Chapter 5: The Account That Should Not Exist
Malcolm called at noon.
"We need to talk about the message," he said.
"In person."
I was already putting on my coat.
His office was on the fourteenth floor of Aurelia's headquarters, a corner room with two walls of glass and a desk that had belonged to the company's founder.
He was standing when I arrived, which meant it was serious.
Malcolm only stood when he couldn't sit still.
"The forensic team found something this morning," he said.
"They weren't looking for it.
It surfaced during the vendor payment trace."
He handed me a single printed page.
A bank account.
Registered to a holding company called Meridian Slate LLC.
Incorporated in Delaware eighteen months ago.
I looked at the transaction column.
Twelve deposits.
Each one between forty and ninety thousand dollars.
All originating from Aurelia Systems vendor payment accounts.
Total: just under eight hundred thousand dollars.
"Derek's?" I asked.
"That's what we assumed." Malcolm sat down.
"But the signatory on the account isn't Derek."
He pointed to the bottom of the page.
The authorized signatory for Meridian Slate LLC was listed as V.
Price.
Vanessa.
I set the page down carefully.
"She wasn't just receiving gifts," I said.
"No." Malcolm's voice was quiet.
"She was running it.
Derek may have authorized the payments, but Vanessa controlled where they landed.
She set up the LLC.
She managed the transfers.
The earrings were the smallest part of it."
"Does she know we found this?"
"Not yet."
I thought about Vanessa's hand flying to her ears in the ballroom.
The three seconds it took for her confidence to collapse.
The way she had looked at Derek when the counsel approached her — looking for rescue, finding nothing.
"She thought Derek would protect her," I said.
"Yes."
"And Derek let her believe that because as long as she was running the account, his name stayed off it."
Malcolm nodded slowly.
"If this had gone differently tonight — if you hadn't been named majority owner, if the investigation hadn't been triggered — Vanessa would have been the one holding the evidence.
Derek would have been untouchable."
I looked at the page again.
Eight hundred thousand dollars.
Eighteen months.
"He was going to let her take the fall," I said.
"That's what it looks like."
I picked up the page and held it for a moment.
"Where is Vanessa now?"
"Home, we believe.
She hasn't been formally contacted yet.
Legal wanted your guidance before they moved."
I thought about the woman who had smiled at me across the ballroom.
Who had worn my earrings and rested her hand on my husband's arm and called me by my first name like a warning.
I also thought about a woman who had believed a man's promises completely enough to put her name on a document that could send her to prison.
"Contact her attorney," I said.
"Not her directly.
Give the attorney twenty-four hours to advise her to cooperate with the investigation voluntarily.
If she does, legal can note her cooperation in the referral."
Malcolm looked at me carefully.
"That's generous."
"It's practical," I said.
"If she cooperates, we get Derek's full picture faster.
If she doesn't, the account documentation is enough without her."
"And if Derek finds out we've approached her?"
I set the page back on his desk.
"He already knows something is coming.
He sent me a message this morning."
I showed Malcolm my phone.
He read it.
His expression didn't change, but his hand tightened slightly on the edge of the desk.
"*Things I made sure of,*" he read aloud.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know yet," I said.
"But I think Vanessa might."
Malcolm looked at the bank account page for a long moment.
"There's one more thing," he said.
He opened his desk drawer and placed a second document beside the first.
"The forensic team flagged this separately.
It came out of the vendor files, but it isn't a payment record."
I looked at it.
It was an email.
Printed.
Dated eleven months ago.
The sender was Derek.
The recipient was an address I didn't recognize.
The subject line read: *Re: Northstar acquisition — alternative approach.*
My chest went still.
I read the first line.
*If the board won't move on the purchase price, we use the other option.
She won't see it coming.*
I looked up at Malcolm.
"She," I said.
May you like
"Yes," Malcolm said.
"We believe that means you."
