“What did you find?” I asked.

“Your parents didn’t just decide to show up after Elliot died to claim a piece of the estate,” Malcolm said. “They were forced to.”

He tapped a finger on a line of figures near the bottom of the page.

“Six months ago, your father took out a series of high-interest commercial loans through a shell company registered in Delaware,” Malcolm explained.

“What was he buying?” I asked.

“Nothing,” Malcolm said. “He was covering losses from a failed real estate development in Arizona. He leveraged everything he owned, including your mother’s personal assets.”

I looked at the numbers on the sheet; the outstanding debt was over four million dollars.

“The lender was a subsidiary of Vanguard,” Malcolm continued, his voice flat. “When your father defaulted last month, Vanguard offered him a choice.”

“They would forgive the debt if he delivered Northline’s routes to them,” I said, the pieces falling into place.

“Exactly,” Malcolm said. “But Elliot was still alive then. He refused every offer Vanguard made. So your father waited.”

“And when Elliot passed, they saw their chance to step in as the rightful heirs,” I said.