Chapter 6 - THOMAS BENNETT
Thomas Bennett had been Richard's younger brother.
Chief financial officer.
Family fixer.
The person Claire remembered from childhood Christmas dinners as:
the uncle who never took off his watch.
He left Bennett Meridian eleven months after Jonah Carter died.
Officially:
Retirement.
Actually:
Richard bought out his remaining executive interest after a board fight.
Claire knew they fought.
She never knew why.
Thomas agreed to meet in the office of the outside investigator.
Not Claire's apartment.
Not Walter's cart.
Neutral room.
He was sixty-three now.
Thinner.
Gray beard.
Still wearing the same steel watch.
Claire stared at him.
“You called me.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me try to pay Walter.”
“No.”
“Then how did you know?”
“Ethan texted me.”
Claire turned toward Ethan's empty chair.
“He knew you?”
“For three weeks.”
“Why?”
“Because Calvin Ross gave him my number.”
There.
No surveillance wizard.
No hidden camera.
Ethan saw Claire arrive with an envelope.
He texted Thomas:
She's here. She's trying to pay Walter.
Thomas called.
Simple.
Claire almost hated that more.
“You told me I paid the wrong witness.”
“You did.”
“Ethan.”
“Yes.”
“Why not tell me directly?”
Thomas looked at her.
“Would you have listened before humiliating Walter?”
She did not answer.
Then:
“What did you keep?”
Thomas opened a folder.
Independent engineering memorandum.
Written forty-eight hours after the accident.
The engineer concluded:
The elevator's interlock system had a documented intermittent fault.
The red restriction tag had no recorded release.
The temporary operating test did not satisfy full maintenance procedure.
And:
Available evidence does not support assigning sole causal responsibility to Mr. Carter's manual reset.
Claire stared.
“This wasn't in the board packet.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Richard told legal it was preliminary.”
“Was it?”
“Yes.”
“Was there a final?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Thomas looked down.
“Because I stopped it.”
Claire said nothing.
Thomas had called the engineering firm.
Told them Bennett Meridian no longer required a final causation opinion because insurer and city investigations were underway.
Technically allowable.
The consultant was not a regulator.
Why stop it?
The refinancing.
The lender had a covenant allowing review if a major safety incident suggested systemic operational failure.
A final memo saying:
known equipment defect + undocumented restriction removal
could have delayed funding.
Thomas did not want that.
Richard definitely did not.
“You buried it.”
Thomas shook his head.
“I put it in legal archive.”
“Where nobody on the board saw it.”
“Yes.”
“You're the person calling me about witnesses.”
“Yes.”
“You could've surfaced this eight years ago.”
“Yes.”
No excuse yet.
Claire waited.
Thomas finally said:
“I thought the city investigation would reach the same conclusion.”
“It didn't.”
“No.”
“Then?”
“I told myself I wasn't responsible for fixing their investigation.”
There.
Claire laughed bitterly.
“Runs in the family.”
Thomas accepted it.
Then she asked:
“Did Dad go to the tower?”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Afterward.”
“What was in the envelope Walter saw?”
Thomas looked at her.
“I don't know.”
“Don't.”
“I genuinely don't.”
“Then what do you know?”
Richard called Thomas at 8:21.
From the Financial District.
His voice was angry.
He said:
Jonah won't take the deal.
Thomas asked:
What deal?
Richard said:
Forget it. I'm shutting the car down.
Claire leaned forward.
“Shutting the elevator down?”
“That's what I assumed.”
“What did you do?”
Thomas said:
“I went back to dinner.”
Claire stared.
“You didn't ask.”
“No.”
Another Bennett man avoiding the extra question.
Then Thomas added:
“Richard called again after Jonah fell.”
“What did he say?”
Thomas looked at the engineering memo.
“He said, ‘He went in anyway.’”
Claire felt cold.
“Anyway.”
“Yes.”
That word implied Jonah had been told not to.
May you like
Meaning the thick envelope Walter saw might not have been hush money at all.
It might have contained the order that could have saved him.
