Chapter 11 - GAVIN SHAW
Shaw arrived with counsel.
Calm.
Disciplined.
Hard to read.
Jack showed him the fingerprint.
“I installed the release.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Print is recent.”
“Then Michael asked me to check it.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
Possible.
Then Jack showed him the cane.
“Did you arrange the repair?”
“Yes.”
“Who modified the handle?”
“Vendor.”
“Name?”
Shaw hesitated.
That was the first crack.
Vendor:
Black Ridge Tactical Fabrication.
Owner:
Evan Shaw.
Gavin’s brother.
Robert leaned forward.
“So your brother built a spring-loaded carbon-fiber spike into Michael’s cane?”
Gavin answered:
“He built a prototype defensive tool.”
“For Michael?”
“Yes.”
“Did Michael know?”
Silence.
Gavin finally said:
“He requested discreet self-defense.”
Jack looked at Robert.
Michael may have commissioned the weapon himself.
Then the case twisted again.
If Michael owned the spike mechanism, the killer only needed to use his own tool against him.
Then money.
Gavin had received $280,000 from Samuel Pike’s shell company two months earlier.
Pike called it security consulting.
Shaw called it unrelated.
Then another payment:
$90,000 after Michael died.
Scheduled in advance.
Jack stared.
“Why does Pike pay you?”
Shaw said:
May you like
“I protect sensitive information.”
That sentence sounded like confession without being one.
