Ryan became suspicious as his dog ran into the church and started barking at his father’s coffin.
Seeing the dog alert and tense, he opened the casket and was in sh0ck to find it empty.
Earlier, Ryan got out of his car and stood outside the church, not ready to say goodbye to his father. “We couldn’t even give Dad a proper funeral,” he thought sadly. Just then, Bella, his dog, barked loudly and broke his thoughts.
Ryan looked at the car, where Bella seemed more restless than usual.
“Bella!” he said, using a hand signal to tell her to lie down.
She obeyed, and he gently patted her head through the window. “Stay here, Bella.”
After that, Ryan walked into the church, ignoring her whines. His father’s closed casket was already at the front, and the funeral director had roped off the area because of the fact that Arnold had d.ied from a contagious illness.
Ryan sat next to his mother, knowing his father would be cremated instead of buried due to how he d.ied.
When the funeral mass ended and people stood to sing, Bella’s barking filled the church.
She jumped onto the casket, knocking over the flowers, and barked loudly.
Then Bella sat on the floor in an alert position, staring at Ryan. He immediately felt something was wrong.
“Open the casket!” Ryan shouted.
People gasped, yet he didn’t care. He walked up and opened the casket—his father’s b.ody was gone.
“Wh-Where’s my brother?” Ryan’s uncle asked the funeral director in shock.
The sh.0ck was too much for Ryan’s mother.
She fainted, but Ryan caught her just in time before she hit the floor. He rushed her to the hospital.
Later, at his mom’s house, Ryan called the police.
“The coroner confirmed the cause of death and sent the body to the funeral home,” Detective Bradshaw said. “Was your father involved in anything unusual?”
Ryan hadn’t worked with his dad since starting his own dog training business.
Still, he believed his father wouldn’t do anything to harm his or the company’s name.
With no clear leads yet, the detective promised to follow up. However, Ryan didn’t want to wait. With his mom staying overnight in the hospital and Bella safe at home, he headed to the morgue to search for answers himself.
“The coroner quit?
What about the new one?” Ryan was sh0cked when the nurse told him there wasn’t a replacement yet. He asked to see his dad’s file, but the nurse said it was against the rules.
Ryan came up with an idea. He put $1000 on the counter, and the nurse looked the other way while he slipped into the coroner’s office.
He searched the shelves for his dad’s file but couldn’t find it—Arnold’s file was missing.
Ryan’s phone buzzed. It was Mr. Stevens, his father’s lawyer.
He said Ryan was now the new CEO of Arnold’s company and needed to come in right away.
At the office, Ryan logged into his dad’s Gmail but found the inbox completely empty—someone had deleted all the emails.
“Ryan! Good to see you,” Mr. Stevens said as he walked in and closed the door.
“Who’s been using this computer?” Ryan asked.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page.
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