Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER WHO BELIEVED THE ESTATE WAS HIS
Julian’s attorney arrived before the next interview.
He explained that Julian had visited Sophia’s apartment after Michael died to retrieve company property.
That, he claimed, was how Julian knew the appearance of the bottle.
Sophia remembered the visit.
Julian arrived before the funeral.
He removed Michael’s company laptop, identification badge, notebooks, and two locked cases.
He told Sophia the items belonged to Duca Biotech.
She had been too numb to object.
The company later claimed no useful compliance files were recovered.
Estate records created a different problem for Julian.
At 7:13 that morning, a master credential opened the kitchen staff corridor.
The credential belonged to Julian’s family access profile.
His attorney argued that anyone could have taken the card.
Security footage from the guest wing showed Julian leaving his suite wearing a dark estate jacket and carrying a folded newspaper.
At 7:19, he returned without the newspaper.
His face was never clearly visible inside the kitchen, but the timing, clothing, build, and credential placed him near the coffee.
That was powerful circumstantial evidence.
It was not the entire case.
Peter Walsh remained under investigation.
His employment application contained false references.
The phone numbers belonged to temporary internet accounts.
He admitted a recruiter had approached him with an unusually high salary.
The recruiter communicated through encrypted messages.
Peter was instructed to accept the estate job, keep the spice cupboard locked, and ignore occasional packages placed inside.
“You knew something was wrong,” Detective Morgan said.
“I thought it was expensive ingredients or drugs.”
“And you stayed?”
“I needed the money.”
“What happened last night?”
“A package appeared in the cupboard.”
“Did you open it?”
“No.”
“Why was the empty bottle inside?”
“I do not know.”
Peter’s phone contained payments from a consulting company connected to Julian’s subsidiary.
He claimed he believed the money was a signing bonus.
He also admitted Julian spoke to him privately before breakfast.
“What did he say?” Morgan asked.
“He told me Mr. Duca needed stronger coffee and that I should leave the cup alone once it was on the table.”
“That did not concern you?”
“Everything Julian said sounded like an order.”
Peter’s failure had consequences.
He had accepted suspicious payments, concealed the package, and ignored warning signs.
Investigators had not yet established that he knew the package contained poison.
Peter agreed to cooperate.
The estate’s financial audit revealed Julian’s motive.
Duca Biotech was preparing to disclose losses from fraudulent medical supply contracts.
More than eighty million dollars had passed through shell vendors.
Some equipment existed.
Much did not.
Several companies ultimately led back to accounts Julian controlled through associates.
Michael Alvarez discovered the pattern.
Alessandro had recently discovered enough discrepancies to remove Julian from management at the next board meeting.
That meeting was scheduled for Monday.
If Alessandro died before the board acted, the family trust placed temporary voting authority with the surviving Duca brother.
Julian would gain immediate control.
He could stop the audit, replace executives, and influence which records reached regulators.
The arrangement had been written when both brothers were young.
Their father assumed neither would ever weaponize it.
Alessandro contacted the trustees.
Julian’s temporary succession authority was suspended through an emergency process allowed when a beneficiary faced credible allegations of harming another.
The company entered independent oversight.
Alessandro did not appoint himself judge.
The board and trustees preserved operations while law enforcement worked.
Julian learned about the suspension through his attorney.
His control cracked.
“This company exists because of our family.”
Alessandro looked at him through the interview room glass.
“It exists because thousands of people work there.”
“He was going to take it from me.”
“He was going to expose what you took from it.”
Julian leaned toward the table.
“You always got everything.”
Alessandro remained still.
Their father’s approval.
The chief executive position.
The estate.
The voting shares.
Julian had converted envy into entitlement so gradually that he no longer recognized the boundary between wanting power and killing for it.
Detective Morgan placed the old photograph of Michael before him.
“You knew he had a child.”
Julian looked toward Emma’s face.
His jaw tightened.
“He should have stayed quiet.”
The room became silent.
His attorney closed his eyes.
Julian had not confessed to murder.
He had admitted motive and hostility toward a dead whistleblower.
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Sometimes the most damaging sentence was the one a powerful man believed required no explanation.
Continue to the next part: Testing confirms Michael and Alessandro were exposed to the same substance, while a hidden cloud folder reveals what Michael copied before his death.
