Chương 10
The remote access originated from a Vale Meridian administrative account.
Daniel’s office controlled that account.
It did not prove Daniel personally used it.
But it shattered the prosecution’s clean narrative.
Marissa Dawson was released pending further investigation.
Nathan went with Eli to the detention center.
He stayed in the car.
This was not his reunion.
Eli walked through the doors alone.
Twenty-three minutes later, he came back out with a woman beside him.
Marissa was thirty-four, smaller than Nathan expected, with dark hair tied badly behind her head and a clear plastic bag containing her belongings.
Eli stopped ten feet from her.
For one second neither moved.
Then Marissa dropped the bag.
Eli ran.
Nathan looked away.
He watched traffic instead.
A city bus stopped across the street.
Two teenagers argued over headphones.
A man in medical scrubs drank from a paper cup.
When Nathan looked back, Marissa was kneeling on the pavement holding Eli’s face in both hands.
She kissed his forehead over and over.
Eli was crying so hard his shoulders shook.
Nathan had never seen him cry.
He wished he had not.
Not because it embarrassed the boy.
Because it made clear how much effort Eli had spent not doing it.
Marissa eventually noticed the black SUV.
Her expression changed.
Eli said something to her.
She looked at Nathan through the windshield.
He stepped out.
Marissa stood.
Nathan walked toward them slowly.
“Ms. Dawson.”
She folded her arms.
“Mr. Vale.”
“I’m sorry.”
She looked at him for a long time.
“For what part?”
Nathan swallowed.
“That’s fair.”
“Is it?”
“No.”
Eli glanced between them.
Nathan said, “I’m going to cooperate fully with the investigation.”
Marissa’s face remained hard.
“You mean now that your family might be involved.”
“Yes.”
The word seemed to surprise her.
Nathan continued.
“I can’t undo what happened to you.”
“No.”
“I can pay for legal counsel.”
“No.”
“Your lawyer said the same thing.”
“Good lawyer.”
“He is.”
Marissa picked up her plastic bag.
Nathan stepped aside.
Before she passed, she stopped.
“Ray died because he got scared too late.”
Nathan looked at her.
“Yes.”
“You don’t get to do that.”
Then she walked away.
The police reopened Lucas Vale’s death investigation nine days later.
Officially, it was prompted by newly discovered evidence and inconsistencies in witness statements.
Nathan’s name did not appear in the announcement.
Neither did Eli’s.
Daniel called Nathan within minutes.
Nathan let it ring.
Then Daniel came to his office.
Security tried to stop him.
Nathan allowed him upstairs.
Daniel entered looking exactly like Nathan remembered from every family photograph.
Same dark hair, though more gray now.
Same shoulders.
Same crooked mouth inherited from their father.
He shut the door.
“What did you do?”
Nathan remained behind his desk.
“Sit.”
“Don’t talk to me like an employee.”
“Then stop behaving like one who’s about to be fired.”
Daniel stared.
“You reopened Lucas’s case.”
“The police did.”
“Because of you.”
Nathan said nothing.
Daniel paced.
“Caroline told me you questioned her.”
“She told you?”
“Of course she told me.”
Nathan watched him.
Something that had once seemed like family closeness now looked like coordination.
“How long were you stealing?”
Daniel stopped.
Then laughed.
“Oh, Christ.”
“How long?”
“You think this is about money?”
“Most financial crimes are.”
“I didn’t steal from you.”
“From the company.”
“I moved capital.”
“To companies you controlled.”
“To entities that protected us.”
“From what?”
“Your stupidity.”
Nathan almost smiled.
There was the brother he knew.
Daniel stepped closer.
“You were about to sink thirty percent of our logistics business into that expansion. I moved cash to protect liquidity.”
“You hid it.”
“Because you would’ve stopped me.”
“Yes.”
“And you would’ve been wrong.”
Nathan nodded slowly.
“Did Lucas find out?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“He found spreadsheets he didn’t understand.”
“So you followed him the night he died.”
Daniel’s eyes changed.
Barely.
Enough.
“I tried to talk to him.”
“At a gas station.”
“You have video.”
“Yes.”
“Then you saw.”
“I saw you follow him.”
“I followed him because he was hysterical.”
“Lucas wasn’t hysterical.”
“You hadn’t seen him.”
Nathan stood.
“Did you force his car off the road?”
Daniel stared at him.
“No.”
“Did you hit him?”
“No.”
“Did you threaten him?”
“I told him if he destroyed the company, it would destroy you.”
Nathan felt sick.
“He thought you were threatening me.”
“Then he was being dramatic.”
“He told Ray you’d come after me.”
Daniel went still.
Nathan saw the name land.
“Ray Pike.”
Daniel looked toward the window.
Nathan continued.
“He kept the boathouse drive.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The part where you finally believe the handyman instead of your brother.”
“He’s dead.”
“And somehow that makes him a saint?”
“No.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“It makes me interested in why everyone who knew something became inconvenient.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You think I killed Ray too?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“Maybe.”
Daniel picked up his coat.
Nathan said, “Who drugged me?”
Daniel stopped.
Silence.
Nathan’s heartbeat changed.
Not because Daniel confessed.
Because he did not look confused.
Nathan stepped around the desk.
“You knew.”
Daniel turned.
“Nathan.”
“You knew I was drugged.”
“Caroline told me the hospital found something.”
“She didn’t know.”
Daniel’s mouth opened.
Too late.
Nathan stared at him.
“Who drugged me?”
Daniel looked toward the door.
Nathan moved in front of it.
“Who?”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“I was trying to scare you.”
Nathan’s hands went cold.
“Explain.”
“You were asking questions.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You had audit pulling old vendor records.”
“Routine review.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“So you drugged me.”
“I put one pill in your bourbon.”
Nathan stared.
Daniel spoke faster.
“You were supposed to get sick. Pull over. I was going to take your car and make it look like you’d been drunk.”
“At the underpass.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To scare you.”
Nathan laughed once.
His ribs still hurt when he did.
May you like
“You left me unconscious in floodwater.”
“The river wasn’t that high when I left.”
