Chapter 5 - David Was Being Framed Carefully
The dead man was Aaron Pike, David’s former business partner.
Pike had been found dead in a Baltimore hotel room four days earlier.
David became a person of interest after security footage showed him
entering Pike’s room.
David admitted being there.
He found Pike alive.
They argued.
David left.
Two hours later, Pike was dead.
The medical examiner had not yet released a final cause.
Victor showed Helen photographs that made it appear David was standing
beside Pike’s body.
David insisted they were manipulated.
Detective Collins did not accept either version without evidence.
David voluntarily surrendered his phone and agreed to questioning.
Michael appreciated that.
Trust would require proof now.
Police obtained hotel footage.
It showed David leaving at 6:14 p.m.
Another man entered at 6:47.
Victor Hale.
Victor left seventeen minutes later.
Pike was discovered at 8:03.
The timeline did not clear David completely.
But it destroyed Victor’s story.
Then investigators found something else.
Pike had emailed Michael the morning he died.
Michael never received it.
Someone had intercepted it through a compromised corporate account.
The recovered message contained six words:
ASK HELEN ABOUT PROJECT ORCHARD HOUSE.
Michael looked at his mother.
Helen stared at the screen.
“I haven’t heard that name in thirty years.”
Project Orchard House had nothing to do with cybersecurity.
It was the name of the private adoption agency that placed David.
The agency had closed decades earlier.
Michael felt the two mysteries collide.
“Why would Pike know about David’s adoption?”
Helen shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
David did.
Before closing, Orchard House had been financed by a family foundation.
May you like
The Hale Foundation.
Victor’s family.
