Chapter 13 - THE PAYROLL FILE
Nobody knew what Sterling meant.
Not Vega.
Not Eli.
Not the prosecutor.
Mom did.
She just didn’t know she knew.
Three days later, she remembered.
“The old desktop.”
Eli looked at her.
“What desktop?”
“At the restaurant.”
“There were three.”
“The one in the basement office.”
Eli frowned.
“That room was empty.”
“No.”
Mom shook her head.
“There was an old computer under a tarp.”
They retrieved it from evidence.
The machine was almost fifteen years old.
It took Eli an hour to get it running.
Then he found the file.
PAYROLL_OLD.
Password protected.
Mom stared at the screen.
“Try 1109.”
Eli looked at her.
“Why?”
“Sterling’s birthday.”
Wrong.
“Try Porsche.”
Wrong.
I said, “Purple.”
Everyone looked at me.
“What?”
“The stars.”
Eli typed PURPLE.
The file opened.
Vincent stared at me.
“How?”
I shrugged.
“Bad people are weird.”
Inside was a hidden ledger.
Not just Sterling’s employees.
Businesses.
Politicians.
Police officers.
Inspectors.
Suppliers.
Payments.
Bribes.
Names.
Years of them.
Sterling had kept insurance on everybody.
Vega whispered, “Jesus Christ.”
Vincent leaned over the screen.
Then he saw one name.
His own.
Mom watched his face.
“What?”
He pointed.
VINCENT KANE.
Payment history.
Dates.
Amounts.
Some were legitimate.
Some were not.
Vincent looked away.
Mom understood.
“This can bury you.”
“Yes.”
Eli kept scrolling.
Then another name appeared.
DETECTIVE MARISOL VEGA.
Vega stiffened.
Mom stared at her.
“You?”
Vega turned pale.
“No.”
The ledger showed three payments.
$15,000.
$20,000.
$25,000.
Vincent stepped back.
Vega shook her head.
“I never took money from him.”
Eli examined the routing numbers.
“These went into an account.”
“Not mine.”
He clicked.
The account was under Vega’s name.
Another stolen identity.
Sterling had framed her too.
Vega laughed once.
Cold.
“He was building exits.”
Vincent nodded.
“People to blame.”
Mom whispered, “Everybody was a shield.”
Eli scrolled farther.
Then he stopped.
A final entry.
CLAIRE CARTER.
NEXT OF KIN BENEFIT.
DATE: NEXT MONTH.
Mom went still.
“What is that?”
Eli opened the attached contract.
It was not life insurance.
It was a fraudulent employee death-benefit plan.
If Mom died, Sterling’s holding company could collect against a group policy.
Not $250,000.
$1.2 million.
Nobody spoke.
Mom sat down slowly.
Vincent’s face changed.
“He didn’t just want to silence you.”
Vega finished the thought.
“He needed you dead.”
Then Eli saw something at the bottom.
A second beneficiary.
RORY CARTER.
Mom stood.
“No.”
Her voice shook.
“What does that mean?”
Eli hesitated.
“It means the policy covered both of you.”
I looked at Mom.
“Are we rich?”
She started crying.
Vincent turned away.
May you like
And that was when we all understood.
Sterling had never planned to let either of us survive.
