Chapter 9 - SAMUEL PIKE
Samuel Pike was fifty-one.
Corporate attorney.
Michael’s fixer for fifteen years.
He helped structure private loans, settlements, and shell entities.
He also stood to lose everything if Michael’s hidden deals became public.
The burner phone message:
If anything happens, Pike gets blamed.
Looked bad.
Too bad.
Pike denied knowing Michael wrote it.
Then Jack asked:
“Who is Raven?”
Pike’s face changed.
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
Pike leaned back.
“Then Michael kept more from you than I thought.”
Raven was a private investigator.
Real name:
Elias Ward.
Hired by Michael.
Tall.
Six foot two.
Former military police.
The man in black.
Jack found Ward forty-eight hours later.
Alive.
Not hiding.
At his lawyer’s office.
Ward admitted entering Michael’s apartment at 9:12.
Admitted using the hidden shaft to leave.
Admitted wearing black.
Then:
“I didn’t kill him.”
Robert stared.
“You were alone with a dead man in a locked apartment.”
“He was alive when I left.”
Jack asked:
“When?”
“9:26.”
Hallway camera never showed exit.
Because shaft.
Then why did Michael die?
Medical examiner estimated death:
9:25 to 9:40.
Could be after Ward left.
Ward said:
“Michael wanted me seen entering. He wanted Pike to know someone was coming.”
“Why?”
“He thought Pike was stealing.”
Then Ward described the meeting.
Michael confronted him with documents.
Wanted Ward to follow Pike.
Then Michael took his cane.
Walked toward the window.
Ward left through the shaft.
No violence.
No murder.
Jack asked:
“Why didn’t you come forward?”
Ward stared.
“Because I knew exactly what the scene would look like.”
Fair.
Then Ward added:
“And because when I entered the shaft, someone was already below me.”
Jack went still.
May you like
“Who?”
“I never saw.”
