Chapter 5 - THE LIE
Mom laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because sometimes a lie is so ugly your brain doesn't know what else to do.
“My idea?”
The detective nodded.
“He says you created the fake employee profile.”
“I can't even use Excel.”
Vincent glanced at her.
She looked at him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Don't make jokes.”
“I didn't.”
The detective said, “We need a statement.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“No.”
“Then Rory comes with me.”
“We'd prefer—”
“She comes.”
Vincent spoke.
“I'll have counsel meet you.”
Mom snapped around.
“I can't afford your lawyer.”
“I didn't ask you to.”
“I don't want favors.”
“Then call it an inconvenience.”
“For who?”
“Me.”
That almost made her smile.
Almost.
At the station, we sat in a small interview room.
I colored a giraffe purple.
Mom answered questions.
David claimed she had discovered weaknesses in the payroll system.
David claimed she created ghost employees.
David claimed she stole money and blamed him when she got caught.
The detective finally slid over a photograph.
“Do you recognize this?”
It showed Mom at an ATM.
She stared.
“That's me.”
“Date?”
She checked.
“Last March.”
“Withdrawn amount was twenty-six hundred dollars.”
“I didn't withdraw that.”
“You're in the picture.”
Mom leaned closer.
Then her expression changed.
“That's not my coat.”
The detective frowned.
Mom pointed.
“I don't own a black wool coat.”
Vincent's attorney, a silver-haired woman named Naomi Cross, picked up the photo.
“Zoom in.”
The detective did.
Mom's face.
Her hair.
Her height.
But when Naomi zoomed farther, the image blurred.
Then I saw something.
“Her hand.”
Everyone looked at me.
“What?” Mom asked.
“The hand.”
The woman in the picture was holding an ATM card.
I pointed.
“She has a ring.”
Mom looked.
Her face changed.
“I don't wear rings.”
Naomi looked at the detective.
“Who does?”
Mom whispered,
“Claire.”
David's lie began collapsing.
Then Naomi's phone buzzed.
She checked it.
“We have a larger problem.”
Vincent, waiting outside, entered.
“What?”
Naomi handed him her phone.
“Sterling Holdings filed for emergency bankruptcy protection twenty minutes ago.”
Mom frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means David is trying to bury the company before investigators can seize everything.”
Vincent's jaw hardened.
Naomi continued.
“There are more than forty unpaid employees.”
Mom stared.
“Forty?”
“Across three restaurants.”
“How much?”
“Possibly more than two hundred thousand dollars.”
I stopped coloring.
Even I knew that was a lot.
Mom looked sick.
“There are other kids?”
Naomi understood what she meant.
Other families.
Other empty refrigerators.
Other purple stars.
“Yes.”
Mom stood.
“Then we fight.”
Vincent looked at her.
An hour earlier, she had wanted nothing to do with him.
Now something had changed.
Anger had burned through fear.
“How?” Vincent asked.
Mom looked at Naomi.
“Can employees stop the bankruptcy?”
“Not alone.”
“What do we need?”
“Evidence David moved company assets before filing.”
Mom thought.
Then looked at me.
“Rory.”
“Yes?”
“Yesterday, what did you see in David's office?”
My stomach tightened.
Because there was something I had not told her.
A man carrying boxes.
David yelling.
And Claire standing beside the safe.
I reached into my hoodie pocket.
I had taken something.
A little silver flash drive.
Mom stared at it.
“Where did you get that?”
“Under David's desk.”
Vincent slowly crouched.
“Rory.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know what's on that?”
“No.”
He looked at Naomi.
She looked at him.
Then at Mom.
Naomi whispered,
“If that's what I think it is, David Sterling didn't just steal payroll.”
Vincent plugged it into an offline laptop.
A folder appeared.
KANE — PAYMENTS
Vincent's expression went cold.
May you like
And for the first time since I met him...
he looked afraid.
