Chapter 8 - Running Out of Time
Daniel read the email until Julia took the folder away.
“Stop.”
“Give it back.”
“You’ve read it.”
“I want every page.”
“You’ll get a copy.”
“It was in his bag.”
“And now it needs to be preserved.”
Daniel paced toward the windows.
Below them, traffic moved through downtown Greenwich.
Ordinary cars.
Ordinary people.
He wondered how many lives looked intact from thirty floors away.
Laura Benton sat at the conference table, pale.
“I approved some of those payments.”
Daniel turned.
“You?”
“Grant signed them first. Northstar was classified as executive consulting. Anything under a hundred thousand didn’t require your direct approval.”
“There were eleven payments.”
“I know.”
“Didn’t that bother you?”
Laura looked ashamed.
“It does now.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No. It didn’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Grant had been running operations for fifteen years.”
The answer hit harder than if she had blamed a software system.
Trust.
That was how the money moved.
Not through genius.
Not through impossible hacking.
Through routine.
Grant knew which controls everyone stopped seeing.
Daniel knew that because he had done the same thing with Vanessa.
Julia returned to the emails.
“We need complete electronic copies from the server.”
Laura nodded.
“I’ll authorize forensic preservation.”
“What about Grant?”
“He still has local board relationships,” Laura said. “Suspending him operationally doesn’t remove him from every committee.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Then schedule an emergency board meeting.”
Julia frowned.
“Not until we know what he has prepared.”
“He has a forged trust amendment.”
“We have a photocopy of a suspected forgery from an anonymous messenger.”
Daniel hated lawyers.
Especially when they were right.
His phone rang.
Detective Bell.
The preserved pool footage had been located.
Daniel stopped breathing.
“Did you watch it?”
“No. We’re working through the security provider. I wanted you to know it exists.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“Hours?”
“I’m not making promises.”
Daniel looked through the glass office door.
Employees moved past pretending not to watch.
“Vanessa’s connected to Northstar.”
“I received the bank referral.”
“Grant’s connected too.”
“We’re aware.”
“Bell, there’s a forged trust document.”
“Send it through your attorney.”
“Someone has been stealing from my company for months.”
“Then stop talking about it on an unsecured phone.”
The call ended.
Daniel stared at the screen.
Julia almost smiled.
“I like him.”
“Of course you do.”
At home that evening, Lily refused to eat dinner unless Milo sat beside her chair.
Daniel allowed it.
Rachel cut Lily’s chicken into absurdly small pieces.
Thomas hovered nearby.
Nobody mentioned Vanessa.
Finally Lily did.
“Nessa home?”
Daniel put down his fork.
“No.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I don’t know.”
Lily considered this.
Then pointed a piece of chicken at Milo.
“Milo home.”
“Yes.”
That answer was easier.
After Lily went upstairs, Rachel stayed behind.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Daniel.”
She looked uncomfortable.
“You’ve called me Mr. Mercer for seven years.”
“Tonight I’d prefer Daniel.”
Rachel sat.
“There’s something I probably should’ve told you before.”
His stomach tightened automatically.
“What?”
“Mrs. Mercer asked me about the security system a few weeks ago.”
“What did she ask?”
“How long footage stays saved.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“Exactly what did she say?”
“She asked whether cameras record continuously or only when motion triggers.”
“Why?”
“She said she was thinking about privacy around the pool.”
“Anything else?”
“She asked who could delete clips.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“What did you tell her?”
“That you and Mr. Holloway had administrator access.”
His eyes opened.
“Grant?”
Rachel nodded.
“He helped install the upgraded system last year. Alan gave him temporary credentials during setup.”
Daniel stood.
“He wasn’t supposed to still have them.”
“I assumed he didn’t.”
Daniel walked toward the office.
Rachel followed.
“Daniel.”
He stopped.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For not thinking it mattered.”
He looked at her.
“You’re not responsible for this.”
Rachel’s expression said she did not entirely believe him.
Neither did Daniel.
He entered the office and pulled up the old security contract.
Grant had personally supervised the system upgrade.
Daniel remembered joking that his COO was becoming his IT department.
Grant had replied, Somebody has to protect you from yourself.
Daniel had laughed.
Now he searched archived emails.
There.
Temporary administrator invitation.
Grant Holloway.
Expiration: manually revoked by primary user.
Daniel had never revoked it.
The doorbell rang.
Thomas answered.
A courier delivered another envelope.
This one was from Vanessa’s attorney.
Julia was copied electronically.
Daniel opened it.
A formal demand.
Vanessa denied intentionally harming Lily. She asserted that Daniel was isolating her from the marital home without due process and demanded access to personal belongings.
But attached to the letter was something unexpected.
A request that Daniel preserve all communications relating to his “mental fitness, recent impulsive behavior, and capacity to manage family and corporate assets.”
Daniel read the sentence twice.
Then called Julia.
She answered immediately.
“You got it?”
“Yes.”
“What is she doing?”
“Building a record.”
“For divorce?”
“Maybe.”
“For the trust?”
Julia went quiet.
Daniel’s mind moved faster.
The forged amendment transferred Lily’s voting proxy only if Daniel became medically or legally unable to serve as trustee.
Vanessa’s lawyer was now asking for evidence about his mental fitness.
“She’s trying to trigger the proxy.”
“Possibly.”
“I almost ordered Milo killed. She’ll use that.”
“She might.”
Daniel sat down slowly.
The pool incident had seemed to destroy Vanessa’s plan.
Maybe she was trying to turn it into proof Daniel was unstable.
Julia said, “Do not contact her.”
Daniel barely heard her.
He was staring at another attachment.
An affidavit signed by Vanessa.
In it she claimed Daniel had become increasingly erratic since Emily’s death and that he had suffered episodes of rage, memory lapses, and impulsive decision-making.
Most of it was exaggerated.
Some of it was not.
Then Daniel reached the final paragraph.
Vanessa stated that, three months earlier, Daniel had voluntarily signed documents transferring temporary trust authority to her because he feared he was no longer capable of managing Lily’s financial interests.
The forged amendment.
May you like
Vanessa was not merely claiming the signature was genuine.
She was claiming Daniel himself no longer remembered signing it.
