Chapter 10

Friday Knights

When I woke the next morning, the sun was peeking through the blind and shining directly in my eyes. Blinking, I sat up trying to get my bearings. I quickly remembered where I was and why. Glancing up at the bed, I was shocked to see Susan staring back at me.

"I've been waiting for you to wake up." Susan whispered.

"Oh, Suze…" I burst out crying. "Sorry." I wiped my eyes and then went over and kissed her on her forehead. "I've been so worried."

"What happened? Why am I here?"

I gave her an extremely abbreviated version, leaving out the part that Greg had been arrested and our attempts to clear him. I didn't want to stress her out. She was doing well, but she had no memory of events of the night. I was adjusting her medicine when I looked up and saw Greg making his way towards the room.

"Steady on, here comes your favorite jerk."

Susan opened her eyes and smiled when Greg came through the door. He said nothing, but immediately bent down and gave her a long, loving kiss. I have to admit, I had to look away, the kiss made me uneasy and I just couldn't watch.

"I'm going to go get some coffee and breakfast." I mentioned as I made my way to the door.

"Cream, no sugar." House said.

"Oh, you want coffee?"

"Duh."

I rolled my eyes and left for the cafeteria. While I was down there, House walked up to me.

"Chase showed up and examined her. He's scheduled an MRI and then she'll probably need some more sleep. I thought I'd get an egg and sausage sandwich. Is that my coffee?"

"Yes."

"Why don't you take it over to that table, I'll join you as soon as I get the sandwich."

As I walked over to the table, I yelled over my shoulder. "Get me one too." I chuckled to myself; I knew it was a sport for House to avoid paying for food.

We sat in the booth, both needing a really good night's sleep. I kept wishing this were all over. But, my mind was still racing, trying to figure out who would do this and why?

"Let's put a list of people together who might know her security code."

Finley smiled and took a napkin out. Clicking the pen, she began to write and speak out loud, "Me, you, Susan, her former roommate Terry, her ex-husband…since it was her student number her instructors at med school knew it, but whether they knew it was her code, I don't know."

"Ex-husband?"

"Keith Jeffries."

"He was pissed when he couldn't break their pre-nup." House thought out loud.

"But, that was two years ago. He's all about the money…and there's no money if Susan dies. Her money goes back to the trust."

House shook his head and grinned. "He's not after her trust."

"What is he after? Revenge?"

"We need to know if Susan ever took out a life insurance policy naming him as a beneficiary."

"But wouldn't an insurance policy lapse if the trust didn't pay for it?"

"Yes, but what if the trust wasn't paying the premium? " House's eyes were focused out in space somewhere giving Finley the feeling that she was not even in his universe.

"First of all, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Why would Susan take out a life insurance policy when she has all the money in the world in a trust fund?"

"To pay him off if she died. It was probably part of the prenup."

"We need to ask Susan."

They went back to find Susan and discovered that she was still in the MRI. House burst into the control room and flipped the mike on to talk to her.

"Susan, did you have an insurance policy that named your ex-husband as beneficiary if you bought the farm?"

"Greg?"

"Yeah, it's me, just answer the question."

"I don't know. My trustee and attorney handled all of that. I'm sorry, I just don't know."

"Susan, you're a moron, you should never let others have total control."

"That's none of your business."

"Yeah, well we'll talk about that later."

He flipped the switch and joined Finley in the hall. "She doesn't know. Seems her trustee takes care of that. Who's her trustee?"

"I'm not sure. It changes from time to time. It's a professional trustee who does nothing but handle her and her sibling's trusts."

"Does her father know you?"

"Yes, of course."

"Would he answer your questions about the trust?"

"I don't know. Rich people don't like others snooping. But, I heard that he's on his way here from India—we could ask."

"I don't know if we have time. If someone wanted her dead, what's to stop them from taking her out in the hospital?"

"She doesn't have security?"

"One cop. And he's flirting with the nurses more than he's guarding her."

Finley picked up her cell phone and dialed. She waited until someone picked up. "Matthew?"

"Yes?"

"It's Finley."

"Finley! How's Susan? Dad and I are on our way. We just landed at JFK."

"Matt, Susan needs security. Someone tried to kill her and may still be trying to kill her. She has one paltry cop who isn't that interested in being here."

"You're joking? One cop? Let me arrange something. We'll be there in a few hours."

"Matt?" She realized from the dead silence that he had hung up. She put her phone in her pocket. "Crap, I was going to ask him about the life insurance policy."

"What about the women last night? What do you know about them?"

"Not much, you kinda killed any chance to get to know them with your little drama. I know that they're all single. The only one I had met before was Matilda."

"This sucks. We're not getting anywhere."

"We need to sleep."

He got that naughty grin on his face. "Look, you've got to stop torturing yourself; it's not going to happen. I'm not sleeping with you."

"I knew that was coming."

"Yeah and it's the only thing coming—get it?"

Finley rolled her eyes. "I'm going to the doctor's lounge and see if I can't get some sleep."

