Chapter 5 - The Signature He Didn't RememberDaniel hadn't slept properly since the incident.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw David's face after the slap.
Not the impact.
The expression afterward.
A quiet disappointment that made Daniel feel younger and smaller than he cared to admit.
On Monday morning, he drove to Ellison Residential's downtown office without informing Vivian.
He wanted to see the original Northstar records.
He also wanted to know exactly how many documents bearing his signature had been approved without his understanding.
The building occupied three floors above a bank.
Daniel had chosen the office because his mother hated grand corporate headquarters.
“Rent space where the people work,” Margaret used to tell him. “Don't spend a fortune impressing yourself.”
He entered the finance department.
A junior accountant named Sophie Larkin looked up in surprise.
“Mr. Ellison.”
“I need the Northstar Compliance vendor file.”
“Should I call Ms. Ellison?”
“No. Bring me the file, please.”
Sophie hesitated.
Then she nodded.
Twenty minutes later, she returned with a binder and a laptop.
“The older invoices are in the archived system,” she explained. “The approval copies should be attached.”
Daniel sat at the conference table.
The first invoice showed replacement work at Bellwether Court.
The second covered fire-door closers.
The third listed smoke seals and corridor inspections.
The amounts varied from a few thousand dollars to more than eighty thousand.
He opened an approval document from the previous year.
There was his signature.
This one was genuine.
He remembered signing a group of expenditure authorizations after Vivian had told him a contractor needed immediate payment to prevent further delays.
He had not examined every supporting invoice.
Claire had been gone less than a year.
He had been exhausted.
He'd trusted Vivian.
The discovery didn't absolve him.
It made him sick.
“Who verifies that work has actually been completed?” he asked.
Sophie pointed to a column.
“Operations certifies completion. Finance releases payment against the approval.”
“Who signed the completion certificates?”
She scrolled.
The same name appeared repeatedly.
David Mercer.
Daniel frowned.
“I thought he was fired nineteen months ago.”
“He was.”
“Then why is his name on this certificate?”
Sophie looked at the date.
It had been issued six months after David's termination.
Her expression changed.
“That's not possible.”
Daniel stared at the screen.
The certificate included a digital signature image.
David's name.
His old employee identification number.
A date when he no longer worked for the company.
“Could this be an old form?”
“Perhaps,” Sophie said cautiously. “But the invoice number is current for that period.”
“Can you show me the underlying approval history?”
“I can request it.”
“Request it from whom?”
“Ms. Ellison's office controls administrator access.”
Daniel slowly leaned back.
His sister had made herself the gatekeeper to information he was legally responsible for understanding.
He wanted to be furious with her.
Instead, he felt something worse.
He had allowed it.
That afternoon, Daniel met privately with Sarah Park, an attorney who had handled personal matters for him years earlier but did not represent Ellison Residential.
He placed the questionable documents on her desk.
She read them carefully.
“You need an independent accounting review,” Sarah said.
“Could Vivian have authorized this without me?”
“Some expenditures, yes, under her delegated authority. Board-level transactions and a Foundation waiver are different.”
“What about the signatures?”
“Don't assume forgery because you don't remember signing. We need the original records and authentication.”
Daniel nodded.
“What if I signed the invoices without reading them?”
“Then you may have oversight failures to answer for. That doesn't make every underlying representation true.”
He looked away.
“My mother left us a company that was supposed to help people.”
Sarah closed the binder.
“She also left governance documents. Let's use them.”
She advised him to request records in writing, preserve relevant electronic communications, and ensure no one with a potential conflict controlled the investigation.
She also recommended preserving the mansion's security recordings.
Daniel looked up.
“The footage?”
“Yes. The entire recording, not the version circulating online.”
He hesitated.
“I hit that man.”
Sarah's expression remained composed.
“I know. I've seen the video.”
“I thought he was taking Lily.”
“That may explain your reaction. It doesn't make the physical contact acceptable.”
Daniel swallowed.
“I want to know what really happened.”
“Then start by preserving evidence instead of choosing an explanation.”
That evening, Daniel returned home before sunset.
Lily was sitting on the nursery carpet building a crooked tower from wooden blocks.
Her doll lay beside her.
Daniel sat down.
“Can Daddy ask you something?”
She nodded.
“Why was Dolly beside the fireplace?”
Lily looked at the doll.
“Aunt Vivi put her there.”
Daniel felt his chest tighten.
“Did Aunt Vivi ask you to get her?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She said I should hurry.”
“Did she tell you to touch the fireplace?”
Lily shook her head.
“She said Dolly was lonely.”
Daniel waited.
Lily picked up a wooden block.
“And then the brown man came.”
“David?”
“The man with the sad jacket.”
Despite himself, Daniel almost smiled.
“Yes. David.”
“He moved me.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No.”
“Were you scared?”
“A little.”
“Why?”
“Because he was fast.”
Daniel breathed slowly.
“Anything else?”
Lily placed the block on top of her tower.
“Aunt Vivi said Daddy would be angry if I told.”
The tower collapsed.
Lily giggled at the sound, unaware of the meaning of what she had just revealed.
Daniel did not move.
He knew four-year-olds could misunderstand adult instructions.
He knew he couldn't treat one sentence as a complete explanation of a frightening event.
But he also knew he had to stop dismissing her words.
He asked nothing more.
Instead, he put his arm around her.
Downstairs, his phone vibrated.
A message from Sarah Park had arrived.
I confirmed your security subscription includes thirty days of cloud retention. Please do not allow anyone to alter or delete the original recordings.
Daniel read the message twice.
Then he opened the home security application.
He searched for Friday evening.
The exterior camera showed David standing outside the front door.
The staircase camera showed Daniel descending.
But the main foyer camera displayed a gap.
From 4:59 p.m. until 5:07 p.m., there was no recorded video.
Daniel checked the system activity log.
The camera hadn't failed.
May you like
It had been manually disabled from an administrator account.
And the account belonged to Vivian Ellison.
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