Chapter 9 - THE MAN ABOVE VICTOR
Victor refused to talk.
Daniel asked for immunity.
Harold begged for protection.
Melissa Grant survived surgery.
And one sentence terrified everyone.
Victor was never the boss.
Martin paced inside the federal field office.
“There is no one above Victor.”
The investigator disagreed.
“There usually is.”
“Victor controlled everything.”
“Maybe operationally.”
Lucy sat beside Scarlett.
“Who benefited more than Victor?”
Martin stopped.
Nobody answered.
Then Scarlett said,
“What about Grandpa?”
Martin turned.
“My father?”
Scarlett nodded.
Charles Hale.
Founder of Hale Industrial Holdings.
Dead for seven years.
Martin laughed without humor.
“My father hated Victor.”
“Did he?”
Martin stared at her.
Scarlett continued.
“You’ve told me Grandpa never wanted you dating Rebecca.”
Martin froze.
Lucy slowly looked at him.
“What?”
Martin’s face tightened.
“My father thought Rebecca was a distraction.”
Lucy stood.
“You never mentioned him.”
“I didn’t think—”
“That seems to be a pattern.”
Martin accepted the blow.
Scarlett asked,
“Could he have helped Victor?”
Martin shook his head.
“My father wanted control.”
“Exactly.”
That sentence changed everything.
Federal agents searched old financial records.
Within hours they found connections.
Victor’s first investment in Hale Meridian came through a company secretly owned by Charles Hale.
Harold admitted Charles instructed him to prepare some early documents.
Martin stared at the evidence.
“My own father?”
Lucy asked,
“Why?”
Martin knew.
“Because I told him I wanted to marry Rebecca.”
Silence.
“He said if I married her, he would cut me off completely.”
Lucy folded her arms.
“And you still planned to?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Rebecca disappeared.”
Lucy closed her eyes.
Martin continued.
“I thought she chose to leave.”
“Because they made sure you did.”
Agents recovered the old voice recorder from Box 417.
Elaine’s voice filled the interview room.
“Rebecca, Charles knows we’re talking.”
Scarlett gripped Lucy’s hand.
Rebecca answered.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Then Elaine whispered,
“Victor is afraid of him.”
Martin’s face collapsed.
The recording continued.
“He told Victor that if the company ever returned to you, both men would go to prison.”
Rebecca asked,
“For the forged transfer?”
Elaine answered,
“No.”
A long pause.
“For the first death.”
Everyone in the room froze.
Martin whispered,
“What first death?”
The recording crackled.
Rebecca spoke.
“Whose death?”
Elaine answered.
“Martin’s mother.”
Martin’s face went white.
“My mother?”
He sat down.
His mother, Evelyn Hale, had died when Martin was nineteen.
A supposed medication overdose.
Declared accidental.
Lucy stared at him.
Martin whispered,
“She died six months before I met Rebecca.”
Agents requested records.
Charles Hale had received control of Evelyn’s trust after her death.
That trust later financed Victor’s investment.
Scarlett whispered,
“Grandpa killed Grandma?”
The investigator said,
“We don’t know yet.”
Martin looked sick.
Then the audio continued.
Elaine said,
“I found letters Evelyn wrote to her attorney.”
Martin lifted his head.
“She planned to divorce Charles.”
Scarlett closed her eyes.
Rebecca asked,
“Where are the letters?”
Elaine answered,
“With someone Charles can’t reach.”
“Who?”
Static.
Then the recording ended.
Lucy looked at the investigator.
“Can you recover more?”
“We’ll try.”
Martin sat motionless.
Lucy watched him.
For the first time she felt something other than anger.
Pity.
His entire life had been manipulated.
But then the investigator entered with new information.
“We interviewed Melissa Grant.”
Lucy stood.
“What did she say?”
“She admitted Victor paid her.”
Lucy’s face broke.
“To kill my mother?”
The investigator nodded.
Martin looked away.
Scarlett squeezed Lucy’s hand.
Lucy barely breathed.
“How?”
“Potassium injected through Rebecca’s IV.”
Lucy covered her mouth.
Martin whispered,
“I’m so sorry.”
Lucy turned on him.
“No.”
Her tears came hard.
“Don’t say sorry.”
“Lucy…”
“She died while I was sitting three feet away!”
Martin tried to approach.
Lucy backed away.
“I thought cancer took her.”
Scarlett wrapped her arms around Lucy.
This time Lucy did not resist.
The investigator continued carefully.
“Melissa claims Victor ordered it.”
Lucy looked up.
“But Victor wasn’t the boss.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
The investigator hesitated.
“She says the order originally came from someone identified only as C.H.”
Martin stared.
“Charles Hale is dead.”
“Yes.”
“For seven years.”
The investigator nodded.
“Which is why we have a problem.”
Lucy whispered,
“What problem?”
The investigator put a photograph on the table.
Taken two months earlier.
An elderly man leaving a private clinic in Switzerland.
Martin stared.
His knees buckled.
Scarlett whispered,
“That looks like Grandpa.”
Martin’s voice became hollow.
“It is.”
Lucy stared at him.
“But you said he died.”
May you like
Martin slowly lifted his eyes.
“I buried him.”
