Chapter 12 - THE DEAL MICHAEL DISCOVERED
Michael believed Samuel Pike was stealing.
He was partly right.
Pike had routed fees from Michael’s private lending deals into advisory entities.
But the total was not enough to justify murder.
$740,000 over four years.
Serious.
Not worth everything.
Then Jack found a deeper deal.
Turner Meridian’s data-security subsidiary was negotiating a confidential sale.
Value:
$240 million.
Michael planned to block it.
Why?
Buyer would uncover hidden liabilities in several private loans.
Pike wanted sale.
So did Gavin Shaw.
Why Shaw?
He held a hidden 2% profit participation through a consulting arrangement.
Worth potentially:
$3.6 million.
Michael had discovered it.
Then a draft email:
MICHAEL TO BOARD:
I have reason to believe Samuel Pike and Gavin Shaw concealed related-party interests in the Vantage transaction.
Never sent.
Saved at 8:44 p.m.
Pike and Shaw had motive.
But who killed him?
Pike was at a charity dinner during the murder.
Cameras.
Witnesses.
Shaw’s phone was fifty miles away.
But his phone could be somewhere else.
Then Jack checked toll cameras.
Shaw’s car did not travel.
Another vehicle registered to Black Ridge Tactical did.
Entered city at 7:58.
Exited at 10:22.
Driver face obscured.
Jack asked Evan Shaw.
His brother.
Evan had no alibi.
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Then DNA from the rope in the shaft came back.
Evan Shaw.
