Chapter 6 - JASON'S PARTNER
Redline Practical called before lunch.
Theo Marshall had worked with Jason for eleven years.
He asked to speak in person.
Marissa almost said no.
Then he mentioned the black controller.
They met at Nina's office.
Theo was forty.
Thin.
Nervous hands.
The kind of person who always seemed to be holding an invisible screwdriver.
He looked at Marissa's crutch.
Then away too quickly.
“You knew Jason before my accident.”
“Yeah.”
“You can look at it.”
Theo blinked.
“The crutch.”
“People trying not to stare is more obvious.”
He gave a short embarrassed laugh.
“Okay.”
Better.
Theo examined the police photograph of the device.
“Prototype Seventeen.”
“You recognize it.”
“I built half of it.”
“So it's fake.”
“It was a simulation prop.”
“Was.”
Theo looked uncomfortable.
“The company destroyed these after a venue complaint.”
“All of them?”
“That was the instruction.”
“Jason kept one.”
“I thought maybe.”
“Why?”
Theo rubbed his fingers together.
“Because Jason didn't trust our destruction log.”
Marissa frowned.
“Why?”
“Inventory fight.”
Nothing dramatic.
Redline had been struggling financially.
Some equipment disappeared between warehouse moves.
Jason thought the managing partner was sloppy.
Not criminal.
Theo said Jason privately kept copies of disputed inventory until the company finished reconciliation.
“Did Beverly know?”
Theo's face changed.
“Probably.”
“Why?”
“She handled part of Jason's estate.”
That part Marissa knew.
Then Theo opened his bag.
One printed email.
From Jason.
Three months before his death.
Subject:
Family Security Trust
Marissa stared.
Theo explained.
“Jason asked me to witness something.”
“What?”
A conversation.
Jason told Theo he intended to remove Beverly as successor trustee.
Not immediately.
After updating the estate plan.
Why?
“She and he had a fight.”
“About me?”
“Yes.”
Marissa looked away.
Of course.
“What did she say?”
Theo hesitated.
“Jason said she kept treating your disability like a financial emergency instead of your life.”
Marissa's throat tightened.
Theo continued.
Beverly had objected to spending trust savings on renovating the house more extensively.
She believed Marissa and Jason should sell.
Move into a newer single-level property.
Jason initially agreed.
Marissa did not.
That caused arguments.
Then Beverly started speaking as if the decision were already made.
Jason hated that.
“He said he wanted someone independent handling money if he died first.”
“Did he make the change?”
Theo shook his head.
“No.”
“Then this means nothing legally.”
“Probably.”
Nina corrected:
“It means something evidentially. Not dispositively.”
Right.
Jason's intention did not magically rewrite a trust.
Then Marissa asked:
“Why didn't you tell me after he died?”
Theo looked ashamed.
“Beverly told me you were overwhelmed.”
“I was.”
“She said bringing you half-finished estate plans would hurt more than help.”
“And you believed her.”
“Yes.”
Theo looked at her.
“Also, I didn't want to be involved.”
There.
His motive.
Not noble.
Then he added:
“There's something else.”
The black controller had an old Redline asset label beneath the battery cover.
The police photographed it.
Theo had checked the archived number.
Prototype Seventeen was signed out for destruction in 2022.
The person who signed the disposal ticket:
Jason.
The witness:
Beverly Bennett.
Marissa stared.
“Why would Beverly witness company disposal?”
Theo looked confused too.
“She wouldn't normally.”
Yet her signature was there.
Beverly had seen that exact device years before.
May you like
Which explained why she froze when Marissa picked it up.
What it did not explain was why it arrived at Marissa's house now.
