Chapter 17 - The Summit Lodge
Snow hammered Blackpine Summit at 10:47 p.m.
Claire rode the service gondola upward wearing a wire beneath her coat.
Detective Ruiz’s team was already positioned.
No lights.
No sirens.
No visible police.
Grant had demanded Claire come alone.
As far as he knew, she had.
The closed summit lodge rose out of the storm like a dark ship.
Claire entered through the employee door.
The restaurant was nearly black.
Only the fireplace burned.
A man sat beside it.
Adrian Collins.
Claire stopped.
“You’re supposed to be in custody.”
“Released this afternoon.”
“With conditions.”
He smiled bitterly.
“Apparently I’m less valuable in jail.”
Claire looked around.
“Where’s Grant?”
“Coming.”
“Do you have the recorder?”
Collins opened his coat.
Daniel’s silver recorder sat inside a plastic evidence sleeve.
Claire’s heartbeat accelerated.
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
“You asked me here.”
“Grant asked you here.”
Claire stared.
Collins looked terrified.
“He told me if I wanted my sister left alone, I would bring the recorder.”
“So you took it from Marcus’s cache?”
“Yes.”
“Before police got there.”
“Yes.”
“You sent the photo?”
“Yes.”
Claire understood.
“Then Grant knows you have it.”
“Yes.”
“Why involve me?”
“Because Grant thinks you have Daniel’s copy. He wants both.”
“You used me as currency.”
Collins’s face twisted.
“I’m trying to survive.”
“You always are.”
Footsteps sounded.
Grant Vale emerged from the dark.
No expensive overcoat this time.
No boardroom smile.
Just a man whose company, fortune and reputation were collapsing.
“Claire.”
“Grant.”
His eyes moved toward Collins.
“You brought it?”
Collins held up the recorder.
Grant exhaled.
“Good.”
“Money first.”
Claire stared.
Even now.
Collins was negotiating.
Grant laughed softly.
“You think this is about money?”
“It’s always been about money.”
“No. It was about control.”
Grant looked toward Claire.
“Your husband never understood that.”
Claire forced herself calm.
“What did Daniel understand?”
“That companies like this are not families.”
“Then why did you destroy yours to own one?”
Grant’s eyes hardened.
Collins shifted nervously.
Grant held out his hand.
“The recorder.”
“No.”
“Adrian.”
“I want written protection.”
Grant smiled.
“You locked a child in a freezer and now you want paperwork?”
Collins flinched.
“Give me the recorder.”
“No.”
Grant stepped closer.
“You think prosecutors care about you? Claire certainly doesn’t.”
Claire said, “He’s right about that.”
Collins shot her a furious look.
Grant almost smiled.
Then Claire said, “But I care what you did to Daniel.”
The room changed.
Grant’s gaze settled on her.
“I did not kill your husband.”
“What did you tell Marcus to do?”
Nothing.
Claire continued.
“Daniel recorded you.”
Grant’s eyes moved toward the recorder.
Claire saw it.
Fear.
“What did you say?”
Grant remained silent.
Collins began sweating.
Claire pressed.
“‘Stop him from reaching Eleanor.’ Was that the order?”
Grant looked at Collins.
“You told her?”
Collins backed away.
“I told them enough.”
Grant’s face became dangerous.
“You idiot.”
Claire’s wire transmitted every word.
She hoped.
“What was Marcus supposed to do?”
Grant ignored her.
“You were supposed to erase invoices and keep your mouth shut.”
Collins laughed shakily.
“And take the fall?”
“You locked the boy in the freezer.”
“Because he saw your folder!”
“You made that choice.”
“So did you!”
Grant stepped closer.
Collins raised the recorder like a weapon.
“You knew Marcus sabotaged the snowcat.”
Grant stopped.
Claire’s heart hammered.
“No,” Grant said.
“You knew.”
“I told him to delay Daniel.”
“How?”
Grant’s jaw clenched.
“Disable the tracker. Pull his access. Strand him at the relay if necessary.”
Claire stared.
“You ordered Marcus to interfere with his vehicle.”
“I ordered him to keep Daniel from my mother for one night.”
“Why?”
“Because the sale was forty-eight hours from final approval!”
Grant’s voice rose.
“There were hundreds of millions at stake.”
“And Daniel?”
“Daniel would not negotiate.”
Claire felt tears but refused them.
“So you sent Marcus.”
“Yes.”
The word echoed.
“Did you tell him to cut the brakes?”
“No.”
“Did you know he would?”
“No!”
Grant looked furious now.
“At two in the morning Marcus called me and said Daniel had crashed. I thought he was lying.”
“Then why cover it up?”
Grant’s face changed.
Because that was the real question.
“Because you knew you had ordered the chain of events,” Claire said.
Grant said nothing.
“You knew investigators would find the fraud.”
Silence.
“You knew Marcus could destroy you.”
Grant’s voice dropped.
“Yes.”
Claire almost missed it.
Collins did not.
“There,” Collins whispered. “There it is.”
Grant turned.
Collins held up the recorder.
“You protected Marcus because he could prove you sent him after Daniel.”
Grant whispered, “Give me that.”
Collins shook his head.
“No.”
Then another voice came from the darkness.
“You should.”
Marcus Reed stepped into the firelight.
Claire’s blood turned cold.
He was supposed to be restricted from Blackpine.
Yet there he stood.
Snow on his shoulders.
A pistol low beside his leg.
Grant stared.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Marcus looked at him.
“Finishing what you never could.”
Claire heard Ruiz’s warning in her earpiece.
Do not move.
Marcus looked toward Collins.
“Recorder.”
Collins’s hands shook.
“You said you destroyed the bay footage.”
“I thought I did.”
“You said nobody would find Daniel’s copy.”
“I was wrong.”
Grant whispered, “Marcus, put the gun away.”
Marcus laughed.
“For eighteen months you blamed everyone but yourself.”
“I never told you to kill him.”
Claire stopped breathing.
Marcus’s face changed.
Grant had said it.
Clearly.
Marcus lifted the gun.
“No. You told me to stop him.”
Claire’s heart slammed against her ribs.
“And what did you do?” she asked.
Marcus looked at her.
“I cut one brake line.”
Silence.
Collins stepped backward.
Grant closed his eyes.
Claire felt Daniel’s entire death compress into that sentence.
“One brake line,” Marcus continued. “I expected him to discover it before leaving.”
Grant stared.
“That’s your defense?”
“I needed the meeting delayed.”
“He died!”
“So did my career the second he found High Mesa.”
Marcus’s voice rose.
“He was going to expose all of us.”
Claire whispered, “So you killed him.”
“I made a choice.”
Grant said, “You murdered him.”
Marcus turned the pistol toward Grant.
“And you buried him.”
That was when Detective Ruiz’s voice came through Claire’s earpiece.
“We have enough.”
The lodge doors exploded open.
“SHERIFF’S OFFICE!”
Marcus swung toward the sound.
Claire dropped.
Grant dove behind a table.
Collins threw the recorder toward Claire.
It slid across the wooden floor.
Marcus ran.
A deputy tackled him before he reached the service exit.
The pistol skidded beneath a chair.
Grant did not run.
He stood slowly behind the overturned table, staring at Claire.
“You destroyed everything.”
Claire picked up Daniel’s recorder.
“No.”
May you like
She looked at him.
“Daniel did.”
