Evan felt anger flare. "Tell us what?"
Marcus swallowed. "My father, Thomas Hail, stole parts of Daniel Carter's design and sold them to a foreign manufacturing group through a consulting company. He did it before Daniel was dismissed, and the transfers continued afterward."
The sentence seemed to change the temperature of the room. Charlotte did not move, but her eyes narrowed. Evan took one step forward, then stopped when he saw the distress on Marcus's face. An accusation that serious required more than a confession delivered in a dusty basement.
"How do you know?" Evan asked.
"Because I found the correspondence when he died. He kept a duplicate of a contract and the payment records. He wrote about Daniel in notebooks he thought nobody would read."
Marcus laid the envelope on an empty table without opening it. Helen asked whether it had been altered or copied, and Marcus said he had brought certified copies made by his attorney. The originals were secured elsewhere, available to independent investigators under a documented process. Charlotte appreciated his caution even as she struggled to absorb what he was saying.
"Why are you telling us now?" she asked.
"Because the connector in that car wasn't an accident. Someone is repeating the same method my father used to manipulate test readings. And because I have spent six years telling myself the old crime had nothing to do with me while I worked inside the company that blamed the wrong man."
Evan watched Marcus's hands. They trembled slightly as he removed a sheet from the envelope and placed it where everyone could read. It was a copy of a payment schedule associated with Thomas's consulting business, followed by correspondence referencing the transfer of prototype control architecture. The precise commercial terms meant little to Evan, but the dates mattered. Several transactions had occurred before Daniel was accused of theft.
"My father used a change in connector resistance to generate false thermal alarms during the original tests," Marcus explained. "The anomaly delayed approval and made Daniel's design look unstable. Meanwhile Thomas copied the underlying architecture and offered it to another company as something he had developed independently. He needed the Bennett team discredited long enough to complete the transfer."
Priya remained careful. "These documents support part of that account, assuming authentication. They don't establish every statement you've made."
"I know," Marcus said. "That's why I'm giving them to you."
Charlotte looked down at the blueprint. "My father discovered Thomas was stealing. Why didn't he report it?"
Marcus closed his eyes briefly. "Thomas threatened to expose the company's hidden liabilities and alleged misstatements to investors. He claimed he'd take the whole business down. Richard thought he could contain the scandal by accusing Daniel of moving the designs without permission and quietly negotiating with Thomas."
"He ruined Daniel to save the company," Charlotte whispered.
"That's what my father believed Richard was willing to do. He wrote that Richard would protect the Bennett name at any cost."