He followed her to the doctor's lounge, taking up residence on the far end of the sofa, putting his feet up on the ottoman. Finley took the other end, pulling her feet up under her and laying her head on the rolled arm. When she woke up, she felt House's hand on her calf. Looking over her shoulder she could see his head back, mouth slightly opened, eyes closed. He was asleep but had managed to find and hold onto her leg. She wondered how many people had wandered through and seen his hand caressing her calf. At least it wasn't her thigh.

Pulling her leg away from him, she stood up and stretched. Looking back, he was still asleep so she went into the bathroom and splashed her face before making her way to Susan's room. When she got there, she saw Matthew and J. John Friday, Susan's father, standing outside of the room talking to three men in shades and dark suits—security had arrived. Running into Matthew's arms, they hugged.

"Oh, Matthew, it was horrible." Finley cried.

"I heard you did a phenomenal job on patching her up. You saved her life."

"She's a fighter."

Finley turned to Susan's father, "Jack, I'm sorry to meet again under these circumstances."

He gave her a brief, but warm hug. "Thank you for saving her life. I hear the police arrested her boyfriend for the crime."

"They have the wrong man. He didn't do it."

Jack backed away as if she was nuts. "His prints are on the knife and I heard they had been arguing."

"They made up and had sex, so there was no real motive for him to do it. Besides, he was drugged. I ran tests and he had Rohypnol in his blood and there was evidence that the wine they drank had been tampered with."

Jack knotted his forehead and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "The detectives told you that?"

"No, I've discovered this on my own. I know Greg House and he wouldn't hurt Susan."

Jack was clearly disturbed by what I was saying. "Finley, I've heard this man has been institutionalized and is known for being a handful."

"Yes, he is. But, he wouldn't hurt—oh, here he is."

Bam! House was sprawled on the floor with Matthew over him, fist balled and ready to hit again. Finley grabbed Matthew's elbow before he could attack again. "Matt, I swear, he didn't do it! Please, believe me, if I thought he was the attacker, I'd deck him myself."

House was rubbing his chin and backing away from Matt. Finley extended her hand and helped him up.

"Greg House, this is Matthew Friday and Jack Friday, Susan's brother and father."

House didn't bother to extend his hand when it was clear none was being extended to him.

"Have you been in to see her?" Finley asked.

They both nodded.

"We arrived about half an hour ago when she was still awake."

"Good, she seems to be responding to the antibiotics, so I think she'll be okay. Why don't you come down to my office so that we can talk?"

They reluctantly followed Finley and House to Finley's office. House sat behind the desk where Finley usually sat. The Fridays took the visitor chairs. Finley leaned on the edge of her desk. She gave them a thumbnail sketch of their theory.

"Did Susan have a life insurance policy drawn up on her?"

Both Matthew and Jack shrugged.

"The Friday Family trust pays out a lump sum at the age of 26 to a separate trust for each heir. That trust has its own trustee. Once Susan turned 26, I had no control or knowledge about how she spent her money or handled her financial affairs." Jack said.

"Who is her trustee?" House asked.

Jack ignored House.

"Jack, who is her trustee?" Finley said softly.

"Melody Caldwell. It changed three years ago. She's with Caldwell and Caldwell, it's a family trust company that oversees a lot of the major family trusts on the eastern seaboard."

"Do you think she might give us some information?"

Matthew and Jack both shook their heads. "They know their business depends on their discretion. Without Susan's approval, they won't say a word."

"Well, we can get that when she wakes up." Finley said.

House stared off as if an answer was somewhere in the stratosphere. "I think we need to call my favorite detective." House stood up and went out into the hall. Finley followed him.

"What are you doing?"

House held a finger to his mouth as he waited for a response. "Tritter, its House. We have some news. My blood had a fairly high amount of Rohypnol in it, meaning I would have been sedated for the entire night. It's why I didn't hear or feel anything that was going on."

Finley pulled his hand down so they could both listen to Tritter's response.

"That matches what we found. The cork had traces of Rohypnol. It looks as if you may not have done it personally, but it doesn't rule you out as a co-conspirator."

"Fair enough. But, we're wondering if Susan had any insurance policies out there that would have paid off if she died."

"She was rich and single, why would she need an insurance policy?"

"Christ, we don't know. We just know someone wanted her dead and money is usually a big motive. Is there any way you can check for insurance policies?"

"What about her? I thought she was awake. Can't she tell you?"

"No, she more or less leaves all the decisions to her trustee." House responded.

"Give me the name of her trustee and I'll see what I can get out of her."

After giving Tritter the information, House turned to Finley. "I get the feeling that Daddy and bro aren't going to take me out for drinks, so I'm going to go down and see Susan and then do some research."

"I need to get them settled in. I'll join you in your office in a few minutes."

He stopped for a minute and, without smiling, said to her, "Thanks for running interference. I still don't get why you're doing this." He turned and took off leaving Finley asking herself the same question.