Chapter 7 - THE MAN ABOVE COLINColin Dray was found three hours later inside an airport chapel.
He sat alone in the back row with his hands clasped and his phone missing.
He did not resist arrest.
He did not ask for Richard.
He asked for a federal prosecutor.
That was the first sign he was more afraid of someone else than he was of prison.
Richard watched the interrogation from behind one-way glass.
Colin’s lawyer sat beside him, but Colin barely acknowledged the man.
“You kidnapped Ruth Carter,” the detective said.
“No.”
“Your car was at the airport.”
“It was stolen.”
“Your phone was found inside the warehouse.”
“Also stolen.”
“You signed Angela Carter’s termination.”
“That was a lawful corporate action.”
“You suppressed medical-device reports.”
“I acted on the information provided to me.”
“By whom?”
Colin looked toward the glass.
Richard knew he could not see through it.
Yet for a moment, it felt as if Colin was staring directly at him.
“I want immunity,” he said.
The prosecutor leaned forward.
“For what?”
“For helping you bring down the person who ordered everything.”
Richard entered the room.
The detectives objected, but the prosecutor allowed him five minutes.
Colin’s composure shifted when Richard sat across from him.
“Who?” Richard asked.
“I need written protection.”
“Ruth was taken. Angela was killed. Natalie was killed. Ethan nearly died.”
Colin’s eyes flickered at Ethan’s name.
“I did not order their deaths.”
“But you helped hide them.”
“I protected the company.”
“You protected yourself.”
“At first, they were the same thing.”
Richard placed Natalie’s memory card on the table.
“You searched for this.”
Colin looked at it but said nothing.
“She recorded you,” Richard continued. “She named Angela. She named the failures.”
“That card is why she died.”
Richard’s fingers tightened.
“Who killed her?”
Colin swallowed.
“Victor Shaw.”
The name was familiar to anyone who followed American business.
Victor Shaw served as chairman of Harrison Global’s board. He had been Richard’s father’s closest friend, Richard’s mentor, and the man who helped transform a small software company into an international empire.
He had held Ethan at his baptism.
He delivered the eulogy at Natalie’s funeral.
Richard almost laughed.
“That is impossible.”
“That is what you said every time someone warned you about him.”
“Victor had no operational role at MedAxis.”
“He controlled the acquisition fund. A recall would have collapsed three pending healthcare deals and triggered investigations into falsified valuations.”
“Why would you help him?”
“He knew everything about everyone.”
Colin looked exhausted.
“Tax arrangements. private settlements. Political payments. Affairs. Addiction treatments. Every secret buried to keep Harrison Global stable.”
“And you collected those secrets for him.”
“I managed risk.”
“You destroyed people.”
“I prevented panic.”
Richard leaned forward.
“Did Victor order Angela’s death?”
“Yes.”
“Did you arrange it?”
“No. I scheduled the meeting that drew her out. I believed his men would retrieve the notebook and frighten her.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Colin’s voice cracked for the first time.
“I expect you to understand that the man who built your empire never considered people like Angela real. They were numbers beneath numbers.”
“And Natalie?”
“She discovered Victor had used her car. She confronted me. I told her to take Ethan and leave Boston.”
Richard stared at him.
“You never warned me.”
“You would have confronted Victor. Victor knew that.”
“Did you sabotage Natalie’s car?”
“No.”
“Did you know he would?”
Colin looked down.
“Yes.”
Richard stood so quickly the chair struck the wall.
The detectives blocked him before he could cross the table.
“You watched me bury my wife.”
“I was trying to keep Ethan alive.”
“You stood beside my son every day.”
“Because Victor believed Natalie had given Ethan evidence.”
Captain Orion.
Colin had remained close to Ethan not out of loyalty but because he was searching for the memory card.
“You allowed defective equipment to remain attached to him.”
“I replaced every dangerous component I could without drawing attention.”
“The suction unit failed at the airport.”
“That unit was not packed by my staff.”
Richard stopped.
“Who packed it?”
“Victor’s private nurse joined the travel team yesterday.”
Richard left the room and called Dr. Morales.
“Do not allow anyone into Ethan’s room unless you know them personally.”
“Why?”
“Someone may be trying to kill him.”
At the hospital, a nurse in green scrubs was already entering Ethan’s room.
Mia sat beside the bed reading a library book aloud.
The woman carried a syringe beneath a folded towel.
Mia stopped reading.
“You’re not his nurse.”
The woman smiled.
“I’m covering for the afternoon shift.”
“Dr. Morales said everyone has to knock.”
“I did knock.”
“No, you didn’t.”
Ethan watched silently.
The woman approached his IV line.
Mia stood.
“What’s in that?”
“Medicine.”
“What medicine?”
“Something to help him sleep.”
“He isn’t tired.”
The woman’s smile disappeared.
“Move away.”
Mia stepped between her and the bed.
The woman grabbed Mia’s arm.
Ethan slammed his cheek against the emergency-call control beside his pillow.
An alarm rang through the hallway.
The woman pushed Mia aside and reached for the IV.
Mia seized Captain Orion and struck the syringe from her hand.
It shattered against the floor.
Security officers entered seconds later.
The woman tried to run but collided with Dr. Morales in the doorway.
Police later identified her as Danielle Price, a former MedAxis clinical contractor who had received more than two hundred thousand dollars through a foundation controlled by Victor Shaw.
The syringe contained a concentrated medication capable of stopping Ethan’s heart.
Richard arrived to find Mia sitting on the floor outside Ethan’s room.
A bruise darkened her arm.
He knelt beside her.
“You saved him again.”
She shook her head.
“Ethan pushed the button.”
Ethan spoke from the bed.
“We saved each other.”
Richard looked at both children.
Victor had underestimated them because they were small, disabled, poor, and dependent on adults.
He had made the same mistake with Angela.
Richard stood.
His grief had become something harder.
“Where is Victor Shaw?”
His security chief answered quietly.
“At Harrison Tower. He has called an emergency board meeting.”
“For what purpose?”
“To remove you as chief executive.”
May you like
Richard glanced through the glass at Ethan and Mia.
“Then it’s time I attended.”
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