Chapter 6 - MY FATHER’S DEATH WASN’T NATURAL
My father died of a heart attack.
That was the official story.
He collapsed in his office at fifty-eight.
No autopsy.
Family physician.
Closed investigation.
I had never questioned it.
Until Walter Doyle looked me in the eyes and said:
“Your father was murdered.”
Cassie sat down slowly.
I remained standing.
“Who?”
Walter shook his head.
“I never knew.”
“What happened eighteen years ago?”
He closed his eyes.
The biologics warehouse had been intentionally running medication through unstable storage conditions to hide supply theft.
Damaged product disappeared.
Good product was diverted.
Insurance covered the losses.
Patients waited.
People died.
Walter discovered manipulated sensor logs.
My father discovered accounting discrepancies.
Together they planned to go to federal authorities.
Then threats began.
Walter’s wife was followed.
Their home was broken into.
My father moved Walter off the books and made the termination look hostile.
“You thought he betrayed you,” I said.
“I needed everyone to think that.”
Cassie looked crushed.
“You let me hate that family.”
Walter’s eyes filled.
“I needed you safe.”
I understood him more than I wanted to.
Then Walter said the night before my father died, Vincent called him.
He had found the person approving the stolen shipments.
“He said he finally knew who was behind it.”
“Who?”
“He never said the name on the phone.”
“Why?”
“He said phones weren’t safe.”
My father died the next morning.
Walter disappeared from the industry.
Years later, Gordon Pike approached him with an offer to obtain specialized medication cheaply.
Walter accepted because his heart condition had worsened.
Then the debt began.
“Gordon knew who you were?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“From the beginning?”
“Yes.”
Cassie stood.
“So he didn’t randomly help you.”
“No.”
“He found you.”
Walter nodded.
I called Marco.
“Take Gordon alive.”
Cassie stared at me.
“Excuse me?”
I corrected myself.
“Have legal investigators find him before he runs.”
Marco understood.
But Gordon had already disappeared.
Marino’s Table manager’s office was empty.
Safe open.
Files gone.
Security footage showed him leaving twenty minutes after Cassie left for the hospital.
He knew something had changed.
Someone warned him.
Only a handful of people knew Walter was hospitalized.
The restaurant.
The hospital.
My security team.
Bellacort compliance.
I looked at Marco.
“Someone inside the company told him.”
By morning, Helen Ward arrived with internal audit results.
Thomas Bellacort’s login had removed Walter from the medical-device notification list.
But the login had been cloned.
The actual access originated from a Bellacort server assigned to executive finance.
Only three people could use it.
Me.
Helen.
And my chief financial officer.
Rachel Voss.
Rachel had worked beside me for twelve years.
She knew every restructuring.
Every clean account.
Every criminal tie I had cut.
Then Marco pulled up Marino’s Table investor records.
Gordon’s restaurant was not truly funded by Thomas.
Thomas’s holding company was only a front.
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The real beneficial owner was Rachel Voss.
The woman I trusted with Bellacort’s books had been financing Gordon Pike for seven years.
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