{"id":3261,"date":"2026-09-16T14:20:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/?p=3261"},"modified":"2026-09-16T14:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T14:20:25","slug":"part-18-eleanor-had-agreed-to-help-richard-bring-down-her-husband-but-her-price-was-not-money-and-her-betrayal-began-before-he-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/?p=3261","title":{"rendered":"PART 18 \u2013 Eleanor Had Agreed to Help Richard Bring Down Her Husband, but Her Price Was Not Money and Her Betrayal Began Before He Died"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eleanor did not run when police arrived.<\/p>\n<p>She was at home.<\/p>\n<p>Sitting in the kitchen.<\/p>\n<p>A pot of coffee stood untouched on the counter.<\/p>\n<p>Paul was there too.<\/p>\n<p>Harland later told me that Eleanor seemed almost relieved when he showed her the transfer from Richard.<\/p>\n<p>She asked for an attorney.<\/p>\n<p>Then she asked whether Jennifer was alive.<\/p>\n<p>That question mattered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy wouldn\u2019t she be?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>Harland did not answer until we were back at the station.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJennifer says Eleanor threatened her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhone call.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecorded?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRecords?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor\u2019s phone called Jennifer\u2019s at 2:29 a.m., sixteen minutes after the alarm.<\/p>\n<p>The call lasted forty-one seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer claimed Eleanor said, \u201cYou should have left what Richard buried alone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor denied saying it.<\/p>\n<p>For once, Jennifer\u2019s injuries helped establish part of her account.<\/p>\n<p>The burns on her hand were consistent with reaching through the ventilation grate after the fire started.<\/p>\n<p>She had tried to remove the envelope.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen why leave it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe says she heard someone downstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe thought Eleanor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid cameras show Eleanor?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The crawlspace footage showed only Jennifer.<\/p>\n<p>But the property behind my house had no cameras.<\/p>\n<p>Someone could have approached and left without entering.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer said she panicked.<\/p>\n<p>She pointed toward the grate so firefighters or police would find the envelope if she could not retrieve it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy start the fire at all?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland gave me her explanation.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor had told her the envelope was behind the grate but warned that removing it would trigger a small contact alarm Richard installed years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer did not know whether the alarm still functioned.<\/p>\n<p>She decided a fire would create a reason for emergency responders to enter and expose the wall.<\/p>\n<p>I stared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe nearly burned down my house to avoid setting off an alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is the stupidest thing I\u2019ve heard this month.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland\u2019s mouth twitched.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe competition is substantial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite myself, I laughed.<\/p>\n<p>It lasted one second.<\/p>\n<p>Then reality returned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy did Eleanor tell Jennifer where the envelope was?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe claims Eleanor wanted it destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Jennifer wanted it found.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Something had changed between them.<\/p>\n<p>The explanation began thirteen years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor\u2019s attorney negotiated a formal proffer.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Frank, Eleanor did not begin by minimizing everything.<\/p>\n<p>She began with Richard.<\/p>\n<p>She had known Frank was stealing for years.<\/p>\n<p>Not details.<\/p>\n<p>Not amounts.<\/p>\n<p>But enough.<\/p>\n<p>Frank kept separate accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Used employees as fronts.<\/p>\n<p>Paid people in cash.<\/p>\n<p>Made threats that sounded like jokes.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor looked away because the money paid for their house, vacations, schools, and the life she had become accustomed to.<\/p>\n<p>Then Luis Ruiz died.<\/p>\n<p>Frank came home the night after the accident and told her a worker\u2019s widow might become troublesome.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor asked what happened.<\/p>\n<p>Frank said, \u201cNothing we can\u2019t fix.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She never forgot the phrase.<\/p>\n<p>But she did nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Years passed.<\/p>\n<p>Richard occasionally asked Eleanor what she knew.<\/p>\n<p>She always denied knowing anything.<\/p>\n<p>Then, fifteen years before Richard died, Eleanor found Frank\u2019s private ledger.<\/p>\n<p>The same style as the one later recovered from the Boulder office.<\/p>\n<p>She photographed several pages.<\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>Not morality.<\/p>\n<p>Insurance.<\/p>\n<p>Against her own husband.<\/p>\n<p>That was Eleanor\u2019s word.<\/p>\n<p>She kept copies in case Frank ever tried to leave her with nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Richard somehow discovered she had them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe won\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause the person who told Richard is still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland shook his head.