Chapter 7 - WHY HE WANTED TO BREAK THE VIOLIN
The Christmas outburst had not been random.
Grant knew the police risk was rising.
Two weeks earlier, one of the pawn shops received a routine police inquiry after a donor reported a separate missing instrument.
The shop still had archived photographs.
Thomas Hale’s violin appeared in them.
Grant learned through an old acquaintance.
He panicked.
The replacement violin in Noah’s case carried a repair-shop label that could prove when it had been purchased.
Three years earlier.
Exactly days after Thomas’s original violin was pawned.
If investigators compared dates, the swap became obvious.
So when Noah took out the instrument during Christmas dinner, Grant saw evidence.
Not music.
Evidence.
He started criticizing Noah.
Too loud.
Wrong song.
Bad technique.
Noah kept playing.
Then Susan praised him.
Grant snapped.
He chased Noah into the garage intending to destroy the replacement instrument.
If it broke, he could claim the labels, internal marks, and provenance were gone in an emotional family accident.
He never expected Susan to stop his wrist.
Susan understood that now.
“You weren’t destroying his hobby,” she later told him during a police interview arranged through attorneys.
“You were destroying the timeline.”
May you like
Grant looked at her.
For once, he did not argue.
