Chapter 3 - The Name on the Screen
Marcus returned with Nora's black evening bag and placed it on the table without opening it.
Nora checked the zipper herself.
Her wallet was there.
Her apartment keys were there.
The small flash drive Paige had given her that afternoon was not.
Nora searched the inner pocket again.
"Something missing?" Adrian asked.
"A flash drive."
"Important?"
"I do not know yet."
That was only partly true.
Paige had slipped the drive into Nora's hand outside the Hartwell offices and told her not to open it on a company computer.
Nora had assumed it contained spreadsheets.
After tonight, she no longer believed anything was simple.
Her phone vibrated again.
This time the message was not from Paige.
It came from an unknown number.
YOU SHOULD HAVE SIGNED.
A second message arrived immediately.
CHECK YOUR BANK.
Nora opened her banking app.
Her primary checking account displayed a red warning banner.
ACCESS TEMPORARILY RESTRICTED.
She tried her savings account.
The same warning appeared.
"No," she whispered.
Adrian leaned closer but did not take the phone from her.
"What happened?"
"My accounts are locked."
"All of them?"
Nora nodded.
"Caleb helped me set up automatic transfers last year."
The admission sounded foolish now.
"He said it would make budgeting easier."
Adrian's expression did not change, but his attention became more focused.
"Did he ever have your passwords?"
"Not exactly."
She paused.
"He knew the recovery email."
"Which was?"
Nora felt cold.
"An email address his assistant created for me."
Adrian exhaled slowly.
"Change every password you still control."
Nora started with her personal email.
The password had already been changed.
She tried account recovery.
The verification number ended in digits she did not recognize.
Her fear returned in a new form.
Caleb had not only wanted her signature.
He had prepared for what would happen if she refused.
"I cannot get into my email."
Adrian held out his hand toward Marcus.
"Clean phone."
Marcus produced a sealed phone from the inner pocket of his jacket.
Adrian opened it, connected it to the club's guest network, and handed it to Nora.
"Call someone you trust."
Nora entered Paige's number.
It rang once, twice, then went directly to voicemail.
She called again.
Nothing.
"She was helping me," Nora said.
"The friend who texted you upstairs?"
Nora looked at him sharply.
"How did you know?"
"Because you ran thirty seconds after reading something."
Adrian tapped the table once with his finger.
"And because Caleb looked at your phone before he looked at the exit."
Nora stared at him.
"Do you always notice everything?"
"Only when someone brings trouble to my booth."
There was the faintest trace of humor in his voice.
It vanished when Marcus returned from speaking with a club employee.
"Mr. Vale, upstairs staff found this near the service corridor."
Marcus placed a small silver object on the table.
It was Nora's flash drive.
Her relief lasted less than a second.
A narrow crack ran through the casing.
"Someone stepped on it?" Nora asked.
Marcus shook his head.
"Looks deliberate."
Adrian picked it up by the edges.
"Can the data be recovered?"
"Probably."
Nora's phone buzzed again.
This time it was an alert from a local business news account.
HARTWELL EVENTS INVESTIGATING INTERNAL FINANCIAL IRREGULARITIES.
Below the headline was a photograph of Nora entering the company office earlier that week.
Her full name appeared beneath it.
Nora read the first line twice.
An unnamed company representative claimed a former associate had improperly accessed confidential records.
"Former associate," she whispered.
Adrian took out his own phone.
"That was fast."
Nora looked at the timestamp.
The article had been posted six minutes ago.
May you like
Caleb had not gone downstairs to leave.
He had gone downstairs to start the next part of his plan.
