Chapter 5 - DR. REYNOLDS FINALLY TALKED
Reynolds cracked before Vincent.
Not because Adrian threatened him.
Because federal agents showed him bank records.
Three hundred thousand dollars through consulting agreements.
Paid by a company Vincent controlled.
Reynolds claimed he never intended to kill Adrian.
Naturally.
He said the dose was designed only to produce symptoms.
Fatigue.
Fainting.
Confusion.
Enough to create a medical record.
Then Vincent planned to trigger the trust clause.
“Thirty days?” Adrian asked through the investigator.
Reynolds nodded.
“After that Vincent becomes interim trustee.”
“And then?”
“He would restructure.”
“Meaning steal.”
Reynolds looked away.
“What was supposed to happen to me after thirty days?”
Silence.
Adrian’s face changed.
“Doctor.”
Reynolds whispered:
“I wasn't told.”
Lie.
The agents knew too.
More pressure.
Then:
“There was a second phase.”
Elena was not present.
Good.
Sophia definitely wasn't.
Only investigators, Adrian, Dante and counsel.
“What second phase?”
“Cardiac event.”
Silence.
A later medication adjustment would create a plausible fatal complication.
Adrian stared.
Vincent had never planned to give control back.
Reynolds began crying.
“I never administered that phase.”
“You prepared it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Money.
Debt.
Gambling losses.
A daughter in graduate school.
A second house.
Humans often build terrible excuses out of ordinary desires.
Adrian listened.
Then asked the question that mattered.
“How long has Titan reacted to you?”
Reynolds looked confused.
“What?”
“The dog.”
A bitter laugh.
“Months.”
“Why?”
“He bit my coat once after I injected you.”
Adrian remembered.
Reynolds had said Titan got spooked by the needle.
Actually—
Titan watched Adrian nearly collapse after the injection.
Learned.
Another time Reynolds entered with the same medical bag.
Titan growled.
Conditioning.
Not supernatural.
Loyalty plus memory.
Then Reynolds said:
“Vincent wanted the dog removed.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“Why wasn't he?”
“You refused.”
Adrian remembered now.
Vincent said Titan was dangerous around visiting executives.
Adrian said:
“He stays.”
One small stubborn decision had kept the only witness in the house who could not be bribed.
Reynolds signed a cooperation agreement.
May you like
Then agents allowed him to continue pretending nothing happened.
The trap remained alive.
