Two EMTs rolled a stretcher down the center aisle, wrapping Clara in a heavy thermal emergency blanket.
Paramedic: Miss Vance, can you tell me your date of birth and what day of the week it is?
Clara: September twenty-fourth. It's Thursday. My head feels like it's full of wet sand.
Paramedic: That's typical for heavy doses of veterinary-grade sedatives. You're very lucky to be awake.
Toby clutched Clara's right hand, refusing to let go even as they lifted her onto the gurney.
Toby: I'm going with her in the ambulance. Marcus, tell them I can go.
Marcus: Let him ride along, guys. The boy just saved her life.
Paramedic: Jump in the front seat, kid. We need to run vitals on the way to St. Jude Memorial.
In the vestibule, Detective Reynolds had cornered Assistant Vance against the walnut coat rack.
Detective Reynolds: You want to explain why a living woman was nailed inside your premium white casket, son?
Assistant Vance: She paid me fifty thousand in cash, okay? She said Clara was brain dead and the machines were too expensive!
Evelyn: Shut up, you idiot! Don't say another word without my attorney!
Assistant Vance: She told me Clara signed donor papers and didn't want an autopsy! She gave me the forged death certificate from Dr. Morris!
Detective Reynolds: Dr. Morris from the Westside Clinic? The one who lost his medical license two years ago?
Assistant Vance: Yes! He signed off on respiratory failure! I just closed the lid!
Marcus: You closed a lid on a breathing human being for fifty grand?
Assistant Vance: She threatened to call immigration on my brother! She said she owned the council members!
Detective Reynolds: Both of you are facing attempted first-degree murder and conspiracy charges. Cuff him too.
A second officer clicked handcuffs around Vance's shaking wrists, leading him past the weeping guests.
Pastor Hayes: God forgive us. We almost said the final blessing over a living soul.
Marcus: Don't blame yourself, Pastor. Evil wears expensive suits and sits in the front row.
Clara looked through the open chapel doors toward the sunny parking lot where the ambulance waited.
Clara: Marcus, did she touch the safe in Dad's study?
Marcus: The police sealed the house two hours ago after Toby called me with his voicemail.
Clara: Good. The real deed to the estate is inside the floorboards behind his portrait.
Evelyn stopped on the chapel threshold, turning back with eyes burning with pure hatred.
Evelyn: You think your brother is a hero, Clara? He's a meddling orphan who ruined our family!
Toby: Clara is my family. You were just a visitor who tried to steal our home.
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