I looked up sharply.
“How?”
“Years ago, when your parents were dealing with medical paperwork, Megan kept a family emergency file.
Mitchell helped her organize it.
She changed most of the passwords later.
I thought that ended it.”
David tapped another page.
“Megan thought someone had enough old information to keep getting back in whenever she secured things again.”
My phone rang.
Mitchell.
This time I answered.
“Where are you?” he asked immediately.
No hello.
No question about whether I had slept.
“Why?”
A pause.
“Because Mom and Dad are waiting.
We said we’d deal with Megan’s paperwork.”
“You said that.”
His voice hardened by half a degree.
“Laura, everybody’s exhausted.
Don’t turn this into a military operation.”
Across the table, Beth closed her eyes.
I understood then why his composure at the funeral had bothered me.
Mitchell didn’t speak to people as if he needed their agreement.
He spoke as if resistance were a scheduling problem.
“I’ll call you later,” I said.
“Where are you?”
I ended the call.
Almost immediately, Beth’s phone vibrated on the table.
We all looked at it.
She didn’t touch it.
It stopped.
Then vibrated again.
“That’s what happened last night,” Beth whispered.
“The moment I questioned him, he wanted to know who I’d spoken to.
Where I’d been.
What I’d seen.”
“Why did you come here?”
Beth stared at Megan’s handwriting.
“Because after he asked me about the hard copies, I remembered something Megan said to me last week.”
I waited.
“She said, ‘If Mitchell starts rushing everyone after I’m gone, slow him down.'”
My chest tightened.
“She said after I’m gone?”
“Yes.
I told her not to talk like that.
She said she wasn’t predicting anything.
She was making sure somebody would notice if people started moving too fast.”
That sounded exactly like Megan.
Precise even when afraid.
David turned to another section of the file.
There were copies of emails Megan had sent herself from a separate address, photographs of account pages, and notes describing conversations with Mitchell.
Nothing dramatic by itself.
Together, they were devastating.
Mitchell repeatedly asked about access.
