Chapter 8 - The Man Behind the Company
Celia contacted the university registrar. A records officer confirmed that the withdrawal letter had arrived through a third-party courier, not through my student account. They agreed to preserve the original.
Ethan asked to meet me at Celia's office. I chose the location because I was done standing in rooms where his family controlled the doors.
He brought a spreadsheet of shipping contracts, not flowers. "Malcolm discovered that a Haynes subsidiary changed handling records for temperature-sensitive medicines," he said. "He wanted a full audit. Arthur told him he'd ruin the company if he went public."
"So your father was killed?"
"I don't know who killed him. I've spent four years acting as if I did, and it's made me easy to manipulate."
I hated how much I understood that sentence.
He explained that Arthur had helped steady Caldwell Industries after the murder. At first the partnership seemed like rescue. Later came board appointments, restrictive loans, and Victoria's carefully timed friendship.
"You were lonely," I said. "They offered you a family they could control."
"Yes."
"And when I showed up again, you watched me mop a hallway instead of telling me I might be in danger."
"Yes."
He didn't apologize until I asked him why. Then he did, without adding an excuse.
Celia opened her notebook. "If you want to help, Mr. Caldwell, make records available to the investigators. Not edited summaries. Originals."
Ethan agreed. Before he left, he handed me a faded visitor badge the company had found in a closed storage room. It was the badge Malcolm had used on his last trip to Columbia.
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Its back was marked with a handwritten note: ASK ROSA ABOUT THE BLUE LABEL.
I hadn't told Ethan, or anyone else, that the disputed laboratory samples had arrived with blue labels.