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe wants protection terms first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone had conditions.<\/p>\n<p>I was tired of truth arriving through negotiation.<\/p>\n<p>Richard met Eleanor secretly.<\/p>\n<p>He asked for the originals.<\/p>\n<p>She refused.<\/p>\n<p>Then Frank began moving assets out of her name.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor became frightened.<\/p>\n<p>Richard offered fifty thousand dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Not as purchase price.<\/p>\n<p>As money for an attorney, housing, and immediate expenses if she left Frank and cooperated with authorities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo she was going to leave him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy didn\u2019t she?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaul.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I frowned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPaul was an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was working at Northbridge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course.<\/p>\n<p>Another child.<\/p>\n<p>Another hook.<\/p>\n<p>Frank told Eleanor that if she exposed him, Paul would be implicated in fraudulent transactions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWas he?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot knowingly, as far as investigators can establish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut Eleanor believed it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Frank knew exactly where to press.<\/p>\n<p>Parents who tolerated harm to themselves would surrender quickly when a child was threatened.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor returned the fifty thousand to the Northbridge account.<\/p>\n<p>She did not deliver the originals.<\/p>\n<p>Richard noted the failure.<\/p>\n<p>Days later he died.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Eleanor know about the drug?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe denies it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she know Frank planned something Thursday?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her journal proved that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did she think \u2018tonight it ends\u2019 meant?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat Frank would force Richard into an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe says financial threats.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she photograph me at church?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJennifer did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Eleanor arrange it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There it was.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor called Jennifer that afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Told her Frank needed proof I was away so Richard and Michael could talk privately.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer bought the explanation.<\/p>\n<p>Or chose to.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid Eleanor know why Frank needed proof?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe says she suspected something more serious after he asked her to purchase the disposable camera.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy didn\u2019t she warn me?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland did not answer.<\/p>\n<p>There was no answer that improved it.<\/p>\n<p>She could have called.<\/p>\n<p>One sentence.<\/p>\n<p>Margaret, go home.<\/p>\n<p>Richard might have lived.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Eleanor chose Paul.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer chose Michael.<\/p>\n<p>Michael chose himself.<\/p>\n<p>Frank chose money and control.<\/p>\n<p>Richard chose evidence over immediate escape.<\/p>\n<p>And I knew nothing.<\/p>\n<p>The next revelation came from Eleanor\u2019s photographs of Frank\u2019s old ledger.<\/p>\n<p>She had kept them in a safe-deposit box under her maiden name.<\/p>\n<p>Police recovered the box.<\/p>\n<p>The photographs were faded but legible.<\/p>\n<p>One page contained the scaffolding payments.<\/p>\n<p>Another showed worker settlements.<\/p>\n<p>A third concerned Northbridge\u2019s life-insurance program.<\/p>\n<p>Richard\u2019s name appeared.<\/p>\n<p>So did mine.<\/p>\n<p>But my policy was not originally Frank\u2019s idea.<\/p>\n<p>The notation read:<\/p>\n<p>M.H. coverage\u2014M suggests after R resolved.<\/p>\n<p>I stared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cM.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael.<\/p>\n<p>Harland nodded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLikely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My son suggested insuring me after his father died.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe asked him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael\u2019s answer came through his attorney.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed Northbridge needed coverage because I controlled assets tied to the company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat makes no sense if they were pretending I owned nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo they knew.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michael had known Margaret Hale Holdings retained leverage.<\/p>\n<p>He had spent thirteen years pretending otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>The policy was another precaution.<\/p>\n<p>If I died, my interests would pass under estate structures they believed easier to challenge or control.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Christmas?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland said Frank\u2019s messages supported using the policy as a fallback benefit, but investigators still had no proof Michael intended to kill me.<\/p>\n<p>I thought of his answer.<\/p>\n<p>Would you have stopped additional doses?<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes lack of intent is not innocence.