Chapter 5 - The Man Inside My Company
Thomas survived because the bullet struck below his collarbone instead of his heart.
Barely.
The shooter disappeared before police sealed the neighborhood.
For the first time, Walter stopped thinking of the conspiracy as something that had happened six years earlier.
It was happening now.
Someone was still protecting it.
At the hospital, Thomas demanded to speak privately with Walter and Frank.
His face was gray.
Oxygen ran beneath his nose.
“I helped Grant steal,” Thomas admitted.
Walter stared at his brother.
“How much?”
“Millions.”
Frank placed a recorder on the bedside table.
Thomas continued.
“Grant was using inflated supplier contracts. He’d approve purchases through middlemen, then split the difference with people inside the company.”
“And you knew?”
“I found out.”
“You didn’t stop him.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I had gambling debts.”
Walter stepped away from the bed.
Twenty years of trust collapsed in a single answer.
Thomas began crying.
“I thought it was money. Just money. Then Rebecca found the invoices.”
“And Grant tried to kill her.”
“No.”
Walter turned.
Thomas looked directly at him.
“He planned to scare her. Fake a kidnapping. Force her to sign over the voting shares.”
“The crash?”
“Wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Thomas explained.
Grant and Melissa had intercepted Rebecca after a charity dinner.
Melissa sedated her.
They placed Rebecca in another vehicle.
Her SUV was supposed to be driven somewhere isolated and abandoned.
But the hired driver crashed during the ice storm.
The woman driving died.
A woman Thomas knew only as Carla.
Grant panicked.
Then he realized the crash gave him something better than a disappearance.
A death.
Melissa manipulated hospital records.
Grant bribed a coroner’s assistant.
False dental records were submitted.
Rebecca became legally dead.
“What about Marianne?” Walter asked.
Thomas swallowed.
“She found Rebecca.”
“Where?”
“A private rehabilitation center Melissa used.”
“What happened?”
“Marianne tried to rescue her. Grant threatened Noah.”
Walter’s hands curled into fists.
“So Marianne stayed quiet?”
“She pretended to join them. She believed she could collect enough evidence to destroy everyone.”
“Then why fake her death?”
“Because someone ordered Grant to remove her.”
Walter stared at him.
“Who?”
Thomas’s eyes shifted to Frank.
Then back.
“The person who financed everything.”
“Name.”
Thomas hesitated.
Walter stepped toward him.
“Thomas, I buried my daughter. I buried my wife. I spent six years believing both were dead. Give me the name.”
“Richard Vale.”
Walter went still.
Frank frowned.
“Who is Richard Vale?”
Walter knew.
His business partner.
His closest friend for nearly forty years.
The man who had stood beside Walter at both funerals.
Richard owned forty-nine percent of Hayes Industrial Supply.
Walter owned fifty-one.
Rebecca’s inheritance would eventually shift voting control firmly to Walter’s family.
Unless Rebecca transferred her shares.
Richard had spent decades one vote away from controlling a company worth more than two hundred million dollars.
Frank said quietly, “Motive.”
Thomas nodded.
“Richard discovered Grant’s theft. Instead of exposing him, he recruited him.”
Walter felt something inside him become very calm.
Not peaceful.
Dangerously clear.
“Where are they?”
Thomas whispered an address.
An estate near the Canadian border.
Richard owned it through a foundation.
“There’s an underground medical suite beneath the guesthouse.”
“Rebecca?”
“I think so.”
“Marianne?”
Thomas looked away.
“I haven’t seen Marianne in eighteen months.”
Walter gripped the bed rail.
“Is she alive?”
“I don’t know.”
Before they could ask more, the hospital corridor erupted in shouting.
Frank moved toward the door.
A nurse ran past.
Then the fire alarm sounded.
Thomas’s monitor suddenly flashed.
Walter turned.
Thomas began convulsing.
“Nurse!”
Doctors rushed inside.
A physician checked the IV line.
“This isn’t his medication.”
Frank grabbed the hanging bag.
Someone had switched it.
They pushed Walter into the hallway.
Minutes later, a crash sounded from the stairwell.
Police found a man in scrubs running for the exit.
He escaped through the ambulance bay.
Thomas died twelve minutes later.
Walter stood alone beside the hospital window.
His brother had betrayed him.
Then died trying to repair a fraction of the damage.
Frank approached.
“We have Richard’s property.”
“We go now.”
“We get warrants.”
“He’s moving them.”
“We still do this legally.”
Walter’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman whispered:
“Walter?”
His knees nearly buckled.
“Marianne?”
A sob came through the line.
His wife’s voice.
Older.
Weaker.
Alive.
“Listen carefully. Richard knows Thomas talked.”
“Where are you?”
“Don’t come for me.”
“I’m coming.”
“No. He has Noah.”
Walter stopped.
“What?”
“He took Noah from Grant tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because Grant wants out.”
Walter gripped the phone.
“Where is my grandson?”
Marianne began giving an address.
Then a man’s voice interrupted.
Richard Vale.
Smooth.
Familiar.
“Hello, old friend.”
Walter closed his eyes.
Richard laughed softly.
“You have been extremely expensive to bury.”
May you like
Then Noah screamed in the background.
And the call went dead.
