Chapter 17 - The Man Behind the Crates
The second payment had gone to a private security contractor who had worked at the marina on Thursday. His phone had connected to a cell tower near Pier Six while my chair rolled into the lake. His phone records showed calls with Pike around the fall.
The contractor denied knowing the plan until police showed him Sonia's message and the footage. He admitted Pike had asked him to watch the dock and report whether I made it back to shore. He said he believed it was about a business meeting.
"That's what he says," Bell told us. "We're checking every part of it."
The contractor also identified the man behind the stacked crates: Harlan Pike. His shoes weren't the proof. The combined recordings, location records, and witness accounts were.
Pike's lawyer called the evidence circumstantial. Bell said that was what investigations were for. Financial investigators, meanwhile, traced the accessibility money to loans and contractors connected to Pike. The driver seen at the annex gave a statement about being paid to destroy records.
When police arrested Pike on financial and evidence-related charges, he stared into the television cameras and said he had saved our town from bankruptcy.
"He didn't save a single ramp," Delia said.
Audrey remained in custody while prosecutors reviewed the separate assault case. She had told them Pike pressured her to get my signatures and threatened to expose her earlier fraud. She also admitted that no threat made me release the brake or push the chair. She had made that decision herself.
I was grateful she understood the distinction. I hated that she had learned it too late.
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The next morning, Miriam brought news from the civil court. Pike's lenders had moved to seize the marina's operating equipment after the deal collapsed. Even if the shoreline trust remained intact, the business might not have enough cash to pay its employees.
For the first time since the lake, I wondered whether surviving had only bought me time to watch everything Nora and I built disappear.
