Chapter 12 - Victor's VersionVictor Lang agreed to meet only in public.
A hotel restaurant near Reagan National Airport.
Daniel arrived with an attorney and private security.
Victor was already seated.
“You sent someone to Nora's daycare.”
Victor looked genuinely startled.
“No.”
“He wore your company logo.”
“My employees don't wear company-logo jackets.”
Daniel showed him the photograph.
Victor's expression darkened.
“I know him.”
“Who?”
“Former contractor. Sean Pike.”
“Doing what?”
“Collections.”
Daniel almost stood.
Victor raised a hand.
“Not children. Financial collections.”
“Where is he?”
“I terminated him nine months ago.”
“Why?”
“He threatened a borrower.”
Daniel stared.
“Who hired him?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe this?”
“No. I expect you to verify it.”
Victor slid a folder across the table.
Daniel opened it.
Payment records.
Sean Pike had received $22,000 two weeks earlier.
From Amber Shore Holdings.
Evelyn's shell company.
Daniel looked up.
“My mother hired him.”
“Apparently.”
“For what?”
Victor shook his head.
“That I don't know.”
Daniel studied him.
“Why are you helping me?”
Victor leaned back.
“Because Evelyn lied to me.”
“You loaned her eighteen million dollars.”
“Yes.”
“You expected control of her shares if she defaulted.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she wanted Nora's shares.”
“I knew she believed she had a contingent interest.”
“And you didn't ask how she intended to obtain it?”
Victor's jaw tightened.
“I assumed through estate planning, negotiation or litigation.”
“She's three.”
“Yes.”
Victor finally looked uncomfortable.
“I understand how that sounds now.”
Daniel said, “Tell me what happened between you and my father.”
Victor was quiet for a long time.
“Henry caught Evelyn using company money.”
Daniel froze.
“When?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
“For what?”
“Investments.”
“Her investments?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Two million then.”
“Why didn't Dad expose her?”
“Because you were about to get married.”
Daniel frowned.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Henry believed a scandal would destroy the family.”
“So he covered it up.”
“He forced Evelyn to repay the money and removed her from operational control.”
Daniel suddenly remembered.
Fourteen years earlier Evelyn had announced she was “retiring from daily business.”
Everyone celebrated.
It had not been retirement.
It had been exile.
Victor continued.
“She blamed me because I discovered the transfers.”
“So Dad cut you out?”
“No.”
Victor smiled bitterly.
“Evelyn convinced Henry I had helped her.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why did Dad believe her?”
“Because she produced documents with my signature.”
Daniel felt cold.
“Forged?”
“Exactly.”
A pattern.
The trust amendment.
Financial approvals.
Fabricated documents.
“When I sued,” Victor said, “Henry realized too late that he'd been manipulated. We settled. He paid me, but the friendship was finished.”
“Why lend Evelyn money years later?”
“Because revenge and business sometimes look remarkably similar.”
Daniel shook his head.
“You wanted her shares.”
“Yes.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I wanted twenty-one percent of Mercer Development. I did not want a child harmed.”
Victor leaned forward.
“Your mother is desperate, Daniel. But she isn't the only desperate person in your family.”
“Thomas.”
Victor nodded.
“Thomas owes money too.”
“How much?”
“Not to me.”
“To whom?”
“Private sports books. Offshore.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Gambling.
Like Charles.
Evelyn surrounded herself with people whose debts made them controllable.
“Did Thomas know about the pool plan?”
“I don't know.”
Victor slid another document toward him.
“Maybe this helps.”
It was a transfer authorization dated the afternoon Nora was trapped.
$150,000.
From Amber Shore Holdings.
To a consulting entity owned by Sean Pike.
Approved electronically at 3:09 P.M.
Eight minutes before Evelyn unplugged the camera.
The authorization device belonged to Thomas Mercer.
Daniel stared.
Thomas had not merely been at the mansion.
He had paid Evelyn's enforcer minutes before she acted.
Then Victor said:
“If I were you, I'd stop asking whether Thomas knew.”
Daniel looked up.
May you like
Victor's voice dropped.
“I'd start asking what he was supposed to do if Nora survived.”
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