Chapter 6 - Northstar
Daniel did not sleep.
At four in the morning he stood alone beside the pool.
The party had been dismantled.
Catering tables were gone.
Broken glass had been swept away.
Only one thing remained where the afternoon had left it.
A faint scrape on the pale stone where Lily’s shoes had slid.
Daniel crouched.
He touched the mark.
Milo walked up behind him.
Daniel heard the dog’s tags.
He did not turn immediately.
“I’m sorry.”
The words felt ridiculous.
Necessary, but ridiculous.
Milo came closer and sat.
Daniel looked at him.
“You saved her.”
Milo tilted his head.
Daniel gave a broken laugh.
“I almost killed you for it.”
The dog rested his chin briefly against Daniel’s shoulder.
That nearly undid him.
By seven, Julia Chen arrived carrying coffee and the expression of a lawyer who had already been awake for hours.
Daniel handed her the bank investigator’s notes.
“Vanessa owns Northstar.”
Julia read in silence.
“Technically, according to this, she’s its managing member.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Ownership could still sit elsewhere depending on the operating agreement.”
“Can we get it?”
“Eventually. If the bank freezes the account and law enforcement seeks records, yes. I can also have our corporate counsel search public filings.”
Daniel paced.
“Eight months.”
“You married Vanessa nine months ago.”
“I’m aware.”
Julia looked at him.
“Do not make that fact mean more than we can prove.”
“Everybody keeps telling me what not to think.”
“Because you’re surrounded by facts that are emotionally designed to make you jump ahead.”
He stopped.
She continued.
“Vanessa may have created Northstar for something legitimate.”
“A shell company attempting to receive $2.8 million from my business using stolen credentials?”
“I said may.”
Daniel sat.
Julia pointed toward his laptop.
“What does Mercer Hospitality pay Northstar for?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then we find out.”
By midmorning, the company controller had produced eight months of vendor records.
Northstar had received eleven payments.
None exceeded $95,000.
Together they totaled $684,000.
Every invoice described strategic consulting.
Every invoice had been approved by Grant Holloway.
Daniel stared at the spreadsheet.
“He never mentioned them.”
Julia asked, “Would he need to?”
“Anything over fifty thousand requires COO approval and quarterly review by me.”
“Did you review?”
Daniel’s silence answered.
He had signed quarterly packets.
Hundreds of pages.
Grant knew Daniel skimmed.
That realization hurt in a different way.
Daniel had spent two years telling himself that delegating was leadership.
Perhaps Grant had simply discovered that neglect could be monetized.
Julia tapped one invoice.
“Who performed the consulting?”
“No reports attached.”
“Deliverables?”
“None.”
“Meetings?”
“None.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Fraud.”
“Suspicious billing.”
He almost smiled despite himself.
“You’d call a dead body ‘an unexpected health event.’”
“I’d call it what I can prove.”
The office door opened.
Rachel stood there.
“Sorry.”
“What is it?”
“Lily’s awake.”
Daniel rose immediately.
“Is she okay?”
“She wants her gift.”
Daniel stopped.
Rachel glanced toward the pale box.
“She remembers it?”
“She keeps asking if Vanessa opened it.”
Daniel looked down.
“What did you tell her?”
“That it was safe.”
“Good.”
He walked upstairs.
Lily sat cross-legged on her bed wearing pajamas patterned with rabbits. Milo lay against the bed frame.
She looked at Daniel.
“Nessa like present?”
Daniel sat beside her.
He had negotiated hotel acquisitions worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nothing had prepared him for this question.
“The present was beautiful.”
“Nessa see?”
“Not yet.”
Lily thought.
“Why?”
Daniel looked at her tiny hands.
“Because grown-ups sometimes make very bad choices.”
“Nessa mad?”
“I don’t know.”
Lily touched the bruise near her shoulder.
“She push.”
“Yes.”
Saying it aloud hurt.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Lily looked toward Milo.
“Milo swim.”
Daniel nodded.
“He did.”
“Milo good boy.”
Daniel’s eyes burned.
“Yes.”
He stroked her hair.
“He’s a very good boy.”
Downstairs, Julia was waiting with another discovery.
Northstar’s registered business address belonged to a luxury condominium in Stamford.
Daniel recognized the building.
“Grant lives there.”
Julia shook her head.
“Grant owns a unit there.”
Daniel looked closer.
Different unit number.
“Who owns this one?”
“A Delaware LLC called Birch Line Holdings.”
“Another shell.”
“Probably.”
“Can we connect it?”
“Publicly, not yet.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
Vanessa.
He let it ring.
Julia watched him.
“You may eventually need to speak to her.”
“Not today.”
“She may know how Northstar was used.”
“She also may know how Lily got into the pool.”
Both statements were true.
That was the problem.
At noon, Detective Bell called.
The security company had preserved the deleted pool-camera segment.
A warrant request was being prepared for retrieval.
“How long?” Daniel asked.
“I’m not promising you a timeline.”
“Is Vanessa being arrested?”
“Not based solely on what we have.”
“My daughter named her.”
“And we have to establish what happened, intent, reliability, corroboration, the video, witnesses.”
Daniel clenched his jaw.
Bell continued.
“This is how it’s supposed to work.”
Daniel looked at Milo.
Yesterday he had almost condemned the dog in six seconds.
Now he understood what Bell meant.
“I know.”
After the call, Julia slid another page across the desk.
“What?”
“Our corporate investigator found Birch Line’s registered agent.”
Daniel read the name.
HOLLOWAY LEGAL SERVICES.
Grant’s brother’s law firm.
Daniel leaned back slowly.
Julia said, “That still doesn’t tell us who owns the LLC.”
“No.”
“But it brings Northstar closer to Grant.”
Daniel looked at the chain emerging in front of him.
Vanessa managed Northstar.
Northstar had received hundreds of thousands in unexplained company payments.
Grant approved them.
The missing bank token had been carried out by Grant.
A $2.8 million transfer to Northstar had been initiated from Daniel’s home.
And somebody using Grant’s device had deleted evidence showing what happened to Lily.
The doorbell rang downstairs.
Thomas answered.
A moment later he came into the office carrying a padded courier envelope.
“No return name, sir.”
“Who delivered it?”
“Local messenger.”
Daniel opened it carefully.
Inside was a photocopy of a legal document.
Julia moved beside him.
At the top:
AMENDMENT TO THE EMILY MERCER FAMILY TRUST.
Daniel’s stomach dropped.
Emily had created the trust shortly after Lily’s birth.
It held a substantial block of Mercer Hospitality shares for their daughter.
Daniel read further.
The amendment delegated temporary voting authority over Lily’s trust interest if Daniel became medically or legally unable to serve as trustee.
The person named to receive that authority was Vanessa Mercer.
At the bottom of the document was Daniel’s signature.
He stared at it.
Julia did too.
“Did you sign this?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
She turned the page.
A notary seal appeared beneath the signatures.
Julia pointed to the date.
Three months earlier.
Daniel remembered that day.
He had been in Chicago.
Giving a speech to six hundred people.
He looked at Julia.
“Someone forged my signature.”
Then he noticed one final line.
May you like
The amendment did not merely give Vanessa temporary voting authority.
Combined with Grant’s existing board proxies, it would give them control of Mercer Hospitality.
