Chapter 10 - The Account Nobody Could Explain

By noon the next day, Gideon had suspended Malcolm's access to foundation accounts. Celeste called him vindictive. Malcolm threatened a lawsuit. Gideon had never enjoyed paperwork more.

“We need the actual bank records,” Amina warned. “A corrupted document is evidence of fraud, not proof of who ordered Lydia's crash.”

“I know,” Gideon said. “I'm not interested in a story that sounds good. I'm interested in the truth.”

Nora met them at a conference room in White Plains. Ivy sat drawing at the far end of the table under Mateo's watch. On her paper, a tiny piano floated above a road with no cars.

Amina laid out the transactions. Scholarship payments meant for children from low-income families had gone to Northbridge, then to shell accounts. The total exceeded eleven million dollars before Lydia's death. The trust transfer added twenty-eight million afterward.

“That's almost forty million,” Nora said.

“Some recovered, some not,” Amina replied. “The records are incomplete.”

Gideon pushed away the papers. “Lydia kept asking why students were losing their grants. I told her budgets were complicated.”

Ivy didn't look up. “Was she right?”

“Yes.”

“Then you should've listened.”

Gideon nodded. “Yes, I should have.”

Amina pointed to a payment dated the morning of the crash. Forty thousand dollars had gone to a transport company. The notation read: SPECIAL FAMILY MATTER.

Mateo found the company's owner in an old licensing database. It was the gray-suited guard's former employer.

Before anyone could speak, Nora's phone rang. An unknown number. She answered on speaker.

“You need to get that little girl out of Whitcomb business,” said a man with a rough, tired voice.

“Who is this?”

“I drove the second car that night. I didn't know what they were going to do.”

Mateo silently motioned for her to keep talking.

“What did you see?” Nora asked.

The man breathed unevenly.

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“I saw Lydia crawl out of the wreck. I saw her reach for her phone. And I watched somebody step on her hand.”

The call ended before he could say another word.