Chapter 10 - THE NUMBER GRANT COULDN’T EXPLAIN
Grant’s offer valued my mother’s interest at $4.2 million.
A fortune to me.
Probably cheap.
Independent valuation estimated:
$11 to $18 million present value if extraction proceeded.
Assuming permits.
Market prices.
Litigation risk.
Not guaranteed.
Grant wanted certainty.
So did I.
But one number bothered me.
Blackridge projected extraction costs far above industry average.
Why?
Payroll.
I knew payroll.
I compared contractor labor assumptions.
Inflated by 32%.
Meaning project profits looked lower.
Meaning my five-percent value looked lower.
Who supplied labor model?
Cross Workforce Solutions.
Madeline’s father.
Of course.
Cross would finance project.
Then profit through inflated labor contracts.
Double benefit.
I showed Rebecca.
She hired an expert.
Confirmed.
Nathaniel’s team found similar equipment leasing inflation.
Grant’s settlement was built on manipulated economics.
When confronted, Grant blamed Cross.
Madeline’s father blamed consultants.
Consultants blamed outdated assumptions.
Everyone.
Then Madeline gave us internal emails.
Her father:
Keep modeled EBITDA conservative until heirs sign.
There.
Intent.
The valuation was deliberately depressed.
That blew up settlement.
Then Daniel surfaced with another document.
He wanted to help.
I almost refused.
Rebecca said:
“Evidence is evidence.”
Daniel had inherited Michael’s old tax files.
One showed his father received annual payments from Cross-affiliated entities after recanting.
Silence money.
Then Michael stopped taking them three years before death.
Why?
He tried to correct the record.
That may explain his fear.
Still no proof murder.
But showed change.
Daniel looked at me.
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I’m trying now.”
“Good.”
Not forgiveness.
Then he asked:
“Is there any chance?”
“No.”
Immediate.
He closed his eyes.
Then nodded.
“Okay.”
Finally.
That was perhaps the first unselfish thing he did.
Then:
“I’m leaving Blackridge.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know which part of my career was mine.”
I understood that.
He sold his small inherited stake back into a trust pending litigation.
Not dramatic.
Clean.
Then Madeline left her father’s company.
Started working for a conservation nonprofit.
Unexpected.
People change when family scripts break.
Grant did not.
He became more desperate.
Then Blackridge’s internal auditor contacted me anonymously.
“I have something.”
Payroll again.
For years, Blackridge paid “seasonal forestry crews” who did not exist.
Ghost employees.
Money routed into political consulting.
Bribes?
Maybe.
The auditor believed those funds helped secure preliminary mining approvals.
If true, Silver Pine faced regulatory disaster.
And the ghost payroll had been processed using old system credentials.
Credential name:
ELEANOR HAYES.
May you like
My dead mother.
They had continued using her identity for years after she died.
