Chapter 8 - ALEXANDRA’S STORY
I met Alexandra three days later.
Federal prosecutors objected at first.
My attorney objected louder.
Detective Reed simply asked whether I was sure.
I was.
I needed to look at the woman who had spent years preparing to destroy my family.
We met in a secure interview room.
She entered wearing a dark detention uniform.
Without the expensive clothes from her arrest photographs, she looked different.
Older than I expected.
Tired.
But not broken.
Her eyes were gray.
Holloway eyes.
My father’s eyes.
My eyes.
She sat across from me.
For several seconds we stared at each other.
“You look like Richard,” she said.
Hearing my father’s name in her mouth made me angry.
“You tried to kill his grandson.”
Her expression barely changed.
“I know.”
“You tried to kill me.”
“Yes.”
“You recruited my husband before he met me.”
“Conrad recruited him.”
“But you knew.”
“Eventually.”
“You ordered the dinner.”
Alexandra looked down.
“Yes.”
I waited for remorse.
It did not come quickly.
Instead she asked:
“Do you know what your father did after the lake?”
“He looked for you.”
She smiled bitterly.
“Is that what his files say?”
“He believed Conrad took you.”
“He did.”
That surprised me.
“So my father was right.”
“About that.”
“What happened?”
Alexandra stared at the table.
“When I woke up, I was in a clinic.”
Her voice changed.
Not softer.
Farther away.
“My arm was broken. I had burns along my shoulder. Conrad told me my parents were dead.”
She paused.
“He said Richard caused it.”
“What proof did he show you?”
“Photographs. Financial records. Insurance documents.”
“Forged?”
“Some.”
“When did you learn that?”
“Yesterday.”
I felt no satisfaction.
“What did Conrad tell you?”
“That Richard wanted control of the company. That he sabotaged the boat. That I survived because Conrad pulled me out.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
That mattered.
Conrad may have arranged the murders, but he also physically saved Alexandra.
The perfect foundation for control.
“He told me Richard was looking for me because he needed me dead.”
Alexandra rubbed her wrists.
“So we disappeared.”
“Where?”
“Canada first. Then Switzerland.”
“Did you never contact anyone?”
“I was twelve.”
Her eyes lifted.
“The man who saved my life told me my uncle wanted me murdered.”
I had no answer.
“By sixteen, I believed him completely.”
“What changed?”
“Nothing.”
She gave a humorless smile.
“That was the problem.”
Conrad shaped every part of her life.
Schools.
Friends.
Career.
She studied law because he told her she would one day reclaim what Richard stole.
She learned finance because revenge required knowledge.
She spent decades looking toward my family as thieves.
“What about me?”
“You were Richard’s daughter.”
“That was enough?”
“At first.”
“And Evan?”
For the first time, Alexandra’s composure cracked.
“I told myself he was part of the succession problem.”
“He was seven.”
“I know.”
“You told Daniel he wouldn’t live long.”
Her face tightened.
“I know what I said.”
“Do you?”
I leaned forward.
“Because he wakes up every night now asking whether his father still wants him dead.”
Alexandra closed her eyes.
“That is yours.”
I pushed the words between us.
“You did that.”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye.
She wiped it away almost angrily.
“I thought Richard murdered my father.”
“My son didn’t.”
Silence.
“No,” she whispered.
“He didn’t.”
I sat back.
“Why use the same substance found in Nathaniel’s body?”
Her eyes opened.
“Because I wanted Richard’s family to end the way mine did.”
The honesty shocked me.
Not because it was cruel.
Because it was childish.
After all those degrees and years of planning, her motive had been built inside a traumatized twelve-year-old.
Make them feel what I felt.
“Conrad suggested it?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
The same time she requested the tissue samples.
“He told me modern testing could finally prove my father was drugged before the explosion.”
“And once you confirmed it?”
“He said Richard had used that method.”
“But Richard didn’t.”
Alexandra looked away.
“No.”
“When did you learn?”
“After my arrest.”
“How?”
“Federal investigators showed me a procurement record.”
Reed had mentioned it.
The chemical compound had been obtained in 1998 by a medical supply company owned indirectly by Conrad.
Alexandra had spent her life avenging a murder committed by the man who raised her.
“How could you not see him?”
Her eyes flashed.
“Do not ask abused children why they believed the adult controlling their world.”
The sentence stopped me.
She was right about one thing.
Conrad had built her reality.
But adulthood had given her choices.
And she had chosen murder.
“Why did Conrad want me and Evan dead now?”
Alexandra hesitated.
“The company is voting next month.”
“On what?”
“A merger.”
I knew Holloway Industries had been negotiating with a European biotech conglomerate.
“If the merger passes, the company restructures. The old voting trust disappears.”
“And Conrad loses his opportunity.”
“Yes.”
“So he needed control before the vote.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel becomes temporary executor if Evan and I die in the specified sequence.”
“Yes.”
“Then transfers voting authority to you.”
“Technically.”
“And you transfer it to Conrad.”
Alexandra closed her eyes.
“I thought temporarily.”
“There is no temporarily with Conrad.”
“No.”
I watched her.
“What did he promise you?”
“My father’s company.”
“And what did he really plan?”
She looked directly at me.
“To kill me after the transfer.”
The room became quiet.
“How do you know?”
“Because police found an insurance policy at the estate.”
I remembered.
There had been three policies in Daniel’s office.
But apparently there were more.
“One on you?”
She nodded.
“Thirty million dollars.”
“Who was the beneficiary?”
Alexandra gave a broken laugh.
“A foundation.”
“Controlled by Conrad.”
“Yes.”
The man had planned every ending.
Daniel dies or goes to prison.
Alexandra dies.
My family dies.
Conrad remains.
“What do you know that can help us find him?”
She hesitated.
Then leaned forward.
“There is a place called Red Hollow.”
Detective Reed immediately looked up from behind the observation glass.
“What is it?”
“Conrad’s private archive.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
I frowned.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“He never told me.”
“Then what do you know?”
Alexandra lowered her voice.
“Everything he was afraid of went there.”
“What kind of things?”
“Original contracts.”
“Blackmail?”
“Yes.”
“Evidence?”
“Yes.”
She looked toward the glass.
“And recordings.”
“Of whom?”
“Everyone.”
“Including Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“Your father?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
I froze.
“My father?”
Alexandra nodded.
“Conrad recorded Richard for decades.”
“Why?”
“Because Richard knew what happened before the lake.”
My heart pounded.
“Before Nathaniel’s murder?”
“Yes.”
“What did he know?”
Alexandra stared at me.
“That Samuel Holloway never created the trust to protect the family.”
“Then why?”
May you like
She spoke the words carefully.
“To hide who actually owned the company.”
