Chapter 5: What Richard Holt Really Wanted
Natalie stood on the pavement outside the tea shop and didn't move.
"What do you want?" she said.
"To be honest with you," Richard said.
"Which is more than you'll get from Arthur Whitmore."
"He's been honest with me."
"He's told you the version that makes him sympathetic.
That's not the same thing." A pause.
"There are things about his condition that he hasn't shared.
Things the family is genuinely worried about."
"His condition."
"He left the gas on twice last month.
He got lost walking home from the corner shop.
He called Caroline at two in the morning and didn't remember doing it the next day." Richard's voice was smooth, practiced.
"This isn't about money, Miss Jane.
This is about an old man who needs more support than he's willing to admit."
Natalie turned and looked at the tea shop window.
The table where she and Arthur had sat was already cleared.
"If that were true," she said, "you wouldn't have needed to come find him in person.
You would have called the doctor."
Silence.
"And if Caroline were genuinely worried about her father," Natalie continued, "she would have been at that bank herself.
Not you."
"Miss Jane—"
"You told me not to involve myself in things I don't understand.
I'm returning the advice." She ended the call.
Her hands were steady.
She was surprised by that.
She sat in her car for a moment, thinking.
Then she drove home, made herself dinner, and did not sleep well.
The next morning, she called Arthur.
He answered on the second ring, which told her he'd been awake for a while.
"Did you call Gerald Foss?" she asked.
"Last night.
We're meeting Thursday."
"Good." She exhaled.
"Richard Holt called me."
A pause.
"How did he—"
"I don't know.
But he did.
He told me you'd been leaving the gas on.
Getting lost.
Calling Caroline at strange hours."
Arthur was quiet for a long moment.
"The gas," he said finally.
"Once.
I left the back burner on low after making soup.
Caroline was visiting.
She found it and she — she made it into something larger than it was." Another pause.
"I have never been lost walking home.
And the phone call at two in the morning was because I had a dream about Eleanor and I forgot, for a moment, that Caroline and I weren't speaking." His voice dropped.
"I hung up before she answered.
She called it an episode."
"Arthur."
"I know how it sounds.
I know that every person who is losing their mind believes they are not." He said it without self-pity, just plainly.
"But I also know what I remember and what I don't.
And I remember everything, Natalie.
I remember the passbook number to the last digit.
I remember Eleanor's letter word for word.
I remember exactly what Caroline's lawyer said on the fourteenth of March and what I said back."
"I believe you."
"You shouldn't just believe me.
You should make me prove it."
"You just did." She leaned back in her chair.
"What does Gerald Foss say?"
"He says the competency filing is real.
Caroline submitted it six weeks ago.
There's a hearing in three weeks." A pause.
"He also says the transfer I made yesterday — the one I went to the bank for — is protected.
It went through before the filing was formally served on me.
Caroline's team didn't move fast enough."
"So she lost that round."
"Yes." A quiet beat.
"Which means she'll push harder on the next one."
He was right.
Two days later, a letter arrived at Arthur's address — Natalie knew because he called her when he opened it.
His voice was careful and controlled, but she could hear what was underneath it.
"They've filed a request for an emergency guardianship assessment," he said.
"A court-appointed evaluator will visit the house within ten days.
If the evaluator recommends guardianship, the hearing moves up."
"What does Gerald say?"
"He says we need to be ready.
Character witnesses.
Documentation of my daily functioning.
Evidence that the incidents Caroline cited were isolated and misrepresented." A pause.
"He asked if I had anyone who could speak on my behalf.
Someone recent.
Someone who had seen me functioning clearly and independently."
Natalie understood before he finished the sentence.
"When do you need me?" she said.
Arthur didn't answer immediately.
When he did, his voice was different.
Not weaker.
Something more careful than that.
"You've already done more than anyone had a right to ask."
"Arthur.
When do you need me?"
A long pause.
"Thursday," he said.
"Gerald's office.
Ten o'clock."
"I'll be there."
She was about to hang up when he said her name once more.
"Natalie.
Caroline knows about you now.
Richard will have told her." He paused.
"She is not a gentle person when she feels threatened."
The call ended.
Natalie set the phone down on the kitchen table and looked at it for a moment.
May you like
Then she opened her laptop and began searching the name Caroline Whitmore.
What she found made her sit very still.
