Chapter 17 - The Man in the Equipment RoomCurtis Vale denied touching the parachute.
For six hours.
Then federal agents showed him the photograph.
His story changed.
Walter had hired him to inspect “internal theft.”
Then they showed him the $300,000 payment.
His story changed again.
Finally, Ortiz placed the restored trail footage on the interview table.
Walter smiling at the cliff.
Curtis looked away.
“What did he ask you to do?” Ortiz said.
“I didn’t know there was a kid.”
“What did he ask?”
Curtis said nothing.
“Walter Mercer is already preparing to blame everyone around him.”
Still nothing.
“He blamed his son. His wife. Owen Pike. You really think your turn isn’t coming?”
Curtis’s face changed.
Ortiz leaned closer.
“Tell me before he tells us.”
Curtis exhaled slowly.
“He wanted a rig modified.”
“How?”
“So deployment would fail.”
“Did you do it?”
“No.”
“Why were you in Equipment Room Three?”
“To look at it.”
“Did you touch it?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I cut what Walter told me to cut.”
Ortiz stared.
“And?”
“I didn’t know Owen had changed the configuration.”
He had cut the wrong retention strap.
Exactly as Owen suspected.
“Did Walter tell you who would use the rig?”
“No.”
“Did he say why?”
Curtis hesitated.
“He said it was for a demonstration.”
“Then why pay you three hundred thousand dollars?”
Curtis looked at the wall.
“Because most of that wasn’t for the parachute.”
“What was it for?”
He swallowed.
“To clean up afterward.”
Ortiz’s voice became very quiet.
“Clean up what?”
Curtis rubbed his hands together.
“The vehicle.”
“What vehicle?”
“Walter’s SUV.”
“Why?”
“He said if anything happened during the demonstration, I was supposed to remove trace evidence connecting the equipment to him.”
“When?”
“Same evening.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Curtis looked sick.
“I saw the news.”
“So you realized a child had been involved.”
“Yes.”
“And you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
It was enough for conspiracy and evidence-tampering charges.
More importantly, it tied Walter directly to deliberate parachute sabotage.
Curtis agreed to cooperate.
Walter’s bail was revoked.
This time, when he entered custody, he did not walk out that evening.
Elliot learned the news from Tessa.
“Is he really staying there?”
“For now.”
“Can he call me?”
“No.”
“Can he come here?”
“No.”
Elliot nodded.
He did not smile.
Tessa expected relief.
Instead he asked, “Does Grandpa have a bed?”
“Yes.”
“Food?”
“Yes.”
“Is anybody pushing him?”
Tessa’s throat tightened.
“No.”
Elliot seemed to think about that.
“Good.”
“You don’t want him hurt?”
Elliot looked confused by the question.
“I want him away from me.”
That difference struck Tessa deeply.
Walter had always viewed punishment as domination.
Elliot wanted safety.
Nothing more.
That evening, Caleb received an email from the forensic auditors.
The subject line read:
EDWIN LANE — HISTORICAL LAND TRANSACTIONS.
Caleb opened the report.
Twenty-seven years earlier, Walter had submitted a document claiming Edwin approved permanent development rights across forty acres.
The signature appeared genuine.
But imaging analysis showed it had been transferred from another document.
Forgery.
That fraud formed the legal foundation on which the original Mercer Ridge Lodge had been built.
Caleb stared at the screen.
If the finding held, portions of Mercer Ridge’s most valuable property might never have legally belonged to the company.
Tessa came beside him.
“What?”
He showed her.
“This could destroy Mercer Ridge.”
She read it.
“No.”
Caleb looked at her.
“It could.”
“It could destroy Walter’s version of Mercer Ridge.”
“What’s the difference?”
Tessa looked toward Elliot sleeping on the couch.
“The people who work there.”
“The guides.”
“The cooks.”
“The groundskeepers.”
“The families.”
She pointed at the report.
“They didn’t forge anything.”
Caleb understood.
For the first time, saving the company did not mean protecting the Mercer name.
May you like
It meant protecting everyone Walter had used the Mercer name to control.
And that would require giving up something Caleb had always assumed was his.
Related Stories
