Chapter 8 - Uncle Malcolm
Malcolm Pierce arrived at 12:17 a.m.
Unlike Dr. Vale, he did not look calm.
He looked furious.
Rain covered the shoulders of his expensive coat.
He stood outside the gate arguing with police.
Daniel watched from the security monitor.
“I’ve known him since I was twenty-two.”
Ethan stood beside him.
“Victoria knew you longer than me?”
“No.”
“You still believed her.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Ethan had become good at finding the sentence that hurt because it was true.
Officer Reyes let Malcolm into the foyer after checking him.
“Daniel, what the hell is going on?”
Daniel stared.
“Do you know Victoria Langley?”
Malcolm frowned.
“Of course.”
“Before I introduced you?”
A pause.
Too small for most people.
Not for Ethan.
“Yes,” Ethan said.
Malcolm looked at him.
“What?”
“You knew her.”
“Ethan, adults are talking.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Don’t say that to him.”
Malcolm looked surprised.
Daniel repeated.
“Answer the question.”
Malcolm sighed.
“I met her at a conference years ago.”
“What conference?”
“Healthcare investment.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I forgot.”
Ethan laughed.
Malcolm glared.
Officer Reyes stepped closer.
“Keep your attention on Mr. Harper.”
Daniel placed printed bank transfers on the table.
MP Consulting had paid a company connected to Victoria.
Malcolm barely glanced.
“That could be anyone.”
“Is it you?”
“No.”
“Do you own MP Consulting?”
“I own several consulting entities.”
“That is not an answer.”
Malcolm’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
The room changed.
Daniel whispered, “You paid her.”
“For legitimate work.”
“What work?”
“Due diligence.”
“On my son?”
“No.”
“On the trust?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
Malcolm looked around.
“This is business.”
Ethan said, “She put something in my juice.”
Malcolm stared at him.
For the first time, his anger looked like fear.
“What?”
“She tried to make me sick.”
Malcolm looked at Daniel.
“I knew nothing about that.”
Officer Reyes watched his face.
Daniel asked, “Did you hire Victoria?”
“No.”
“Did you recommend her?”
Silence.
“Malcolm.”
“Yes.”
Ethan’s stomach dropped.
Daniel stepped back.
Victoria and Daniel had supposedly met at a museum fundraiser.
Malcolm had introduced them.
Daniel had forgotten that detail.
“You put her in my life.”
“I introduced you to a woman.”
“You paid her company.”
“Her consulting company.”
“She does not have a consulting company.”
“She did then.”
Officer Reyes asked, “What was she consulting on?”
Malcolm hesitated.
“Behavioral health acquisitions.”
Ethan stared.
Dr. Vale.
North Ridge Behavioral Center.
The pieces moved closer.
Daniel said, “Did you know she used Dr. Martin Vale?”
“I knew she had contacts.”
“Did you know she wanted Ethan committed?”
“No.”
“Did you know she was documenting him?”
“No.”
“Did you know she was drugging me?”
Malcolm’s face went white.
“What?”
Grace appeared at the top of the stairs with Mrs. Alvarez.
“Uncle Mal.”
Malcolm looked up.
For one second, genuine affection crossed his face.
Then Grace said, “You came with Victoria.”
The room went silent.
Malcolm’s expression disappeared.
Daniel turned.
“What does she mean?”
Grace pointed.
“Night time.”
“When?”
“Before Daddy sleeps big.”
Malcolm looked at Daniel.
“That is not what she means.”
Grace continued.
“You and Victoria talk in kitchen.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“When?”
Grace hugged the banister.
“Lots.”
Malcolm said, “I came by for business meetings.”
“At night?” Daniel asked.
“You work late.”
“Not when I’m sedated.”
Malcolm’s face tightened.
Officer Reyes asked Grace gently whether she remembered what they talked about.
Grace shook her head.
Then she said, “Uncle Mal says Friday.”
Ethan looked at him.
Malcolm swore.
Daniel stepped toward his old friend.
Officer Reyes moved between them.
Malcolm raised both hands.
“I wanted the board votes.”
At last.
Truth.
Daniel stared.
“You wanted Ethan’s shares.”
“I wanted stability.”
“So you helped build a case that my son was unstable?”
“No.”
“I told Victoria the trust could become a problem.”
“What did she say?”
“That she could delay the transfer.”
“How?”
“She said there were legal options.”
“You never asked?”
“I did not think she meant this.”
Ethan stared.
“Because you didn’t care what happened to me.”
Malcolm looked at him.
“That is not true.”
“You wanted my shares.”
“I wanted the company protected.”
“From Dad?”
“From a bad decision.”
Daniel said, “You do not get to call it protection when you use my child.”
Malcolm sank into a chair.
He looked suddenly old.
“What did Victoria do?”
Officer Reyes answered.
“Enough that you should get your own attorney.”
Malcolm looked up sharply.
“I didn’t poison anyone.”
“But you paid the woman who may have tried.”
“I paid for corporate intelligence.”
“On a thirteen-year-old?”
“No.”
Then Ethan noticed something.
Malcolm kept looking at the security camera near the ceiling.
Not randomly.
Checking it.
Ethan followed his gaze.
“That camera.”
Daniel looked up.
“What?”
“Why does he keep looking at it?”
Malcolm’s face changed.
Officer Reyes immediately moved toward the wall.
The Harper security camera had a tiny green status light.
It was off.
The monitor downstairs still showed a picture.
A recorded picture.
Someone had looped the feed.
“Everybody stay here,” Reyes ordered.
A noise came from the back hall.
Glass.
Breaking.
Then Mrs. Alvarez screamed.
Ethan turned.
A figure in dark clothes ran past the kitchen doorway.
Daniel shouted, “Grace!”
But Grace was upstairs.
The intruder was heading somewhere else.
Toward Daniel’s office.
Toward the trust documents.
Malcolm’s arrival also forced Daniel to examine the language of friendship. For years Malcolm had known which restaurants Daniel liked, remembered Grace’s birthday, sent Ethan expensive baseball tickets, and arrived at funerals before most relatives. Those things felt like loyalty. But loyalty without limits had become another reason Daniel stopped asking questions.
“You always said Uncle Mal was family,” Ethan said.
Daniel stared at the rain on the windows.
“I did.”
“Is he?”
Daniel took a long time.
“Family is not a title someone keeps no matter what they do.”
Ethan thought of Victoria.
“Good.”
When police searched Malcolm’s coat, they found a keycard to Harper Biotech’s executive floor and a second phone. The second phone contained almost no contacts. One was labeled H.C.
Helen Carr.
Malcolm claimed the contact referred to a healthcare consultant.
Officer Reyes photographed the screen.
“Maybe,” she said.
Ethan noticed Malcolm’s hand trembling.
He had never seen Uncle Mal nervous.
That frightened him more than Malcolm’s anger.
The man had always seemed untouchable.
Now Ethan understood that powerful adults were often calm because consequences had not reached them yet.
May you like
The moment consequences arrived, they became emotional too.
Nobody called Malcolm unstable for that.
