Then:
“If your mom finds the box first, she won’t be able to open it. So keep the key secret.”
When police opened the case, they found financial records.
Copies of checks.
Transfer papers.
And a flash drive.
At first glance, the documents made Ryan look guilty.
They appeared to show him moving money out of a small business he had once co-owned with Derek.
There were signatures that looked like Ryan’s.
Withdrawals.
Transfers.
Enough evidence to make my dead husband look like a thief.
I sat in a police station staring at those papers.
Then I noticed one date.
July 14.
Three years earlier.
I knew exactly where Ryan had been that day.
“This can’t be real.”
The detective looked at me.
“What?”
I pointed.
“Ryan was in intensive care on July fourteenth.”
The detective became very still.
“He was in the ICU that entire month. He could barely hold a spoon. He didn’t leave that hospital.”
