Chapter 5 - Someone Was Watching
Emily went inside and locked every door.
Noah walked the perimeter while she called Margaret.
“Aunt Margaret, someone is watching my house.”
“Come downtown now.”
“I’m not driving blindly if someone is following me.”
“Then I’ll send security.”
“No. Send Paul.”
Paul Reyes had driven for Emily’s grandfather for twenty years before becoming head of internal security. If there was one person in the Vance organization Daniel could not charm, it was Paul.
He arrived in twelve minutes in an unmarked SUV.
Noah climbed into the back. Emily sat beside Paul.
On the way downtown, Paul handed her a padded envelope.
“This came to the office Friday,” he said.
“From who?”
“No return address.”
Inside was a USB drive and a note.
Ask Daniel about Project Northstar.
Emily plugged the drive into an isolated tablet at Vance & Hayes headquarters.
A folder opened containing scanned invoices from Carter Construction.
Concrete billed twice.
Equipment leases tied to companies Emily had never heard of.
Consulting payments to a Delaware LLC.
And a spreadsheet labeled NORTHSTAR - PRIVATE.
Margaret stood behind her. “That’s enough for a forensic review.”
Emily scrolled farther.
One payment stopped her.
$312,000 to HAYES STRATEGIC ADVISORY.
Emily turned. “What is that?”
Margaret’s expression did not change fast enough.
“What is Hayes Strategic Advisory?” Emily repeated.
“It was dissolved years ago.”
“Who owned it?”
Margaret looked at Paul.
Paul looked away.
Emily stood.
“Who?”
Margaret said quietly, “Your father.”
Emily felt as if the floor shifted.
Her father, Jonathan Hayes, had died when she was seventeen. She remembered him as careful, boring, honest to the point of cruelty.
“That’s impossible.”
“I agree.”
“Then why did Daniel’s company send three hundred twelve thousand dollars to his old firm?”
Margaret reached for the tablet.
Emily pulled it back.
“No more family editing.”
“Emily—”
“No. Daniel forged my signature. Someone forged Noah’s. Now my dead father’s company is receiving money. I want the whole thing.”
Paul cleared his throat.
“There’s more.”
He tapped the screen and opened an audio file.
Daniel’s voice filled the room.
“If she signs, we’re clean. If she doesn’t, make it look like she did.”
Emily went cold.
Then another man answered.
A voice she knew better than her own.
“Leave my daughter out of it.”
May you like
Emily dropped the tablet.
Because the second voice belonged to her father.
