Chapter 3 - The Account That Shouldn’t Exist
Arthur held the recorder without blinking.
Gabriel's voice continued.
“If you're hearing this, Clara found what I needed her to find.”
Clara looked sharply at Arthur.
The recording had been prepared for them.
Gabriel had expected this.
“Don't mistake me for the man who hurt her,” the voice continued. “If I wanted Clara Higgins gone, she would never have reached your office.”
Arthur's hand tightened.
Clara touched his wrist.
“Listen.”
Gabriel continued.
“The people who attacked her work for someone you trust. And the fourteen million dollars isn't being stolen from you.”
A pause.
“It's being returned.”
Arthur looked at Thomas.
Thomas appeared equally stunned.
The recording ended with one instruction.
“Ask your mother what happened on October seventeenth, nineteen ninety-eight.”
Silence.
Arthur called Evelyn.
She answered immediately.
“What happened October seventeenth, 1998?”
Nothing.
“Mom?”
“Arthur—”
“What happened?”
Evelyn's voice trembled.
“Your father signed the agreement.”
“What agreement?”
“The agreement that was supposed to end everything.”
Arthur looked toward Thomas.
Thomas knew.
His face confirmed it.
Arthur ended the call.
“You were there.”
Thomas sat down.
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
Thomas stared at his hands.
“Your father and Gabriel inherited equal shares. Your father wanted legitimate businesses. Gabriel didn't trust the transition.”
“So Dad bought him out.”
“Yes.”
“With family money.”
“Yes.”
“Then cheated him.”
Thomas looked up.
“No.”
Arthur stopped.
“What?”
“The money was paid.”
Clara frowned.
“Then why reconstruct the payments?”
“Because Gabriel never received them.”
Arthur's voice hardened.
“Where did they go?”
Thomas shook his head.
“I don't know.”
Clara returned to the terminal.
“Maybe we can find out.”
The original payment had to exist somewhere.
She searched archived ledgers.
Twenty-eight years of data.
Most had been digitized badly.
Then she found the transaction.
$3,082,400.
Recipient: G. Costello Holdings.
Status: transferred.
Clara opened the destination.
The account should have belonged to Gabriel.
It didn't.
The beneficiary field contained a trust.
CROWN MERIDIAN.
Thomas stood so quickly his chair fell.
Arthur looked at him.
“You know it.”
Thomas whispered, “That's impossible.”
“I'm getting tired of that sentence.”
“Crown Meridian was dissolved.”
“When?”
Thomas stared at the screen.
“The day your father died.”
Clara searched the trust.
Access denied.
She tried another archive.
Nothing.
Then she used the backup metadata.
One name appeared.
Trust administrator:
THOMAS REED.
Arthur turned slowly.
Thomas looked devastated.
“I didn't create it.”
“But your name is on it.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Arthur moved closer.
Thomas didn't retreat.
“I swear to you, Arthur.”
Clara interrupted.
“He may be telling the truth.”
Arthur looked at her.
“The administrator field was modified.”
“When?”
“Recently.”
She checked.
“Three weeks ago.”
The same week Clara began tracing the transfers.
Someone wanted Thomas blamed.
Arthur's anger cooled into concentration.
“Who changed it?”
Clara followed the metadata.
Terminal 4B.
Bellweather.
Gabriel's terminal.
Daniel said, “Then Gabriel framed Thomas.”
“Maybe.”
Clara wasn't convinced.
Arthur heard it.
“What?”
“The modification is too obvious.”
“So?”
“If Gabriel wanted us to believe Thomas stole the money, why leave us a recording saying the attacker is someone Arthur trusts?”
Thomas frowned.
Clara continued.
“He wants us suspicious.”
“Of everyone,” Arthur said.
“Yes.”
Arthur looked around.
Exactly what was happening.
He no longer knew whether to trust Thomas.
Daniel.
Victor.
Even his mother had lied for decades.
Clara searched Crown Meridian.
