Ryan stood outside the church, not ready to say goodbye to his father. “We couldn’t even give Dad a proper funeral,” he thought. Bella, his dog, barked sharply from the car, clearly agitated. After calming her, Ryan entered the church, where Arnold’s closed casket stood—sealed due to his infectious cause of death.
As the funeral ended, Bella burst in and jumped on the casket, barking loudly. Ryan, sensing something was wrong, opened it—only to find it empty.
Back home, his mother fainted from shock. At the hospital, Ryan called the police. Detective Bradshaw began investigating, but answers were few. Ryan went to the morgue, where he learned the coroner had abruptly resigned and Arnold’s file was missing.
Later, Arnold’s lawyer, Mr. Stevens, made Ryan the new CEO. At Arnold’s office, Ryan noticed two missing figurines and discovered someone had wiped Arnold’s emails. Mr. Stevens hinted at Arnold’s affair with his secretary, Miss Pearson, and financial troubles.
Suspicious, Ryan followed Miss Pearson to her home and found a framed photo of her with Arnold—and a life insurance policy naming her sole beneficiary. He brought this to the police, who tried to stop her from fleeing the country, but she vanished.
Still convinced Arnold was alive, Ryan tracked down a collector with the missing third figurine in the set his father once sought. He sold his company shares to buy it and arranged for the figurine to be auctioned, hoping to lure Arnold out.
At the auction, a disguised Arnold bid $1 million and won. As he left, Ryan and Detective Bradshaw confronted and arrested him. Arnold admitted he faked his death to start a new life with Miss Pearson and collect the insurance money.
Ryan told him, “You taught me to do what’s right, not what’s easy. I wish you’d remembered that.”