Chapter 8 - Graham Pike's Last Bargain
Graham escaped the church.
Barely.
Federal agents recovered the rifle he'd abandoned on the roof, but Graham disappeared into the surrounding neighborhood.
Michael Rourke entered custody alive.
Nicholas found no satisfaction in it.
Another layer had peeled away.
Underneath waited Graham.
The executive everyone initially assumed was a lieutenant had become something else.
Michael explained during interrogation.
Graham had joined the scheme four years earlier.
At first, he moved money.
Then managed properties.
Eventually, he built his own network.
Daniel discovered both conspiracies overlapping.
Michael wanted Nicholas forced out.
Graham wanted the empire sold apart.
Huge difference.
“Why?” Nicholas asked through the interview-room glass.
Adrian answered.
“Liquidity.”
Graham had quietly accumulated options to purchase Rourke properties through outside investors.
If Nicholas fell and the company destabilized, Graham could acquire assets cheaply.
“He used Michael.”
“And Patrick.”
“And Claire.”
“Yes.”
Nicholas looked through the glass.
His uncle sat alone.
A lifetime of family loyalty manipulated by a man with spreadsheets and patience.
“Almost elegant.”
Adrian frowned.
“Don't admire it.”
“I don't.”
Nicholas's phone vibrated.
Emily.
He answered.
“Everything okay?”
“Lucy won't sleep.”
“Why?”
“She wants to talk to you.”
Nicholas looked at the clock.
2:40 a.m.
“Put her on.”
A tiny voice.
“Nick?”
“Hi, Lucy.”
“Bunny sleep.”
“That's good.”
“Home hurt.”
“Yes.”
“You fix?”
Nicholas closed his eyes.
“We're fixing it.”
“Tomorrow?”
He almost laughed.
“Not tomorrow.”
Lucy considered.
“Friday?”
“Probably not Friday.”
“Okay.”
Toddlers were remarkably flexible about construction schedules.
Then she said:
“Night-night.”
“Good night.”
Emily returned.
“Sorry.”
“Don't be.”
“She thinks you're somehow in charge of buildings.”
“Unfortunately, accurate.”
A pause.
“Are you safe?”
“Yes.”
“Michael?”
“Custody.”
“And Graham?”
“Missing.”
Emily became quiet.
“He came into Lucy's room.”
Nicholas knew.
That fact would never become abstract.
“I know.”
“He knew where she slept.”
“I know.”
“Find him.”
Not kill him.
Find him.
“I'm going to.”
Graham solved the problem himself at 4:12 a.m.
He called Nicholas.
“You've made this unnecessarily difficult.”
Nicholas almost admired the arrogance.
“Where are you?”
“I want the original Mercer files.”
“Federal government has copies.”
“I want the originals.”
“Sentimental?”
“I want what Daniel took.”
“Why?”
“Because one page isn't in the digital files.”
Nicholas looked at Adrian.
Interesting.
“What page?”
Graham laughed.
“If you knew, we wouldn't be talking.”
Nicholas understood.
Daniel's paper box.
Original documents.
They had never fully catalogued every page.
Graham feared something existed there that nobody had copied.
“What do you offer?”
“Your executive assistant.”
Nicholas's jaw tightened.
“Claire?”
“She isn't in Canada.”
Of course.
Graham had her.
Claire had believed she was his ally.
Another disposable piece.
“Alive?”
“For now.”
“Proof.”
A video arrived.
Claire tied to a chair.
Terrified.
Her lip bleeding.
Today’s news playing silently behind her.
Nicholas stared.
Emily would ask why he cared.
Claire betrayed him.
Helped forge records.
Tracked his life.
Yet there was no hesitation.
He would get her back.
Because refusing to become Graham was the entire point.
“Location?”
“South freight terminal.”
“Time?”
“Six.”
“And Graham?”
“Yes?”
“You're getting copies.”
“I want originals.”
“No.”
Silence.
“You don't negotiate very well.”
“I do.”
Nicholas leaned back.
“I simply know you need that page more than I need to pretend you have leverage.”
Graham's voice hardened.
“Claire dies.”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“You kept her alive because she knows where your offshore accounts are.”
Silence.
Nicholas smiled faintly.
Guess.
But apparently correct.
“She built your access systems. She isn't hostage leverage. She's insurance.”
Graham hung up.
Adrian stared.
“You made that up.”
