Chapter 17 - The Fire Lookout
Grant did not surrender.
Deputies surrounded the old fire lookout before dawn.
Mason accompanied mountain rescue only as a terrain adviser.
Derek stayed at command.
Every instinct screamed at him to go higher.
He remained.
The radio crackled.
“Movement inside.”
Derek stared at Frostline through binoculars.
Snow drifted across the ridge.
The same mountain everyone had spent years trying to own looked completely indifferent to them.
Sheriff Ortiz stood beside him.
“Grant is asking to speak to you.”
Derek took the radio.
“Grant.”
Static.
Then Grant’s voice.
“You really stayed downhill.”
“Yes.”
“I expected you to charge up here.”
“So did I.”
Grant laughed.
“You changed too late.”
“Probably.”
Silence.
Grant said, “You’ll lose Hale Mountain.”
“Maybe.”
“Your fortune.”
“Maybe.”
“Your reputation is already gone.”
“Yes.”
Grant sounded irritated.
“You have nothing left.”
Derek looked toward the chalet where Caleb waited safely with Margaret.
“I have the thing you couldn’t price correctly.”
Grant understood.
“Caleb.”
“Yes.”
Grant’s voice hardened.
“That child cost us everything.”
“No.”
“You know what Frostline was worth.”
“I know what you thought it was worth.”
“You’re sentimental now?”
“No.”
Derek looked at the mountain.
“I’m finally using the right accounting system.”
Ortiz almost smiled.
Grant did not.
Then he said, “Serena told you I aimed the tube.”
“Yes.”
“She released it.”
“Yes.”
“She could have stopped.”
“Yes.”
“So why am I the monster?”
Derek answered quietly.
“Because more than one person can be guilty.”
Silence.
That was the story Derek had finally learned to accept about himself too.
Grant tried another tactic.
“I have proof Serena planned to leave you long before the accident.”
“I know.”
“She laughed about you.”
“I believe it.”
“She said you’d inherit Frostline and she’d make you sell within a month.”
Derek felt pain.
But not destabilization.
“Then she miscalculated.”
Grant shouted, “Everything was supposed to work!”
There it was.
Control cracking.
Derek said, “You prepared the slope.”
“Yes!”
Ortiz looked sharply at the recording technician.
Grant continued.
“You think I wanted some idiot instructor jumping across the run?”
Derek’s hands tightened.
“Mason.”
“Whatever.”
“You ordered the lane ungroomed.”
“Yes.”
“You told Serena where to place Caleb.”
“Yes.”
“And the barrier?”
Grant laughed breathlessly.
“That was the point.”
Derek closed his eyes.
The confession was being recorded.
Grant realized too late.
“You’re recording this.”
“Yes.”
“You son of a—”
A loud crash came through the radio.
Deputies shouted.
Grant had attempted to escape through a rear platform.
He ran into waist-deep snow beyond the lookout.
There was no cinematic chase.
No heroic punch from Derek.
Grant made it less than fifty yards before trained deputies surrounded him.
He dropped to his knees.
The man who had moved millions through shell companies and manipulated executives for years ended with snow up to his thighs and handcuffs around his wrists.
Mason returned hours later.
Derek met him near the command vehicle.
“Is it done?”
“Grant’s in custody.”
Derek exhaled.
Mason looked at him.
“You didn’t come up.”
“No.”
“That must have hurt.”
“You have no idea.”
Mason smiled.
“I do.”
Derek hesitated.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Saving Caleb.”
“You’ve said that.”
“For forcing me to become someone who could stay downhill today.”
Mason stared at him.
“That part you did.”
Derek nodded.
Then Mason added, “Still suing you.”
Derek laughed.
“Fair.”
By afternoon Grant was being transported to Denver.
Serena remained in custody.
Victor Lang’s lawyers were negotiating.
Federal prosecutors had the reserve records.
State prosecutors had Serena’s proffer, Olivia’s video, the mountain-maintenance order, Grant’s contingency file, and Grant’s recorded confession.
The conspiracy was finally visible from beginning to end.
Yet one mystery remained.
Why had Emily hidden the Blue Ridge evidence instead of bringing it directly to Derek?
Caroline supplied the answer.
She found the missing handwritten letter Grant had intercepted years earlier in the Utah archive.
It was addressed to Derek.
The first line read:
I am afraid you will believe him instead of me.
May you like
Derek could not continue.
Not yet.
