The Reading of the Will
Split Four Ways

The Other Folder

August 25, 2026 · Part 6 of 10 · 2 min

Barrett's investigator was a compact, unimpressed man named Feld who billed by the hour and looked like he'd rather be doing anything else.

"She's clean," Feld said, sliding a folder across Barrett's desk. "Juno Calder. No record, no debt, works at a physical therapy clinic, pays her taxes. Visited your mother at Larkspur Senior Living twice a month for the last thirteen months, per the sign-in log. Sometimes more."

"Thirteen months," Barrett repeated. "She's been circling this family for over a year and none of us knew."

"She never asked staff about the will. Never asked about money. Nurses liked her." Feld shrugged. "If she's running a con, she's the most patient con artist I've ever looked into."

Barrett rubbed his eyes. "Then how did she get in? My mother didn't let strangers near her in her last year. She barely let me in."

"Your mother put her on the visitor list herself," Feld said. "Signed the paperwork. Nobody forced anything."

Barrett didn't like that answer, but he had nothing to argue with.

"There's something else," Feld said, and his tone shifted, careful in a way it hadn't been a moment ago. "I wasn't looking for it. It came up while I was cross-referencing dates against the company calendar, to see if you'd ever have crossed paths with her before."

"And?"

Feld opened a second folder, thinner than the first, and turned it around so Barrett could read it himself.

Barrett looked down. Wire transfers. Holbrook Group letterhead. His own signature, half a dozen times, over eighteen months, routed through an account he'd told the board didn't exist anymore.

"Where did you get this," Barrett said. His voice had gone very quiet.

"Public filings, mostly. A few things weren't supposed to be public. I can make it disappear from my report if that's what you're paying me for." Feld closed the folder. "But I figured you'd want to see it before your mother's estate lawyer does. Given that he's now got every reason in the world to go looking."

Barrett stared at the numbers until they blurred.

"Does anyone else have this," he said.

Feld stood, buttoning his coat. "Not yet."

Continue the story Part 7: The Codicil →

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