Prodigal Son

Chapter 29

"Here, catch," Thea said while tossing a plump, white paper bag. Felicity barely had time to look before Oliver snatched it out the air despite them being caught unaware and her still curled up in his lap. The heavenly scent of Big Belly Burger's finest wafted up and her stomach growled loudly. She was reminded she'd never gotten around to eating lunch.

"Thea, you are an angel," Felicity said slipping from her cozy position, taking the bag and sitting back next to Oliver so she could unpacked it.

"I made Mom get take out. She didn't even fight me on it."

"Where's she now?" Felicity asked, snagging a delightfully salty and soggy fry and popping it in her mouth.

"Went upstairs. Said she needed to rest." At Oliver's frown, Thea shook her head. "I don't think she's actually tired, just avoiding more questions."

Felicity passed the larger burger to Oliver before unwrapping hers. "Did you find out anything?"

"Not a lot. I think I answered as many questions as I asked. Probably more. She knew about the intruder at Merlyn Global and brought up the break in at the Applied Science Building again. I think she has her suspicions."

"That doesn't matter," Oliver dismissed any need for worry. "Anything else?"

"I tried to find out who else was involved in Malcolm's plan. The Undertaking, that's what they all called it. Creepy, right?"

"Did she give you any names?"

"She mentioned the list and said everyone was involved on some level. Not everyone knew the specifics of the plan but loads more than I would have guessed. It's possible George Patel could have picked up rumors about the earthquake device from one of them, but yeah, Mom agreed it's way more likely his father passed on the information somehow.

"You see," Thea went on to explain, "Warren Patel was supposed to be following Malcolm's plan—which was letting QC get the winning bid on Unidac— but Warren decided to try and rig the system by killing not just Queen Consolidated's competition, but QC's CEO as well so that Patel's company would be the only one left. Then he'd buy up Unidac and after he gave Malcolm the Markov devices that he wanted, Warren could keep making a mint selling more of the devices on the black-market."

"Double crossing Malcolm. No wonder he ended up dead."

"Oh, about that. Mom said Warren Patel being weirdly killed by an arrow, get this, that was all Malcolm's handiwork. He told her he 'handled' the problem himself."

Oliver's forehead furrowed. "Felicity, was Warren Patel the only victim killed by an arrow?"

Felicity shook her head while she finished swallowing a large bite of burger.

"No, but he was the highest profile victim. According to the SCPD database, during the five years prior to Malcolm's death, half a dozen people died by arrow. A few more had strange puncture wounds the forensic people labeled likely wounds from removing some kind of projectile, most likely a modern hunting arrow. It was happening in the Glades to the kind of people that the police don't worry too much about so I'm not sure how much effort went into closing cases."

"But other deaths you attributed to Malcolm, they showed up as accidents, right?"

"Even the Gambit would have gone down officially as an accident if Moira hadn't recovered the ship. But yeah, hit and runs, faulty wiring, muggings. That kind of thing. What are you thinking?"

"Just that if when Malcolm permanently took care of his problems, he used arrows, it stands to reason the other method of solving his problems must have belonged to someone else working for him."