Chapter 5 - The Web Unravels
Charles stepped out into the hallway, closing Lillian's room door behind him. "What happened? Did you get him at the bank?"
"He slipped through our fingers," Teresa said, frustrated. "He used a decoy vehicle—hired a rideshare driver to drop off his phone at the bank while he headed toward the private aviation hangar at St. Paul Downtown Airport. He has a small single-engine Piper registered under a shell corporation."
"He's going to fly out of state," Charles realized.
"Not if we air-traffic-control ground his clearance," Teresa said. "But there's something else. My team finished searching his home office at the house. We found a notebook inside a hidden compartment in his desk."
She pulled out a clear evidence bag containing a leather-bound journal.
"Warren wasn't just planning to kill Lillian," Teresa explained. "He’s been embezzling millions from his pharmacies for five years to fund a massive offshore gambling debt in Macau. The loan sharks were threatening to go public. If his financial fraud was discovered, he faced twenty years in federal prison. The insurance money from Lillian’s death was supposed to pay off the syndicate, and the transdermal patch was supposed to look like an unfortunate medical misadventure."
"And what about the reference to me?" Charles asked.
Teresa hesitated before answering. "In the journal, he wrote extensively about you, Charles. He blamed you for Lillian’s emotional distance throughout their marriage. He knew she turned to you whenever they fought. In his twisted mind, making you fail to save her life in your own emergency room was his ultimate revenge."
Charles leaned his head back against the concrete wall, processing the sheer malice of a man he had called a brother for four decades. "Where is he now?"
"State police have spotted his Mercedes heading east on Interstate 94 toward the airport," Teresa said, checking her sidearm. "We’re moving in now to intercept him before he reaches the tarmac."
"I'm coming with you," Charles said flatly.
"Charles, no. You’re a witness and a civilian—"
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"I’m the physician who saved her life, and I’m the man he tried to destroy," Charles interrupted, his tone leaving no room for argument. "I know how Warren thinks. If he gets cornered, he won't go quietly. You need someone who knows his psychological triggers."
Teresa stared at him for three long seconds, evaluating the cold determination in the surgeon's eyes. Finally, she nodded. "Grab a vest from the trunk of my cruiser. Let’s move."
