Chapter 3 - The Missing Drive
The emergency department found no broken bones.
Margaret had bruising across her left shoulder, abrasions on both palms, and a deep purple mark forming along her ribs where the wheelchair frame had struck her.
She also had something harder to treat.
Fury.
Daniel sat beside her hospital bed.
Lauren had been told to wait outside.
“She took it.”
Daniel looked up.
“What?”
“The flash drive.”
“Mom, we don’t know that.”
“I had it at the top of the hill.”
“You were thrown sideways.”
“It could have fallen out.”
“It could have.”
Daniel looked exhausted.
Margaret softened slightly.
“You want there to be another explanation.”
“She’s my wife.”
“I know.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t believe you.”
“You haven’t said you do.”
He looked away.
That hurt more than Margaret expected.
Daniel had always been loyal.
Sometimes too loyal.
As a boy he defended friends even after catching them lying. As a teenager he once paid for a teammate’s broken windshield because the boy’s father had threatened to throw him out.
Margaret’s late husband, Charles, used to say Daniel’s greatest virtue would someday become his greatest weakness.
“He sees what people could be,” Charles had said, “and sometimes refuses to see what they are.”
Margaret had dismissed it as cynicism.
Now she wished she had listened.
Her phone rang.
Rachel Moss.
The forensic accountant.
Margaret answered immediately.
“Rachel.”
“Are you alone?”
Margaret looked at Daniel.
“My son is here.”
“Can he hear me?”
“Yes.”
A pause.
“Then he needs to.”
Daniel sat straighter.
Rachel continued.
“I finished tracing North Coast.”
“And?”
“It’s a pass-through.”
“For who?”
“That gets complicated.”
Margaret’s pulse quickened.
“How much?”
“The eight hundred forty-two thousand was only the amount routed directly through North Coast.”
Daniel leaned toward the phone.
“What does that mean?”
Rachel heard him.
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry this is how you’re learning this.”
“Learning what?”
“I found eleven vendors with overlapping banking information, mailing addresses, registered agents, or IP login histories.”
Daniel stood.
“How much money?”
Rachel was silent for two seconds.
“Three million, six hundred and twelve thousand dollars over thirty-one months.”
Daniel sat back down.
“No.”
“There are also two loans.”
“What loans?”
“One against a company-owned parcel in Buncombe County. Another secured by an investment account held inside Margaret’s revocable trust.”
Margaret gripped the blanket.
“I never pledged that account.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“The authorization was electronic.”
“My signature?”
“Your credentials.”
Daniel whispered, “Jesus.”
Margaret looked toward the door.
“Who accessed them?”
“That’s the part I wanted to show you in person.”
“Tell me.”
“One login came from Ridge House.”
Daniel’s eyes moved slowly to the door.
Rachel continued.
“Another came repeatedly from Hale Ridge’s finance office.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Mark.”
Mark Benson had been CFO for fourteen years.
He had been at Charles Hale’s funeral.
He had held Daniel when Daniel cried.
Rachel said, “I can’t accuse anyone yet. But someone with administrative access inside your finance department knew exactly which transactions would avoid secondary review.”
Margaret asked, “And Ridge House?”
“The device identifier points to a laptop.”
Lauren owned two laptops.
Daniel knew that.
Margaret could see him realizing it.
Rachel said, “Margaret, the copy I gave you this morning was not the only copy.”
Margaret exhaled.
Daniel looked up.
“What?”
“I maintain encrypted backups.”
For the first time since the hill, Margaret felt relief.
“Thank God.”
“But there’s something else.”
Rachel’s voice had changed.
“What?”
“Someone accessed the shared audit portal forty minutes after your accident.”
Margaret’s relief disappeared.
“How?”
“They tried your credentials first.”
“From where?”
“I’m still tracing it.”
Daniel was already standing.
“Did they get in?”
“No. I had changed the password after our call.”
“Why would someone try?”
Rachel answered quietly.
“Because they knew an audit existed.”
Daniel turned toward the door.
Lauren stood behind the glass.
She was not crying anymore.
May you like
She was looking at him.
And in her right hand was Margaret’s missing flash drive.
