Chapter 10 - Their Father’s Ledger
Charles Archer had been dead for six years.
Until Friday afternoon, Nicole had believed death had placed the worst parts of him safely in the past.
He had been brilliant.
Demanding.
Generous in public.
Impossible in private.
Raymond had spent his life trying to earn Charles’s respect.
Nicole had spent hers pretending she did not want it.
Now a dead investigator’s files suggested Charles had built the financial machinery Gregory later used.
Margaret printed the oldest records.
“Northstar Development Partners was formed in 2009.”
Nicole scanned the filings.
“Dad’s name isn’t here.”
“No,” Margaret said. “But look at the correspondence.”
Emails from Charles to an attorney.
Set up the reserve outside Archer.
Keep the children off the filings.
Nicole read the line twice.
“The children.”
“Meaning you and Raymond.”
Raymond appeared on the secure video screen.
“I never knew.”
Nicole looked at him.
“Are you sure?”
His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
She hated that she no longer trusted the answer.
The documents showed millions moving out of Archer Properties during the recession.
Some later returned.
Some did not.
Gregory had joined the company two years later.
“Maybe Dad used it to keep the company alive,” Raymond said.
Margaret looked unimpressed.
“Secret transfers do not become ethical because the economy was bad.”
“I didn’t say ethical.”
Nicole continued reading.
Then she found an email dated three months before Charles’s death.
Recipient: Gregory Hart.
Subject: CONTINUITY.
Nicole stopped.
Raymond leaned toward his screen.
“What?”
She opened it.
Gregory,
Raymond will never understand what it took to keep this company intact. Nicole doesn’t want to understand. You do.
Northstar exists because sometimes survival requires decisions that should never appear in board minutes.
When I am gone, keep the structure available.
Do not use it unless necessary.
C.A.
Nicole’s throat tightened.
“So Dad gave it to Gregory.”
Raymond looked furious.
“Why him?”
Nicole almost laughed.
“Because Dad trusted him.”
“No. Dad tolerated him.”
“Apparently more than he trusted us.”
The discovery changed the entire emotional shape of the fraud.
Gregory had not invented Northstar.
He had inherited it.
But the later transfers were still his.
Margaret opened another file.
“Here.”
A memo from Gregory eighteen months after Charles’s death.
Northstar reserve exhausted following Harborview loss.
Temporary replacement funding required.
Raymond frowned.
“Harborview?”
Nicole knew the project.
A luxury condominium development in Stamford.
Archer had sold it at a profit.
Or so everyone believed.
Margaret found the internal numbers.
They had actually lost nearly nine million dollars.
The public reports had concealed the loss by moving money between entities.
Raymond stared.
“I signed those financial statements.”
“Yes,” Margaret said.
“You approved them.”
“I relied on Gregory.”
“So did Nicole.”
Raymond fell silent.
Nicole looked at him.
“Now you know how it feels.”
He did not argue.
At four thirty Detective Bell called.
The body was officially no longer considered Raymond Archer.
The surgical records were conclusive enough for the county to suspend Raymond’s death certificate while further identification continued.
“And Elias?” Nicole asked.
“We’re contacting next of kin.”
Raymond closed his eyes.
Bell continued.
“Mrs. Hart, this changes the nature of the investigation.”
“I understand.”
“I need to ask again. Do you know where your brother is?”
Nicole looked at Raymond on the laptop.
He shook his head.
Margaret closed her eyes in frustration.
Nicole answered.
“No.”
Another lie.
Bell was silent.
Then he said, “We found something else.”
“What?”
“Your brother’s watch was recovered from the warehouse body.”
Raymond looked up sharply.
Bell continued.
“So was his wallet.”
Nicole stared at Raymond.
“You said your belongings disappeared.”
Raymond nodded.
Bell could not see him.
“There’s more,” the detective said.
“The watch was placed on the body after the fire.”
“How can you know that?”
“The clasp had no heat damage on the underside.”
Nicole understood slowly.
Someone had planted it once the worst of the fire had ended.
The body had not been misidentified by accident.
Someone had actively tried to make Elias Vance look like Raymond Archer.
Bell’s voice hardened.
“And whoever did it had access to the scene before first responders completed their perimeter.”
Nicole’s mouth went dry.
Gregory’s company security team had arrived before police.
She remembered his black SUVs.
His tracking system.
His security chief.
C.S.
The initials from the Northstar spreadsheet.
Nicole stared at Margaret.
“Who runs Archer security?”
Margaret already knew.
“Colin Sykes.”
C.S.
The second set of initials.
May you like
And suddenly the spreadsheet did not look like accounting.
It looked like a list of conspirators.
