Chapter 18 - The Last Lie
Graham felt a hot line of pain across his shoulder.
Victor ran for the back exit.
“Police! Drop it!” someone shouted.
Victor fired once more. The bullet struck a metal shelf. Officers rushed through the side door. Graham rolled behind the workbench as Nina called his name.
Victor was tackled in the alley.
When officers brought him back in handcuffs, he looked less like a powerful executive and more like a tired man who had finally run out of people to blame.
“You’ll never prove everything,” he said.
Nina held up the recorder recovered from the floor.
“We have enough.”
Graham was taken to the hospital. The wound was painful but not life-threatening. Lucy arrived before the doctor finished stitching it.
“You absolute idiot,” she said, tears in her eyes.
“I’ve been called worse.”
“You went alone.”
“I had a microphone.”
“It fell off.”
He blinked. “You know about that?”
“I watched the police footage.”
Graham tried to smile. Lucy did not.
“You don’t get to prove you care by getting yourself killed,” she said.
He looked at her. “I’m sorry.”
She sat beside him and held his uninjured hand.
For a while, neither spoke.
The next morning, federal agents froze the $240 million transfer. The board reinstated Graham’s access long enough for him to cooperate with the investigation, then accepted his resignation as chief executive. Victor was charged with fraud, conspiracy, obstruction, and multiple counts related to the falsified adoption records.
But one question remained.
At the hospital, Nina brought Graham a sealed envelope recovered from Victor’s office. It was addressed to him in Elise’s handwriting.
Inside was a short note.
Graham,
There is one thing I never told you. Victor did not act alone. Someone on the board helped him arrange the accident. Someone you trusted enough to name as Sophie’s godparent.
Graham looked up.
“Who?”
Nina turned the page.
May you like
The name was written in black ink.
Martha.