One active subaccount remained.
Balance:
$11,247,603.
Arthur stared.
Together with the reconstructed transfers, the numbers nearly matched.
Fourteen million.
Clara whispered, “The money never disappeared.”
Thomas understood.
“Someone has been rebuilding Gabriel's original settlement.”
“But why?” Daniel asked.
Arthur answered.
“Because somebody wants him back.”
A sound came from upstairs.
Footsteps.
Victor raised his hand.
Everyone stopped.
Another step.
Then another.
Arthur moved Clara behind him.
Victor approached the staircase.
“Who's there?”
No answer.
The basement lights went out.
Clara grabbed Arthur's arm.
A door slammed upstairs.
Victor's flashlight came on.
They moved carefully.
By the time they reached the first floor, the building was empty.
But something had been left on the dusty floor.
A silver drive.
Clara stared.
“That’s mine.”
Arthur didn't touch it.
Victor checked the area first.
Then Clara picked it up with a cloth.
A label had been attached.
NOTHING WAS TAKEN FROM YOU.
IT WAS PUT BACK.
Clara's stomach tightened.
Arthur said, “Don't connect it.”
“I wasn't going to.”
They returned to Arthur's office and used an isolated computer.
The drive contained everything Clara expected.
Nothing deleted.
Nothing corrupted.
Except one new folder.
OCTOBER 17 1998.
Arthur opened it.
Inside was a scanned contract.
Gabriel's settlement.
Signatures covered the last page.
Gabriel Costello.
Arthur's father, Michael Costello.
Thomas Reed.
And one more.
Evelyn Costello.
Arthur stared at his mother's signature.
Clara opened the next file.
A handwritten amendment.
If payment to Gabriel failed, ownership reverted automatically.
That meant Gabriel might still legally own half of several original companies.
Arthur sat back.
“He isn't trying to steal my businesses.”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“He may already own them.”
Clara opened another document.
A bank confirmation.
The settlement money had been redirected twelve minutes after being transferred.
Authorized by—
The screen flickered.
Then displayed a name.
Arthur leaned closer.
EVELYN COSTELLO.
He stopped breathing.
“No.”
Clara checked the metadata.
“It could have been altered.”
“Could it?”
“Yes.”
“Was it?”
She searched.
Her expression changed.
“No.”
Arthur stood.
“My mother took Gabriel's money.”
Thomas shook his head.
“There has to be an explanation.”
Arthur called Evelyn.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Victor called the house in Vermont.
No answer.
Arthur's concern replaced his anger.
“Find her.”
Daniel began making calls.
Clara kept searching.
Then she discovered another transaction from the same day.
The redirected three million hadn't stayed with Evelyn.
It moved again.
Eleven minutes later.
To another account.
Clara opened the beneficiary.
Her heart stopped.
“Arthur.”
He came closer.
“What?”
She pointed.
The recipient was not Evelyn.
It was a company.
MERCER CAPITAL MANAGEMENT.
Everyone turned toward Daniel Mercer.
Daniel stared at the screen.
“That isn't mine.”
Arthur said nothing.
“My father used that name.”
Arthur's eyes narrowed.
Daniel's father had worked for Michael Costello.
Clara remembered that from personnel records.
“What happened to him?”
Daniel swallowed.
“He died in 2004.”
Arthur's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A woman was crying.
“Arthur?”
His expression changed.
“Mom?”
“Don't trust the records.”
“Where are you?”
“I need you to listen.”
“Where are you?”
A noise sounded behind her.
Evelyn gasped.
Then whispered:
“Daniel's father wasn't the one who took Gabriel's money.”
The call went silent.
Arthur shouted her name.
No response.
Then another voice came through the phone.
A man's voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
“She's right.”
Arthur froze.
Clara recognized it from the recorder.
Gabriel.
May you like
And before Arthur could speak, Gabriel said:
“If you want your mother back, ask Thomas Reed why your father died.”
