Chapter 4 - The Missing Ledger
Maya watched the video four times.
The woman’s face stayed with her.
Dark hair. Red coat. Early thirties. Terrified, but trying not to show it.
Rebecca leaned over the laptop. “Do you know her?”
“No.”
A voice from the doorway said, “I do.”
Charles Whitmore stood there.
Two security officers were behind him.
Rebecca straightened. “You’re not authorized in this room.”
Charles ignored her. “Her name was Elena Marlow.”
Maya stood. “Was?”
“She died in 2009.”
“How?”
“Car accident.”
Maya looked at the frozen video frame. “Convenient.”
Charles’s eyes sharpened. “You think I killed her?”
“I think somebody was afraid of a ledger.”
For several seconds, Charles said nothing.
Then he closed the door behind him.
“Elena was Whitmore Global’s internal auditor,” he said. “She found money moving through emergency acquisition accounts. Your father helped her investigate.”
“My father worked for you?”
“For six months.”
Maya’s stomach tightened.
“He told me he never met you.”
“He had reasons.”
“You keep saying that like it excuses anything.”
Charles stepped closer. “The ledger Elena mentioned disappeared the night she died.”
Rebecca crossed her arms. “And now similar transfers are happening again.”
“Yes.”
Maya studied him. “You expect me to believe you’re innocent?”
“No. I expect you to believe I’m scared.”
That surprised her.
Charles Whitmore was not a man who admitted fear.
He took out his phone and placed a photograph on the table.
It showed a storage locker door with a painted number: 614.
“I received this two weeks ago.”
Maya looked up. “From who?”
“No name. Just a message: SHE KEPT A COPY.”
“Why didn’t you investigate?”
“I did. The locker was empty.”
Rebecca frowned. “Where?”
“South Loop.”
Maya’s phone buzzed again.
UNKNOWN NUMBER: WRONG LOCKER.
Then another image appeared.
A brass key taped beneath a table.
Maya looked down.
Under the conference table, something glinted.
She crouched.
A brass key had been taped beneath her chair.
May you like
On the tag, written in black marker, was one number.
615.
