Chapter 12 - The Boardroom Trap
Gregory Sloan sat alone.
Files surrounded him.
He looked almost peaceful.
“You took your time.”
Alexander stepped forward.
Police were waiting upstairs.
Sloan knew it.
He had stayed anyway.
“Why?” Emily asked.
“Because somebody should explain the world to you before you destroy your career believing justice is simple.”
Emily stared at him.
“My father is dead.”
“So are many people.”
“You ordered it.”
Sloan smiled faintly.
“Can you prove that?”
Emily's phone was recording.
Sloan probably suspected.
He was too experienced to confess.
So she changed tactics.
“No.”
Alexander looked at her.
Emily continued.
“We can't prove you ordered anything.”
Sloan relaxed slightly.
“But Raymond can prove you paid him.”
The smile disappeared.
“And Martin can prove you moved the money.”
Silence.
“And Eleanor can prove you knew Northbridge's structure.”
Sloan stood.
“You think testimony from frightened old people will—”
“And Richard's recording proves you assaulted my father hours before he died.”
Sloan stopped.
Emily watched him.
“You didn't stay because you wanted to explain anything.”
She pointed toward the files.
“You stayed to destroy these.”
Smoke suddenly appeared beneath a rear door.
Alexander moved.
Sloan ran.
Fire suppression alarms exploded overhead.
Sprinklers activated.
Emily grabbed the nearest archive box.
Investigators rushed down.
Sloan was arrested before reaching the service exit.
But the fire destroyed part of the archive.
Enough survived.
More than enough.
The shareholder meeting began three hours late.
Alexander presented evidence.
Not accusations.
Transactions.
Trust documents.
Video.
Audit trails.
The board froze Sloan's proxies.
Charles stood.
For once, he told the truth.
He admitted his role in expanding Northbridge.
Admitted intimidation.
Admitted ordering Emily's rejection.
Then he admitted something that shocked Alexander.
“I knew Daniel Carter was investigating us. I tried to frighten him away. But I did not order his death.”
He turned toward Emily.
“That doesn't make me innocent.”
Emily said nothing.
Charles continued.
“I spent twelve years telling myself that because I didn't cause the crash, I wasn't responsible for what followed.”
He looked around the boardroom.
“I was wrong.”
Federal authorities escorted him out afterward.
Eleanor resigned all remaining honorary positions.
The company announced an independent investigation.
Employee pension restitution began.
But Emily felt no triumph.
Only exhaustion.
That evening, she returned to her desk.
Someone had placed her old interview sheet there.
REJECT BEFORE INTERVIEW.
Alexander stood in the doorway.
“I thought you might want it.”
“Why?”
“Proof.”
“Of what?”
“That they were wrong.”
Emily looked at him.
“No.”
She tore the page in half.
“I don't need it.”
Alexander smiled.
Then his phone rang.
His expression changed as he listened.
“What?”
Emily stood.
He ended the call.
“It's Sloan.”
“What about him?”
“He wants to make a statement.”
“Why?”
Alexander looked at her.
“He says there's one thing we still don't know about your father's death.”
Emily's pulse quickened.
“What?”
“He'll only tell you.”
They arrived at the federal building after dark.
Sloan sat behind reinforced glass.
Emily picked up the telephone.
He did the same.
“You wanted me.”
Sloan smiled.
“You've spent all this time asking who killed Daniel.”
Emily waited.
May you like
Sloan leaned closer.
“You never asked what Daniel was carrying in the car.”
