Chapter 15 - THE MAN WHO NEEDED HIM BLIND
Malcolm was arrested before sunrise on the private road behind the estate.
He looked insulted rather than afraid.
Grant met him in the federal interview room.
No dark glasses.
Malcolm stared at his eyes.
Grant noticed the silence.
"You can tell something changed."
Malcolm sat back.
"Hale failed."
There it was.
Grant's hands curled.
"Why keep me blind?"
"Because you were impossible to control before Pier 17. Afterward, you signed what Daniel read to you. You stayed home. You stopped auditing foundation accounts."
"You stole from me."
"I preserved the family."
Grant laughed once.
"By stealing my daughter?"
Malcolm's face tightened.
"Emma complicated everything. Caroline had transferred thirty-six percent of her voting shares into a trust for the child. If Emma died, those shares reverted to the family foundation. If she lived, I lost control."
"So you declared her dead."
"I kept her alive."
Grant stood so fast the chair scraped.
"You don't get credit for not murdering a child you imprisoned."
Malcolm's mask slipped.
"I did not plant the bomb."
"Who did?"
"Pike."
Malcolm explained that Pike had been hired to frighten Caroline and steal her files.
The bomb was supposed to detonate after the pier closed.
Pike changed the timer.
"Why?"
"Hale paid him."
Hale wanted trial data from a severely injured subject.
Pike wanted money.
Malcolm wanted Caroline's files and Emma's shares.
Separate motives converged into one blast.
No single elegant mastermind.
Just greed stacked on greed.
Grant asked the only question left.
"Why was I sedated?"
Malcolm looked toward the mirror.
"Caroline did it."
Grant stopped breathing.
"Don't lie about her."
"She put something in your drink because she was trying to get you out without a fight. She thought you would stop her from taking Emma."
Grant felt sick.
Caroline had not tried to kill him.
May you like
She had been afraid he would choose the family empire over her.
The worst part was that, five years ago, she might have been right.