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes it is merely permission.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor\u2019s ledger photographs also contained initials we had not identified.<\/p>\n<p>S.P.<\/p>\n<p>Payments beginning before Richard\u2019s death and continuing for six years afterward.<\/p>\n<p>Harland initially suspected Susan Price, Rebecca\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n<p>Susan denied receiving money.<\/p>\n<p>Bank records supported her.<\/p>\n<p>Then Walter Chen recognized the notation.<\/p>\n<p>S.P. was not a person.<\/p>\n<p>Safe Passage.<\/p>\n<p>A private corporate intelligence firm.<\/p>\n<p>Frank hired them for surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf Richard?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMe?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho else?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Workers.<\/p>\n<p>Business partners.<\/p>\n<p>Attorneys.<\/p>\n<p>Officials.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone Frank considered a risk.<\/p>\n<p>The firm had closed nine years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Its founder, Graham Voss, was alive.<\/p>\n<p>Federal investigators found him in Nevada.<\/p>\n<p>He agreed to speak after being shown the old invoices.<\/p>\n<p>Voss had kept archives.<\/p>\n<p>Not out of conscience.<\/p>\n<p>Liability.<\/p>\n<p>His company surveilled Richard for six weeks before his death.<\/p>\n<p>They photographed meetings.<\/p>\n<p>Tracked his car.<\/p>\n<p>Logged visitors.<\/p>\n<p>Intercepted discarded documents.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIllegal?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome activities likely were.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid they photograph me at church?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen why does this matter?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland handed me a surveillance log.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>The night Richard died.<\/p>\n<p>7:12 p.m.\u2014F. Mercer arrives Hale residence.<\/p>\n<p>8:18 p.m.\u2014F. Mercer departs.<\/p>\n<p>8:53 p.m.\u2014M. Hale enters side entrance.<\/p>\n<p>9:11 p.m.\u2014unknown female vehicle stops 40 sec, leaves.<\/p>\n<p>9:15 p.m.\u2014Margaret Hale arrives.<\/p>\n<p>9:32 p.m.\u2014M. Hale exits rear.<\/p>\n<p>I stopped.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichael left at 9:32?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t see him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe used the rear door.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Our kitchen had a rear mudroom.<\/p>\n<p>I had gone upstairs.<\/p>\n<p>Michael was still inside my house when I returned.<\/p>\n<p>He had lied again.<\/p>\n<p>In the interview he told me he left Richard before I came home.<\/p>\n<p>He had not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat was he doing?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRichard was already sick.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe heard me come in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLikely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd hid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My stomach twisted.<\/p>\n<p>I remembered calling Richard\u2019s name from the foyer.<\/p>\n<p>No answer at first.<\/p>\n<p>Michael may have been twenty feet away.<\/p>\n<p>Waiting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat about the unknown woman?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The surveillance photograph was poor.<\/p>\n<p>Vehicle only.<\/p>\n<p>Dark sedan.<\/p>\n<p>No plate.<\/p>\n<p>But the company had taken one distant image.<\/p>\n<p>Harland enlarged it.<\/p>\n<p>A woman\u2019s profile through the windshield.<\/p>\n<p>I recognized her.<\/p>\n<p>Not Jennifer.<\/p>\n<p>Not Rebecca.<\/p>\n<p>Not Eleanor.<\/p>\n<p>Evelyn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s impossible. She was working.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe clocked in at 9:47.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The nursing facility was eleven minutes from my house.<\/p>\n<p>Her overnight shift had not begun when investigators originally assumed.<\/p>\n<p>Evelyn had been outside.<\/p>\n<p>She lied.<\/p>\n<p>Again.<\/p>\n<p>Harland questioned her.<\/p>\n<p>This time she asked for a revised cooperation agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors refused until she spoke.<\/p>\n<p>So she spoke.<\/p>\n<p>Frank called her after leaving Richard.<\/p>\n<p>He said Richard had barely touched the first whiskey.<\/p>\n<p>Michael was going inside.<\/p>\n<p>Evelyn drove past to make sure Michael arrived.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrank wanted confirmation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was part of the surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she enter?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid she know I was coming?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe says Frank told her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom Jennifer\u2019s photograph.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLikely.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The plan was coordinated.<\/p>\n<p>More than we had understood.<\/p>\n<p>Then Evelyn said something that changed Richard\u2019s final minutes.<\/p>\n<p>She called Michael at 9:18.<\/p>\n<p>Three minutes after I returned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat did she tell him?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland looked grim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe told him to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause you were home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did she know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe had circled back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Evelyn saw my car.<\/p>\n<p>She warned Michael.<\/p>\n<p>Michael stayed fourteen more minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe won\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The surveillance firm\u2019s final photograph showed him leaving with the red folder beneath his coat.