Chapter 8 - AARON HAD TRIED TO REACH DOMINIC BEFORE HE DIED
The call record belonged to a number registered to Samuel Pike.
Former compliance officer at North Meridian.
He had vanished from company records eighteen months earlier.
Vincent found him living under his own name in Vermont.
Not hiding very well.
Just staying far away.
Samuel agreed to speak through attorneys.
His story reshaped everything.
Aaron Rowan had refused to certify defective medical components.
Samuel handled internal compliance.
Together they began tracing invoices.
The defective parts were only the beginning.
North Meridian had been inflating medical-supply invoices across rehabilitation facilities.
Money flowed into shell consulting firms.
Some financed Arthur’s private political influence network.
Others funded quiet payments to council members inside the Vale organization.
Arthur was building loyalty outside Dominic’s control.
Aaron discovered it accidentally because component substitutions changed invoice margins.
“He wanted to go to Dominic,” Samuel said.
“Why didn’t he?”
“He thought Dominic authorized the acquisition.”
The documents carried Dominic’s strategic approval.
Samuel tried convincing Aaron that broad authorization was not the same as knowledge.
Aaron remained unsure.
Then Arthur requested a private meeting.
Aaron attended.
The next day, he died.
Samuel panicked.
He copied files.
Then spent months trying to determine whether Dominic was safe to approach.
Finally, eleven weeks ago, he decided yes.
He called Dominic in the car.
“We found the Rowan file.”
Dominic remembered none of it because minutes later he crashed.
Samuel heard about the accident and disappeared again.
“I thought Arthur knew I called.”
Maybe he did.
Maybe the crash had already been planned for another reason.
Then Samuel revealed the council strategy.
Arthur had been purchasing influence for years.
Not all six men.
Three.
Enough to create uncertainty.
Dominic’s accident gave Arthur an opportunity.
If Dominic appeared medically weakened, council rules allowed temporary executive authority to shift.
Not permanent control.
But temporary control included access to contracts, financial restructuring, and appointments.
Arthur needed ninety days.
“Why?”
Samuel’s answer came immediately.
“The North Meridian sale.”
A buyer had offered $460 million for the medical-logistics network.
If the sale closed during Arthur’s temporary authority, several shell arrangements would disappear inside the transaction.
Records consolidated.
Liabilities transferred.
Money extracted.
Arthur could bury years of activity beneath one legitimate corporate sale.
Dominic’s slow recovery threatened the timetable.
So someone altered the brace.
Then Dominic asked:
“And Aaron?”
Samuel looked at Clare.
“I don’t know if Arthur ordered his death.”
Clare’s face hardened.
“But?”
“I know Arthur paid someone after it.”
A payment.
$75,000.
From one of the same consulting accounts.
Recipient:
Leon Rowan.
Clare whispered:
“That’s Aaron’s brother.”
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She had not spoken to Leon in six years.
Aaron’s own brother had received money after Aaron died.
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