Chapter 5 - THE PHONE NATALIE TOOK
Natalie denied taking Rose’s phone.
The attic footage made denial difficult.
She changed her account.
Rose had supposedly asked her to secure it because sensitive business records were stored there.
Rose had been unconscious in an ambulance when Natalie walked out carrying it.
Detective Holloway requested Natalie’s devices, location records, and communications.
She surrendered one phone.
Forensics showed a second number associated with her name.
That device disappeared the day after Rose died.
The investigation into Rose’s death was formally reopened.
The medical examiner retained tissue and blood samples, allowing additional toxicology testing.
Initial testing had found alcohol and a sleep medication called zolpidem.
Rose had no current prescription for zolpidem.
Arthur told investigators she used old pills.
Her pharmacy records showed no prescription at any time.
The safe-deposit key from Rose’s envelope opened a box held at Atlantic Coast Bank.
Miriam, Detective Holloway, and the estate’s temporary administrator attended the inventory.
Inside were:
The original life-insurance application.
Copies of the girls’ account statements.
A flash drive.
Rose’s genuine will.
A signed revocation of Arthur’s financial power of attorney.
A sealed letter addressed to her daughters.
The policy insured Rose for four million dollars.
Arthur was the primary beneficiary.
The application claimed Rose requested coverage as part of estate planning.
Her signature appeared repeatedly.
A document examiner compared it with her will.
The policy signatures were traced imitations.
Natalie had served as the witness.
She was not a licensed insurance agent, but the broker handling the policy worked with Arthur’s marina investors.
The policy was subject to a contestability review because Rose died within two years of issuance.
Arthur had already filed the claim.
He submitted it forty-eight hours after her death, before funeral arrangements were complete.
The insurer froze payment after police notified it of the reopened investigation.
The flash drive contained bank files.
Arthur had withdrawn more than four hundred thousand dollars from custodial investment accounts created by Rose’s grandmother for the girls.
The accounts required Rose’s authorization.
Her approvals were forged.
Money went to marina consultants, Natalie’s apartment, Arthur’s gambling debts, and the private facility he planned to send the girls to.
He had paid an advance equal to three months of placement costs.
“Why pay before Rose died?” I asked.
Miriam looked at the account date.
“Because he expected the children to be removed immediately.”
One payment was different.
Seventy-five thousand dollars had gone to the life-insurance broker as a “premium reserve.”
The source was April’s education account.
Arthur had used his six-year-old daughter’s inheritance to finance the policy on her mother’s life.
Then Detective Holloway opened the final file on the flash drive.
It was a beneficiary-change form signed by Rose herself.
Arthur was removed.
The four million dollars belonged equally to Lucy, Rachel, and April, with me named as trustee.
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The insurer had received the form.
Someone inside the brokerage marked it withdrawn the next day.