<\/p>\n<p>But something else was in his hand.<\/p>\n<p>Small.<\/p>\n<p>Dark.<\/p>\n<p>Rectangular.<\/p>\n<p>Harland enhanced the image.<\/p>\n<p>An answering-machine cassette.<\/p>\n<p>Michael had removed the tape before his 9:27 call.<\/p>\n<p>That was impossible.<\/p>\n<p>I looked at Harland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf he already had the cassette, how did his message get recorded?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cExactly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The tape Eleanor gave us could not have been the machine\u2019s original cassette.<\/p>\n<p>Someone had copied or reconstructed it.<\/p>\n<p>My pulse quickened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen the four-second message\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMay have come from another recording.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho made the copy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The cassette that had driven so much of the investigation had been curated.<\/p>\n<p>Like Eleanor\u2019s evidence.<\/p>\n<p>Chosen.<\/p>\n<p>Assembled.<\/p>\n<p>Presented.<\/p>\n<p>Harland sent it for deeper forensic analysis.<\/p>\n<p>The tape contained splice points.<\/p>\n<p>Several messages came from the original answering-machine recording.<\/p>\n<p>But the four-second \u201cHe drank it. Don\u2019t call again\u201d segment had been inserted from a different source.<\/p>\n<p>Michael did make the call.<\/p>\n<p>Phone records proved that.<\/p>\n<p>But the message we heard was not necessarily what he left on our machine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhere did the four seconds come from?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Audio technicians isolated background noise.<\/p>\n<p>A low mechanical hum.<\/p>\n<p>Then a bell.<\/p>\n<p>Walter Chen recognized it.<\/p>\n<p>Northbridge\u2019s old freight elevator.<\/p>\n<p>The phrase had been recorded at Northbridge.<\/p>\n<p>Not my house.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnknown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho was Michael speaking to?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnknown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everything we thought we understood shifted.<\/p>\n<p>Michael still admitted pouring contaminated whiskey.<\/p>\n<p>He still abandoned Richard.<\/p>\n<p>He still removed evidence.<\/p>\n<p>But the cassette had been manipulated to make the sequence look cleaner than it was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho benefited from that?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland answered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomeone who wanted investigators focused on Michael.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrank?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEleanor?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPossibly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I thought of her arriving with the recipe box.<\/p>\n<p>The perfect cassette.<\/p>\n<p>The perfect prescription bottle.<\/p>\n<p>Evidence pointing toward her husband and my son.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat is she protecting?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harland\u2019s phone rang before he could answer.<\/p>\n<p>The forensic accountants had opened another encrypted Northbridge archive.<\/p>\n<p>Inside were scanned correspondence files.<\/p>\n<p>One was from Richard to Eleanor.<\/p>\n<p>Dated the morning he died.<\/p>\n<p>The subject line:<\/p>\n<p>YOU HAVE UNTIL SIX.<\/p>\n<p>Richard wrote only three sentences.<\/p>\n<p>Deliver the originals to Brennan by six tonight. If you do not, I will tell Margaret everything, including your account. Frank will not be the only one answering questions.<\/p>\n<p>Your account.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor had not merely witnessed Frank\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n<p>She had her own.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators traced the fifty thousand Richard gave her.<\/p>\n<p>Before she returned it to Northbridge, Eleanor moved it through a private account for nine hours.<\/p>\n<p>That account contained far more.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly two million dollars.<\/p>\n<p>Money accumulated over twelve years.<\/p>\n<p>Transfers from Frank\u2019s shell companies.<\/p>\n<p>Worker settlements.<\/p>\n<p>Northbridge.<\/p>\n<p>Eleanor had been hiding money from Frank while helping herself to the same system she claimed to fear.<\/p>\n<p>Richard discovered it.<\/p>\n<p>He planned to expose her too.<\/p>\n<p>Suddenly the night of his death had another person with motive.<\/p>\n<p>At 5:41 p.m., nineteen minutes before Richard\u2019s deadline, Eleanor made a phone call.<\/p>\n<p>Not to Richard.<\/p>\n<p>Not to Frank.<\/p>\n<p>To Michael.<\/p>\n<p>The call lasted eleven minutes.<\/p>\n<p>At 8:53, Michael entered my house.<\/p>\n<p>And Eleanor\u2019s journal for that night contained one sentence she had never shown police because she tore the page out.<\/p>\n<p>Forensic imaging recovered the pressure marks from the page beneath it.<\/p>\n<p>The sentence read:<\/p>\n<p>Michael promised he will handle Richard before Margaret gets home.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/?p=3262\">Click here to continue reading: PART 19: Eleanor\u2019s Missing Journal Page Put Her Inside the Plan, but Michael\u2019s Real Phone Call Revealed Richard Was Still Fighting After I Came Home<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eleanor did not run when police arrived. She was at home. Sitting in the kitchen. A pot of coffee stood untouched on the counter. Paul was there too. Harland later &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feel-one-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3285,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions\/3285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/feelonestory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}