way he'd said, "It's been really difficult for all of us."
The performance of it, the fluency. A man who had done this before didn't get that fluent overnight. He called Carla. " scopolamine derivative." He said when she picked up.
Her breath caught audibly. " High dose pharmaceutical grade." Rex continued. " Dutch's guy says it's not something you compound at home." " Someone with real pharmaceutical access is producing it or sourcing it." ""
That connects Leek directly."" Carla said. " A general practitioner doesn't prescribe scopolamine in those doses." "" He either has a supplier or he has a compounder."" " Either way, that's a criminal chain with more than two people in it." "
Which is why Daniel wasn't worried about being caught." Rex said. " He had enough people inside the system to cover every angle." " Not every angle." Carla said. "
Rex, the AG's office called me back. They want to meet today if possible." Rex looked across the room at Arthur, who was sitting in a chair with Bev's orange cat on his lap. One hand resting on its back looking out the window with the expression of a man who was somewhere between the present moment and somewhere very far away. " Arthur has to be there."
Rex said. " He has to be willing." Carla said. " This isn't going to be easy." " Daniel's lawyers are going to come after his credibility." "
They're going to use every piece of that medical documentation leak manufactured." " They're going to put him in a room and try to make him look confused in front of people who matter." " He can handle it." Rex said. " Are you sure?"
Rex watched the old man's hand resting on the cat. " Yeah." Rex said. " I'm sure." Ugh, he told Arthur that evening.
Laid it out straight, the scopolamine, the AG's office, what the meeting would look like, what the lawyers would try to do, what was going to be asked of him. Arthur listened without interrupting. When Rex finished, Arthur was quiet for a long moment. Then he said, "What if I freeze? What if I sit in a room full of official people and I can't?
What if the words don't come right?" " Then I'll be in the room with you," Rex said, "and Carla will be there, and you'll say what you know to be true, and that will be enough." " You can't know that," Arthur said. " No," Rex said, "but here's what I do know. Daniel spent 8 months making sure you didn't trust yourself.