Written By Brad Harness
When his phone calls to her remained unanswered, Michael Foster drove over to Lila Jenkins’ home.
He stood outside the front door, repeatedly trying the doorbell. But there was no answer, despite her car being parked in the driveway.
Odd, he thought. He tried knocking at the side door and then banged on the glass of the sliding door off of the deck. No answer.
Maybe she went out for a walk, he thought?
So he sat down on her patio furniture and waited for an hour. Odd, he thought again. She had acknowledged that she would be in when he sent the contract by courier.
He decided to force entry into her home. Perhaps she was ill.
He took his right elbow and rammed it forcefully into the corner of a window over the kitchen sink. Then he reached in and unlocked the window catch, cutting his wrist in the process.
His wrist was bleeding, so he wrapped a tissue around it from his pocket. Then he opened the window, removed the bug screen, and climbed inside the house.
Foster was anxious and had not noticed the traces of blood on the window.
Next he went into each room and it did not take him long to discover Lila’s still body lying where she had fallen. There was a pool of blood on the floor next to where her head had struck the base of the lamp.
“Lila!” he said to her. And then repeated it more loudly. “Lila!!” he said, shaking her shoulders.
But she did not respond. He realized she had no pulse. He looked around him, trying to ascertain what had happened to her.
The contract he had sent her - and the large envelope that had contained it - were scattered about the floor.
The contract was open to the signature page, and Foster realized that Lila Jenkins had not signed the contract. Which meant that GTK Pharmaceuticals did not own the sensational new Emotion Leveller drug.
How could he let this huge deal end like this? Perhaps…Michael Foster could forge Lila Jenkins’ signature, and then open up a new bank account for her into which he could transfer the billions of dollars annually, which he now would access for himself.
So Michael Foster forged her signature and stepped into Lila Jenkins’ shoes…and her incredible future of obscene wealth.
NEXT WEEK: PART 8
