Chapter 6 - BLOOD ON THE CRYSTAL
The attack at the overlook transformed the investigation from scandal into conspiracy. Detective Valdez moved Chloe to a secure floor under an alias. Grant was placed in protective custody, though he insisted the only safe place for him was somewhere no one knew existed. Marcus’s board finally stopped asking him to resign and started asking whether any company systems had been compromised. For the first time, the people who had treated the viral clip as a complete story began to understand that they had been watching the smallest visible piece of something much larger.
The physical evidence from the gala became decisive. The broken champagne bottle carried Marcus’s blood on the outer glass and another man’s partial fingerprint near the neck. Chloe’s flute contained both sedatives found in her bloodstream. A second glass recovered from the service station had residue from the same crushed tablets. The catering jacket discarded near the loading dock contained a hair that did not match Grant. Beneath one cuff, investigators found skin cells from Owen Pike.
Police searched Pike’s apartment. It was empty, professionally cleaned, and almost insulting in its lack of evidence. But the garage camera at his building recorded him leaving at 4:12 that morning with a duffel bag. A traffic camera later caught the same car near the mountain road shortly before the SUV charged the overlook.
Simone’s attorneys issued a statement saying she had never knowingly worked with Pike and that any connection between him and her former law firm was “purely administrative.” The statement held for six hours.
Then Daniel Sloane called Marcus. They met in a private room at the hospital under police supervision. Sloane looked like a man who had not slept. He placed a sealed envelope on the table and pushed it forward.
“I represent Simone,” he said. “But I do not represent criminal conduct.” Inside were copies of invoices from three shell companies, all approved by Simone during her time at the law firm. The payments totaled $4.8 million over four years. The recipients eventually led to businesses associated with Arthur Vale. One of the newest transfers had paid the security agency that employed Owen Pike.
Marcus kept his voice level. “Did Simone order the attack?” “I don’t know.” “That answer is becoming expensive.” Sloane rubbed his face. “She told me she was conducting a private investigation into old Meridian liabilities. She said Vale had information that could destroy the company and that she was paying intermediaries to recover documents before they were leaked.”
“Why hide that from me?” “She believed you would protect your father’s reputation.” Marcus almost laughed. “My father has been dead twelve years.” “Reputations survive people.” That evening, Chloe asked to speak with Simone. Marcus objected immediately. Valdez objected more carefully. Chloe refused both objections.
“I need to hear her voice,” she said. “I need to know if I recognize anything from that night.” They arranged a monitored video call with police listening. Simone appeared from the penthouse, immaculate again, the river behind her windows. For several seconds, neither woman spoke.
“Are you all right?” Simone finally asked. Chloe’s face did not change. “Did you put the champagne beside me?” “A server did.” “You told me one toast wouldn’t hurt.” “I didn’t know it was drugged.” “Did you know someone was going to attack me?” Simone’s eyes flashed. “No.”
“Did you know someone was going to attack my father?” A pause. Too small for a jury. Too large for a daughter. “No,” Simone said. Chloe leaned closer to the screen. “Why did you say there was no man behind me?” Simone’s control slipped by a fraction. “Because I didn’t see one.”
“But you were looking directly at me.” “Everything happened quickly.” Chloe nodded slowly. “Yes. It did.” The call ended. She looked at Valdez. “She’s lying.” Marcus asked, “About which part?” “Not knowing anyone was there. She always watches the room. Always. At dinner, at stores, at airports. She notices exits before she notices people. If a man raised a bottle ten feet from her, she saw him.”
Ruth, standing near the window, whispered, “Unless she expected him.” The next break came from Grant’s hard drive. Among Evelyn’s copied files was an audio recording made one week before her death. The quality was poor, but her voice was unmistakable.
“I found the Vale accounts,” Evelyn said. “Walter knew. Maybe not everything, but enough. If Marcus learns what his father built the first hotels on, it will break him. The land purchases were forced. Families were threatened. Inspections were bought. And Vale kept records because he knew records become weapons.”
A man answered in the background. Grant. “What are you going to do?” “Tell Marcus. Then turn everything over.” The recording stopped. Marcus sat motionless for a long time. His father had been his hero, then his mentor, then a name on buildings. Now the name felt contaminated.
Valdez placed another document beside the audio transcript. It was a recent email recovered from Pike’s abandoned laptop through a cloud sync. The sender used an encrypted account, but the message referenced “the ballroom phase” and instructed Pike to create “a visible family incident, not a fatality.”
May you like
The payment code matched Simone’s shell company. Marcus stared at the phrase until the letters blurred. A visible family incident. The plan had not required Chloe to die. It had required Marcus to look dangerous, Chloe to look vulnerable, and the public to see exactly enough to believe the worst. The drug ensured she would collapse. Pike’s bottle attack ensured Marcus would react. Simone’s accusation supplied the interpretation.
But then who had sent the SUV toward them at the overlook? Valdez answered before Marcus asked. “Someone cleaning up after Simone’s plan,” she said. “Or someone using her plan for something bigger.” At that moment, a nurse entered carrying a small padded envelope addressed to Chloe. No return address. Inside was a flash drive and a card with four typed words: ASK MARCUS ABOUT ROOM 614. Marcus stopped breathing. He knew Room 614. It was the hotel room where Evelyn had spent the final hour of her life.
