Chapter 6 - THE FOLDER ON THE COFFIN
Marcus arrived at Bayview Memorial Chapel without a shirt.
He had been drinking beside the hotel pool when Evelyn called to say Harold had gone inside without them. He came wearing tie-dye shorts and sandals, his chest still wet, shouting before he reached the visitation room.
Police officers hired for security stopped him near the white roses.
He saw me standing beside Samuel’s coffin in my black maternity dress and lunged.
“You buried them and still owe us forty grand!”
The officers pulled him back. His shoulder struck the end of a pew as mourners moved away.
I steadied one hand beneath my belly.
Evelyn entered behind him wearing a navy gown, every blonde curl fixed perfectly in place.
“After everything we’ve done for you,” she said, “you owe us.”
I opened the black folder Dana had prepared.
“Then explain why your names were on the claim before they were buried.”
Her face changed.
Harold reached for the folder. “Jane, where did you get that?”
I pulled it away.
A photograph slipped free and landed across the edge of Samuel’s coffin. My parents and Marcus smiled from a Nassau beach while I chose caskets.
The next page fell beside it.
The bank slip showed Gulf Atlantic’s $40,000 advance entering Bay Point’s account and the resort receiving payment two hours later.
Marcus stopped fighting long enough to read it.
I removed the false purchase agreement, Samuel’s text about the steering warning, Caleb’s repair notes, and the dealership records showing that my husband’s money had been diverted.
Evelyn spoke through clenched teeth.
“You’re humiliating this family at a funeral.”
“No. I’m showing them what you did before one.”
Marcus surged forward again.
The officers forced his arms behind his back.
“You think Samuel was some hero?” he shouted. “He wanted the dealership shut down. He wanted all of us broke.”
“He wanted six dangerous cars off the road.”
“He didn’t understand what I had at stake.”
Penelope lay three feet from him in her blue dress.
I watched his eyes move toward her coffin and immediately away.
Dana entered with Paul Reddick and a detective from the Clearwater Police Department. Reddick placed a sealed notice bearing the Florida state crest inside the open folder.
Bay Point Motors’ license had been suspended. Its records and inventory were under seizure orders. The false accident claim, title history, and restored phone data had been referred for criminal review.
Marcus stopped struggling.
Harold removed his glasses.
“I signed the claim,” he said to the detective. “But Evelyn prepared it. Marcus told us Samuel had agreed.”
Evelyn turned on him. “You coward.”
“No,” Harold said. “I was a coward when I signed it.”
The detective did not arrest all three of them in front of the coffins. Real investigations did not become complete because a family finally spoke honestly.
Marcus was taken into custody for violating the funeral home’s trespass warning and threatening me in front of officers. The larger charges would require warrants, expert reports, and prosecutors.
Before he was led away, he looked at Samuel.
“I didn’t know the steering would fail.”
May you like
I closed the folder.
“You knew enough to make sure you weren’t driving it.”
