Chapter 7 - THE PERSON ARTHUR TRUSTED MOST
They started again.
Not with suspects.
With access.
Who knew Arthur’s investigation?
Who could alter company records?
Who knew Victor hired private security?
Who could obtain old Riverside evidence?
Who could plant medication?
Who could manipulate travel schedules?
Daniel wrote names on a whiteboard.
Grant Holloway.
Victor Vale.
Marianne Vale.
Corporate security.
Executive legal staff.
Arthur’s private assistants.
James stared at Daniel.
“What about you?”
Silence.
Evelyn looked at him.
Daniel didn’t react.
James continued.
“You knew everything Arthur knew.”
“Most things.”
“You control legal records.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about me before anyone else.”
“Yes.”
“You came to my job with black cars.”
“Yes.”
Daniel met his eyes.
“And if you’re asking whether you should investigate me, the answer is absolutely.”
That response unsettled James more than denial would have.
They reviewed Daniel’s timeline.
Clean.
Almost too clean.
Then Evelyn noticed something.
Arthur’s last outgoing call.
Thirty-seven seconds.
To Marianne Vale.
Her grandmother.
Marianne had barely participated in the investigation.
Elegant.
Quiet.
Always in the background.
They found her in the estate greenhouse.
She was cutting white roses.
Evelyn stood in the doorway.
“Grandpa called you before he died.”
Marianne didn’t turn.
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“That he was sorry.”
“For what?”
Marianne cut another rose.
“For ruining our family.”
James watched her hands.
Steady.
Too steady.
“Did you know about Halcyon?”
Marianne finally looked up.
“Of course.”
Evelyn went pale.
“What?”
“I knew about everything.”
Silence fell.
Marianne removed her gardening gloves.
“Arthur told me after Riverside.”
“And you stayed?”
“He was my husband.”
“Fourteen people died!”
“And you think leaving him would resurrect them?”
Evelyn stared at her grandmother.
Marianne’s voice remained calm.
“I pushed Arthur to confess.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t he?”
“Victor begged him not to.”
James stepped forward.
“What about Grant?”
Marianne smiled sadly.
“Grant was Arthur’s weakness.”
“Why?”
“He raised him.”
James frowned.
Marianne explained.
Grant’s parents died when he was eleven.
Arthur brought him into the family.
Paid for school.
Gave him work.
Trusted him like a son.
“When the first fraud was discovered, Arthur couldn’t believe Grant had done it.”
Evelyn whispered:
“So he protected him.”
“For too long.”
James looked at Marianne.
“Did Grant kill Arthur?”
“I believe so.”
“Proof?”
She hesitated.
That was the first crack.
“What?”
Marianne looked toward the garden windows.
“Arthur called me that morning.”
Her voice softened.
“He said, ‘I finally know who kept stopping me.’”
James felt his pulse quicken.
“Did he name them?”
“No.”
“He said he had made one final mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“He trusted the person who helped him investigate.”
Everyone turned toward Daniel.
Daniel’s face drained.
Evelyn whispered:
“Daniel?”
He stepped backward.
“I don’t know what she means.”
Marianne continued.
“Arthur said the betrayal came from the person who had been beside him the entire time.”
Daniel looked furious.
“I served Arthur for twenty-two years.”
“Exactly,” James said.
Daniel turned toward him.
“You think I killed him?”
“I think we follow evidence.”
Daniel removed his phone and placed it on the table.
“Then take everything.”
Emails.
Messages.
Bank accounts.
Calendar.
He unlocked it.
No resistance.
They searched.
Nothing.
Until Evelyn found an archived voicemail.
Arthur’s voice.
“Daniel, don’t file the Halcyon subpoena. Not yet. Someone is reading your drafts.”
James looked at him.
“Someone had access to Daniel’s legal files.”
Daniel slowly sat down.
“My assistant.”
“Who?”
He answered:
“Nora Pike.”
Nora Pike had worked beside Daniel for nine years.
Quiet.
Efficient.
Invisible.
She had access to every litigation file.
Every witness name.
Every subpoena.
Every sealed investigation note.
And Nora’s maiden name?
Holloway.
Grant’s younger sister.
Evelyn whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Daniel called security.
Too late.
Nora had left the building an hour earlier.
Her apartment was empty.
Laptop gone.
Passport gone.
Police searched financial records.
Nora had transferred money through Halcyon accounts for years.
Grant had been the face.
Nora had been the system.
But there was more.
Detective Brooks found encrypted messages between Nora and an unknown contact.
One from the morning Arthur collapsed.
DOSAGE CONFIRMED.
Another:
OLD MAN WON’T MAKE FRIDAY.
James stared.
“She poisoned him.”
Brooks nodded.
“Or helped coordinate it.”
They traced Nora’s vehicle to an airport parking garage.
No flight record.
The car was abandoned.
Inside the trunk was Grant Holloway’s passport.
Blood stained the lining.
Evelyn whispered:
“Grant’s dead?”
Brooks shook her head.
“No body.”
James stared at the blood.
Grant had disappeared.
Nora had disappeared.
Arthur was dead.
Someone was removing every person who knew the truth.
Then James’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
Silence.
Then Grant Holloway’s voice.
Weak.
Breathing hard.
“James Carter?”
James stood.
“Where are you?”
“Listen to me.”
“You killed Arthur?”
Grant laughed painfully.
“You still think this is about me.”
“Where are you?”
“Nora took everything.”
“What everything?”
“Halcyon wasn’t my company.”
James looked at Evelyn.
“Then whose was it?”
Grant coughed.
“I covered for someone.”
“Who?”
“I thought I was protecting the family.”
“Grant!”
A loud noise sounded on the line.
Grant whispered:
“Your father found the real owner eighteen years ago.”
James’s grip tightened.
“Tell me the name.”
Grant began speaking.
Then the call cut out.
Seconds later, a text arrived.
A photograph.
An old Halcyon incorporation document.
One ownership page Arthur had never found.
James zoomed in.
Evelyn looked over his shoulder.
Her face became completely still.
The listed beneficial owner was not Grant.
Not Victor.
Not Arthur.
It was Marianne Vale.
Evelyn’s grandmother.
The woman cutting roses calmly in the greenhouse.
The woman who claimed she had begged Arthur to confess.
The woman Arthur had trusted for forty-six years.
May you like
And the last person he called before he died.
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