Chapter 4 - A Name on the Ledger.
The handle moved once.
Then twice.
Marcus crossed the room without making a sound.
Adrian raised one finger, telling him not to open the door yet.
Emma stood beside the table, her shoulders rigid.
The handle stopped moving.
Footsteps retreated down the hall.
Marcus opened the door and looked outside.
No one was there.
Adrian glanced at Emma.
“Who knew you were coming here?”
“No one.”
“Who saw you?”
Emma thought for a moment.
“One of the kitchen assistants.”
“Name?”
“Peter.”
Marcus stepped into the corridor to find him.
Adrian looked at the forged transfer authorization again.
“Why didn’t you bring this to me three nights ago?”
Emma let out a quiet laugh with no humor in it.
“Because people like me don’t walk into rooms with people like you and accuse the people running your house.”
Adrian did not like the sentence.
He liked that it was true even less.
“What happened after you found the papers?”
Emma’s eyes lowered.
“Mrs. Harrow came in.”
“She saw you?”
“Yes.”
Celeste had stood in the doorway with her hands folded and asked Emma why she was touching private documents.
Emma apologized.
Celeste shut the door.
“She told me the papers were none of my concern.”
Adrian’s voice remained flat.
“And your cheek?”
Emma went still.
“She didn’t hit me.”
Adrian waited.
Emma touched the faint bruise.
“She grabbed the box from me and it caught my face when it fell.”
The answer was careful.
Adrian could not prove it was incomplete.
He could prove something else.
“Your knuckles?”
Emma looked at her hands.
“She locked the supply room afterward.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“With you inside?”
“For a while.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
Emma had knocked on the door until her hands hurt.
Eventually, a maintenance worker heard her and let her out.
“Name?”
“Luis Ortega.”
Adrian knew Luis.
He had worked at the estate for nine years.
Marcus returned ten minutes later with a troubled expression.
“Peter never reported for work.”
Adrian frowned.
“Call him.”
“Phone is off.”
“Luis?”
Marcus looked at Emma.
“He resigned at five fourteen this morning.”
Emma stared at him.
“He wouldn’t.”
“He sent an email.”
“Luis hates email.”
Adrian looked at Marcus.
“Find him.”
Marcus nodded.
Before leaving, he placed another sheet on the table.
“I traced three foundation transfers.”
Adrian read the names.
Emma Reed.
Luis Ortega.
Peter Shaw.
Each had supposedly received money they had never seen.
All three transfers had been approved by the same internal account.
Adrian followed the authorization code with his finger.
The account belonged to Gavin Vale.
Emma watched his face.
“That’s your cousin.”
Adrian folded the page slowly.
“Yes.”
Gavin was also the man who had sat beside Adrian’s hospital bed every night after the crash.
He was the man Adrian had trusted to run the company when Adrian could not walk.
The library door opened again.
This time, Gavin himself stood there.
He smiled at Emma.
May you like
Then he looked at the paper in Adrian’s hand.
And his smile disappeared.
