Chapter 2 - THE BLUE PAPER
Detective Lena removed the blue paper with gloved fingers.
It was not a letter.
It was the torn corner of a pharmacy receipt.
Amanda’s name appeared near the top. Beneath it was a date from four days earlier and the partial name of a prescription.
Robert stared at the paper.
“I’ve never seen that.”
“No one asked you,” Lena replied.
Mr. Jennings explained that the paper had not been placed in the coffin by funeral staff. Amanda arrived wearing the same dark blue dress in which she had been found.
Her hands were already folded.
The torn receipt must have been inside one sleeve or beneath her fingers before embalming.
“Could it have fallen from her purse?” Grace asked.
“The purse was delivered separately,” Mr. Jennings said.
Lena ordered the chapel closed temporarily.
The mourners were guided into a reception room while Amanda’s body remained under official supervision. Katie refused to leave until Grace promised that no one would close the coffin.
Robert was taken into a private office for questioning.
He was not yet under arrest.
The gold ring was collected and sealed as evidence.
Without it, a pale band remained on Robert’s finger, proving he had worn another ring recently or had worn this one for years.
Katie sat beside Grace on a wooden pew.
“Am I in trouble for hitting him?”
“You should not hit people,” Grace said. “But right now, the detectives are more concerned about why your mother hid his ring.”
Katie stared at her shoes.
“I thought he was going to take Mom away before anyone listened.”
“You made them listen.”
“Will they open her up again?”
Grace hesitated.
“The medical examiner may need to examine her more carefully.”
“Will it hurt?”
“No.”
Katie’s eyes filled again.
She knew her mother was dead.
Yet the idea of anyone touching Amanda still felt like another betrayal.
Grace asked what happened the night Amanda showed her the ring.
Katie described waking after hearing voices downstairs.
Robert and Amanda were arguing inside the kitchen.
Amanda accused him of moving money.
Robert said she would regret humiliating him.
Then something broke.
Katie walked halfway down the stairs and saw Amanda holding Robert’s wrist. She pulled the gold ring from his hand during the struggle.
Robert left through the garage.
Amanda locked the door behind him.
“She was bleeding,” Katie whispered.
“Where?”
“Her thumb.”
Amanda washed the cut and placed the ring inside a handkerchief.
Then she noticed Katie.
Instead of sending her back upstairs, Amanda knelt and spoke carefully.
“Robert may say he was never here tonight. This ring proves he was.”
“Why didn’t she call police?” Grace asked.
“She said she needed one more morning.”
“For what?”
Katie did not know.
Amanda made her promise not to touch the purse.
The next morning, Robert prepared breakfast and claimed Amanda was still sleeping.
He did not let Katie enter the bedroom.
At ten fifteen, he called emergency services and announced that his wife was not breathing.
By then, Amanda’s body was cold.
Robert told responding officers he had slept in the guest room after returning from a business meeting around midnight.
He never mentioned the argument.
“He said he lost the ring in Indianapolis,” Katie said. “He told the police that before they asked.”
Grace’s face tightened.
Robert had prepared an explanation for evidence no one had found.
Lena returned from the office.
“Robert says the ring was returned to him by the funeral home this morning.”
Mr. Jennings immediately denied it.
“No one here opened Amanda’s purse.”
Security footage would show who had entered the family preparation room.
The camera covered the hallway, though not the room itself.
Lena requested the recording.
At 5:42 that morning, Robert arrived alone.
He told staff he wanted a private goodbye before the chapel opened.
The footage showed him entering the room where Amanda’s purse and personal belongings had been stored.
He remained inside for eleven minutes.
When he entered, his right hand was bare.
When he left, the gold ring was on his finger.
Robert had opened Amanda’s purse and retrieved it.
“He knew where she put it,” Grace said.
“Or he searched until he found it,” Lena replied.
Either explanation was damaging.
Lena also received preliminary information about the torn receipt.
Amanda had filled a heart medication prescription four days before her death.
According to Robert’s original statement, Amanda did not take any heart medication.
Katie looked toward the coffin.
“Mom didn’t have a bad heart.”
Grace nodded slowly.
“That is what she told me too.”
The pharmacy had dispensed thirty tablets.
The bottle recovered from Amanda’s bathroom contained twenty-nine.
One dose appeared to have been used.
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But the medication listed on the bottle was not the medication Amanda had been prescribed.
👉 Someone had replaced Amanda’s newly prescribed pills before she died, and Robert had risked entering the funeral home to recover the ring that could expose him.
