Chapter 4: The First Calls
Dad changed out of the navy flannel robe and into the clothes he kept at my house for the visits that had become more frequent over the last two years. While he dressed, I called Harold Pike. The conversation was short. Harold was, as Dad had said, in Arizona. He listened without interruption while I repeated Vanessa’s claim that he had “found” my father’s body. When I finished, Harold was silent for several seconds.
“I’ll be on a plane this afternoon,” he said. “Tell your father I’ll handle the funeral-home angle myself. Nobody uses my name for that kind of story.”
I thanked him and hung up. Dad came back into the kitchen, fully dressed, and nodded once when I relayed the message. Then he made two more calls of his own—one to the locksmith service that covered his town, and one to the bank branch that held his primary accounts. Both conversations were brief, factual, and final. The locksmith was instructed to disregard any request that did not come directly from him. The bank was instructed to freeze any attempted changes and to require his in-person signature for every future transaction.