“Mostly.”
“You're insane.”
“Frequently useful.”
They searched Daniel's paper documents.
Emily joined via secure video.
At 5:03, she noticed something.
“That's Daniel's shorthand.”
A margin note beside an old vendor contract.
G.P. / CHICAGO HERITAGE / BOX 221.
Chicago Heritage Bank.
Safe-deposit box.
Nicholas looked at the brass key Lucy had carried into his office.
1147.
Different number.
Emily suddenly stood.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“There was another key.”
“Where?”
“Daniel's old watch case.”
“Where is it?”
Emily's face dropped.
“Southport.”
Burned.
Maybe destroyed.
Nicholas thought.
“Did you see it after his death?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“When I packed his dresser.”
“What did it look like?”
“Silver. Tiny.”
Nicholas called the fire investigator.
Two hours later, amidst debris recovered from apartment 3C, they found a charred metal watch case.
Inside:
One silver key.
Chicago Heritage Bank.
Box 221.
Graham had burned Southport trying to destroy something that wasn't even there anymore.
At the bank, federal investigators opened Box 221.
Inside sat one envelope.
Daniel had written:
IF NICHOLAS ROURKE IS STILL IN CHARGE, GIVE THIS TO HIM.
Nicholas almost smiled.
Inside was a notarized share-transfer agreement.
Years earlier, Graham Pike had secretly acquired beneficial ownership in contractors doing business with Rourke Urban.
Self-dealing.
Fraud.
Tax crimes.
Enough alone to destroy him.
But the final document mattered more.
A life-insurance policy on Daniel Mercer.
Corporate key-person insurance.
Policy beneficiary:
Pike Advisory Management.
Amount:
$5 million.
Nicholas stared.
“Graham financially benefited from Daniel's death.”
Adrian nodded.
“And never disclosed the policy.”
Now they had motive.
At six that evening, Nicholas went to the freight terminal.
Federal teams surrounded the area at distance.
Graham stood inside an empty warehouse.
Claire sat tied nearby.
Nicholas carried a folder.
“You came.”
“You sound surprised.”
Graham looked tired.
For the first time, not polished.
Not controlled.
“You ruined everything.”
Nicholas smiled faintly.
“I hear that often.”
“Michael was a dinosaur. Patrick was insecure. Marcus was greedy. Claire was angry.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Graham looked at Nicholas.
“But you were the problem.”
“Why?”
“You kept changing.”
That answer interested him.
“You were supposed to be your father.”
Nicholas said nothing.
“A predictable thug with respectable businesses on top.”
Graham laughed bitterly.
“Then you started cleaning house. Audits. Compliance. legitimate books. You were destroying the environment that made people like me rich.”
“So you decided to remove me.”
“Yes.”
“Daniel?”
Graham's face changed.
“He should've stopped.”
Nicholas's body went cold.
“Did you kill him?”
“He wouldn't stop.”
Claire began crying.
Graham realized too late.
His confession.
Nicholas wore a wire.
The warehouse doors opened.
Federal agents shouted.
Graham grabbed Claire.
Gun against her neck.
“Back!”
Everyone stopped.
Nicholas didn't move.
Graham looked at him.
“You don't care about her.”
Nicholas stared.
“She betrayed you.”
“Yes.”
“She helped me destroy you.”
“Yes.”
“So why are you standing there?”
Nicholas thought of Lucy.
Emily.
Daniel.
Mrs. Alvarez.
Even Leonard.
People had made terrible choices.
Power had always given Nicholas the easiest answer.
Discard them.
He had spent years learning harder ones.
“Because she still gets to live.”
Claire sobbed.
Graham's face twisted.
“You're weak.”
Nicholas shook his head.
“No.”
He remembered Daniel's letter.
Being good is not the same as being weak.
“You just never learned the difference.”
Claire stomped Graham's foot.
He flinched.
Agents moved.
Gunshot.
Graham fell.
Alive.
Bullet through his shoulder.
Claire dropped to the floor.
Nicholas reached her first.
She stared up at him.
“Why?”
He cut the restraints.
“You'll have plenty of time to ask yourself that in prison.”
She laughed once through tears.
Fair.
Outside, morning light reflected off Lake Michigan.
Adrian approached.
“It's over.”
Nicholas looked at him.
“No.”
Adrian sighed.
May you like
“What now?”
“Now we fix what they broke.”
