Chapter 3 - The Missing Twenty Million
Mateo opened the door.
Evelyn Price stood in the hallway.
Harper barely recognized her.
The professor who had once entered lecture halls in bright scarves and immaculate jackets now wore jeans, a gray sweater and a coat several sizes too large.
She looked exhausted.
But alive.
“Evelyn?”
Harper crossed the room.
Evelyn caught her in an embrace, then immediately stepped back and stared at her stomach.
“Oh, Harper.”
“You disappeared.”
“So did you.”
“I thought something happened to you.”
“Something almost did.”
Mateo closed the door.
“How did you get upstairs?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Your brother taught me.”
The room went silent.
Mateo's expression hardened.
“My brother has been dead for twelve years.”
“I know.”
“Then explain.”
Evelyn looked toward Harper.
“I was hoping she would never have to know any of this.”
Harper gave a tired laugh.
“I'm carrying Mateo's child, someone photographed me while I was hiding, twenty million dollars vanished, Simon framed me, and apparently Mateo had a brother no one mentioned. I think we've passed the point where protecting me with ignorance is useful.”
Evelyn almost smiled.
“You always were my best student.”
“Then teach.”
Evelyn sat.
Mateo remained standing.
“Gabriel Falcone discovered the account twelve years ago,” Evelyn began.
“The G-17 account?” Harper asked.
“Yes.”
Mateo stared at her.
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“He tried.”
Mateo's face changed.
Evelyn continued.
“Your father was still alive. Gabriel believed someone inside the company had been using dormant vendor accounts to move money.”
“How much?”
“Back then? Less than two million.”
Harper understood.
Small amounts.
Long period.
Designed not to trigger attention.
“Gabriel hired you,” she said.
Evelyn nodded.
“Unofficially. He wanted an outside forensic accountant.”
“What did you find?”
“A pattern.”
“The quarterly payments.”
“Yes.”
Mateo walked toward the window.
“And then Gabriel died.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Yes.”
Harper waited.
Mateo's brother had supposedly died in a boating accident on Lake Michigan.
At least that was what the public records said.
Harper had read about it years ago without realizing Gabriel was Mateo's brother.
“Was it an accident?” she asked.
Mateo didn't answer.
Evelyn did.
“I don't know.”
That was somehow worse.
“Gabriel called me the night before he died,” Evelyn said. “He told me he'd found the person behind the accounts.”
“Who?”
“He refused to say over the phone.”
Mateo turned.
“Why?”
“Because he believed his communications were being watched.”
Harper thought of the photograph from Madison.
History repeating itself.
“What happened to your investigation?”
“Your father shut it down after Gabriel died.”
“Why?”
“I was told the family had suffered enough.”
Mateo's jaw flexed.
“My father never mentioned any of this.”
“He was grieving.”
“Or hiding something.”
Evelyn did not disagree.
Harper opened the ledger again.
“G-17. Gabriel?”
Evelyn nodded.
“That was my theory.”
“The account named after him?”
“Not named. Marked.”
Harper looked at Mateo.
“Someone turned his investigation into a payment system.”
Evelyn nodded.
“For silence.”
Harper's stomach tightened.
“Whose silence?”
“That is what I was trying to discover when you contacted me.”
She reached into her coat and removed a folded document.
“I found this.”
Harper unfolded it.
An employment agreement.
Falcone Holdings.
Fourteen years old.
The employee name had been redacted.
But the signature at the bottom remained.
Harper stared.
She knew the handwriting.
Everyone at Falcone Tower did.
“Liam?”
Mateo snatched the page.
“No.”
Harper looked toward the door.
Liam Gallagher had worked for Mateo for more than a decade.
He was more than security.
He was Mateo's closest friend.
The man who had stared at Harper's belly in the lobby.
The man who had escorted her upstairs.
The man standing outside the office right now.
Evelyn shook her head.
“Look closer.”
Harper did.
The signature looked like Liam's.
But the date was fourteen years ago.
Liam would have been seventeen.
“It can't be him.”
“It isn't.”
Mateo's eyes narrowed.
“Patrick Gallagher.”
Harper looked at him.
“Liam's father?”
Mateo nodded slowly.
Patrick Gallagher had been chief operating officer under Mateo's father.
He had died seven years ago.
Harper felt the pieces rearranging.
“Patrick created the accounts?”
“We don't know,” Evelyn said.
“Then what does this prove?”
“That Patrick had access.”
Mateo studied the document.
“Liam never told me his father worked directly with Gabriel.”
“Maybe he didn't know.”
Harper thought of Liam's reaction to the photograph.
His silence in the lobby.
The way his face changed when the elevator moved.
Maybe.
Or maybe he knew everything.
Harper stood.
“I want to talk to him.”
Mateo blocked her.
“No.”
“You trust him.”
“Yes.”
“That's exactly why we need to ask.”
Mateo looked at Evelyn.
“Where have you been for six weeks?”
“Hiding.”
“From whom?”
“I don't know.”
“That's not an answer.”
“It's the only one I have.”
Evelyn explained.
Someone had entered her house without taking anything.
Three days later, she noticed the same sedan outside her office and apartment.
She left Chicago.
Before leaving, she placed the audio file on Harper's encrypted drive through a remote folder they had established.
“Did you take Harper's photograph in Madison?”
“No.”
“Did you send it today?”
“No.”
Harper believed her.
Mateo wasn't so quick.
“How did you know Harper was here?”
“I didn't.”
“Then why come today?”
Evelyn looked at the old ledger.
“Because I found the original G-17 beneficiary.”
She removed another paper.
Mateo read it.
His expression changed.
Harper took it.
The quarterly transfers did not go directly to an individual.
They went to a trust.
Gallagher Family Trust.
Harper's heart sank.
“Liam.”
Mateo shook his head.
“The trust predates him.”
“But he could control it now.”
Evelyn nodded.
“After Patrick died, control transferred to his only surviving child.”
Harper looked toward the office door.
Liam Gallagher.
Mateo's closest friend.
The man who had helped search for Harper.
The man who had supposedly protected Mateo for years.
Mateo walked toward the door.
Harper caught his arm.
“Don't confront him angry.”
“I'm not angry.”
“You're terrifying when you say that.”
He looked down at her hand.
She released him.
“Then let me ask.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I'm the accountant.”
“And you're thirty-six weeks pregnant.”
“I am going to start charging you every time you say that.”
Despite everything, Evelyn laughed softly.
Mateo didn't.
He opened the door.
Liam was gone.
Only Nora stood outside.
“Where is he?”
She looked confused.
“Mr. Gallagher?”
“Yes.”
“He received a call and went downstairs.”
“When?”
“About five minutes ago.”
Mateo took out his phone.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Harper's unease grew.
Evelyn came to the doorway.
“Mateo.”
He turned.
Evelyn held up the old employment agreement.
“There is something else.”
She unfolded a hidden second page.
At the bottom was a handwritten note.
Three words.
GABRIEL KNOWS EVERYTHING.
Beneath it was a date.
The day before Gabriel died.
And beneath the date was another signature.
Harper recognized that one too.
May you like
This time, there was no mistake.
It belonged to Liam Gallagher.
