Chapter 8 - MICHAEL'S SECOND LIFE
Laura Chen finally admitted Michael had a private habit.
He liked entering and leaving the apartment without staff knowing.
Why?
Meetings.
Not romantic.
Business.
Michael ran a private lending operation through shell companies not fully disclosed to Turner Meridian’s board.
He met distressed borrowers.
Political consultants.
Competitors.
People who did not want photographs.
The shaft gave him privacy.
Jack stared.
“So Michael used a hidden escape route from his own penthouse.”
“Yes.”
“Who knew?”
Laura swallowed.
“Very few.”
Names:
Michael.
Laura.
Gavin Shaw.
Attorney Samuel Pike.
Architect Cole Mercer.
Cole Mercer had died two years earlier.
Samuel Pike denied knowing the exact route.
Gavin Shaw knew.
Then phone records showed Michael called Shaw at 8:51 p.m.
Thirty seconds.
Shaw said Michael asked about a security issue.
No recording.
Then Jack found a burner phone in the hidden shaft.
Taped beneath the second platform.
Recent fingerprints:
Michael Turner.
Messages.
One contact:
RAVEN.
Last message from Michael at 8:55:
COME UP. FRONT DOOR. I WANT HIM TO SEE YOU.
Jack frowned.
“Him?”
Reply:
UNDERSTOOD.
Then at 9:08:
USE THE NORMAL ENTRY.
Jack looked at Robert.
Michael specifically told the visitor to use the front door.
Why?
To be seen.
Then maybe the hidden shaft was always intended as the exit.
Robert said:
“Michael staged his own visitor’s impossible departure.”
Jack nodded.
“For what?”
The answer came in the next message.
If anything happens, Pike gets blamed.
Samuel Pike.
Michael’s attorney.
Jack stared.
May you like
The victim had been planning a trap.
Then someone turned it against him.
