“We’ll see,” he said. “Bring the boys to the courthouse by eight-thirty. Don’t be late.”

He hung up before I could answer.

I looked out the window.

Lucas was standing near the slide, watching me.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his small black digital recorder.

He held it up so I could see it, then slipped it back inside.

He had heard everything.

I looked back down at the files in my lap.

If I could prove the systematic fraud, the state would open an investigation into Carter Medical.

The family’s influence would crumble under federal scrutiny.

But I needed more than just these brittle papers from thirty years ago.

I needed to find someone who had been there.

Someone who had witnessed the transfers.

I turned to the very last page of the file.

It was a witness statement from an internal nurse’s complaint, filed and immediately suppressed.

The nurse had protested the discharge of Helen Vance.

Her name was printed at the top: *Nurse Evelyn Croft.*

Below her name was an address in the old north district of the city.