Chapter 4: The Name on the Contract
Mason's attorney, a sharp woman named Carol Reyes, arrived at the Grand Crest within forty minutes.
She walked into the storage room, looked at the six pages, looked at Brandon and Gerald, and asked Mason one question.
"Have either of them left the building?"
"No."
"Good." She set her briefcase on the shelf beside the cheap ricotta and opened it.
"Then let's begin."
Carol worked methodically.
She photographed every page of Joanne's documentation.
She pulled up the hotel's digital supplier files on Mason's phone and cross-referenced them against the paper invoices.
She didn't raise her voice.
She didn't need to.
After twenty minutes, she looked up.
"Three of these supplier contracts list a company called Crestline Provisions LLC as a co-vendor."
Brandon's expression didn't change.
But his right hand moved slightly under the table.
"I'm not familiar with that company," Mason said.
"Neither is the Texas Secretary of State's office." Carol turned her phone around.
"It was registered eight months ago.
The registered agent is a man named Derek Soll."
The name landed in the room like something dropped from a height.
Lily, who was sitting quietly in the corner, looked up.
"That's the man who came to the hospital," she said.
Everyone turned toward her.
"What?" Mason said.
"A man came to see my mom about three weeks ago.
My grandma was there.
She said he told the nurse he was a colleague.
But my mom didn't know him." Lily's voice was steady but her hands had tightened on her backpack straps.
"My grandma said he stood in the doorway for a moment and then left when he saw that Mom was asleep."
Carol wrote the name Derek Soll on a notepad.
She underlined it once.
"Brandon," Mason said.
"Do you know Derek Soll?"
"No."
"His name is on three contracts in this room."
"I deal with a lot of vendors."
"You just told me you didn't know the company."
Brandon's jaw tightened.
"I said I wasn't familiar with the name off the top of my head."
"That's not what you said."
The silence stretched.
Carol closed her notepad.
"Mr.
Cole, I'm going to recommend to my client that he contact the San Antonio Police Department's financial crimes unit this afternoon.
If you have anything you'd like to clarify before that call is made, now would be the time."
Brandon looked at the table.
"I want my lawyer."
"You said that earlier." Carol glanced at Mason.
"He's had forty minutes."
Mason looked at Gerald.
"What about you?"
Gerald's face had gone the color of old paper.
"I only deleted the email," he said.
"That's all I did.
I deleted her email and told her you'd read it.
I didn't know about the supplier scheme.
Brandon told me it was just a small adjustment and that you were aware."
"A small adjustment," Mason repeated.
"I know how that sounds."
"Do you."
Gerald looked at his hands.
"Brandon said if I kept quiet, there'd be a bonus at the end of the year.
I needed the money.
My wife had medical bills and I—" He stopped.
He seemed to hear himself.
"I'm sorry.
That doesn't make it right."
"No," Mason said.
"It doesn't."
Carol was already on her phone, stepping toward the door.
Mason heard her say the words financial fraud and documentation and yes, today.
He turned back to Brandon.
"Derek Soll visited a hospitalized woman who exposed your scheme.
A woman who had a stroke six weeks after losing her job." Mason's voice was quiet.
"What was he doing there?"
"I told you.
I don't know Derek Soll."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true."
Mason picked up Joanne's six pages.
He looked at the third supplier contract.
The co-vendor signature line.
The name printed underneath it in clean block letters.
He turned the page around and held it in front of Brandon.
"Then whose signature is that?"
Brandon looked at the page.
For the first time since sitting down, he looked genuinely uncertain.
His eyes moved across the signature.
Something shifted in his face — not guilt, but something closer to fear.
"That's not my signature," he said.
Mason looked at it again.
It wasn't Brandon's name.
It was close.
One letter different.
Enough to look right at a glance.
Enough to hold up if no one looked carefully.
Someone had signed Brandon's name to a contract he may not have seen.
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Which meant Brandon Cole might not be the only person running this scheme.
And whoever else was involved had just made sure that if it fell apart, Brandon would be the one holding the documents.
