Chapter 18 - The Last Insider
The damaged video would not play beyond twenty-seven seconds.
Julian’s forensic team recovered fragments of metadata.
The file had been copied once, five years earlier.
From a computer registered to Vale Holdings.
Someone inside Julian’s company had accessed Mara’s mother’s evidence long after Edmund Vale died.
Julian called an emergency meeting with three people he trusted: Rachel, general counsel Denise Park, and CFO Malcolm Reid.
Malcolm arrived looking exhausted.
“What happened?”
Julian placed a printed bank ledger on the table.
Malcolm read the first page.
His face emptied.
Mara noticed.
“So you recognize it,” she said.
Malcolm looked at her.
“Yes.”
Julian stood.
“From where?”
Malcolm did not answer immediately.
Rachel whispered, “Malcolm.”
He sat down.
“Your father showed me a version of these records eight years ago.”
Julian’s voice hardened. “Why?”
“He wanted me to clean up old vendor accounts before an audit.”
“Did you?”
“I closed shell companies. I did not know one of them paid for your brake line to be cut.”
Mara studied him.
“What about five years ago?”
Malcolm looked at the memory card.
“That was me.”
Julian took one step toward him.
Rachel moved between them.
“Let him talk.”
Malcolm’s eyes were wet.
“I received an anonymous envelope with a copy of Mrs. Ellison’s recording. I recognized the accounts. I panicked.”
“So you buried it,” Julian said.
“Yes.”
The word landed heavily.
Malcolm looked at Mara.
“I told myself I was protecting thousands of employees from a scandal caused by dead men and old crimes.”
“My mother wasn’t dead then,” Mara said.
He looked down.
“No.”
“You could have called her.”
“I know.”
“You could have called me.”
“I know.”
Mara wanted to hate him cleanly.
It would have been easier.
Instead she saw a coward who had chosen a corporation over people he never bothered to meet.
Julian removed Malcolm’s building badge.
“You’re suspended effective now. Denise will preserve every file you touched.”
Malcolm nodded.
Before security escorted him out, he turned back.
“There’s something else.”
Julian stopped.
“Richard called me yesterday. He wanted access to the trust amendment.”
“Did you give it to him?”
“No. But someone did.”
Malcolm took a folded page from his coat.
At the bottom was an electronic authorization.
Rachel Vale.
Everyone looked at Julian’s sister.
May you like
Rachel’s face went white.
“I never signed that.”
