Chapter 13 - TWENTY-FOUR HOURS
The board vote remained scheduled for the following morning.
Owen’s suspension had not canceled the acquisition.
Calder argued that the company could complete the review using other executives.
Several directors wanted the money badly enough to agree.
Leah spent the evening preparing an injunction request.
Gerald notified the board that the trust would not authorize the transaction while the executive authority documents remained disputed.
That should have ended it.
Instead, Calder’s attorneys claimed the trust’s voting restrictions no longer applied.
They produced another document.
A sale of the trust’s interest to a private holding company.
Dated three months earlier.
Gerald’s signature appeared beside mine.
Both were false.
“They’ve built alternatives,” Leah said.
“If one door closes, they try another.”
We had less than twenty-four hours to show the board a complete pattern.
Nora supplied correspondence linking the holding company to Calder.
Daniel’s payment receipt connected him to the same network.
The archive records showed why Calder wanted the originals.
We still needed to connect Owen directly to the forged authority and the house.
Martin asked to meet me alone.
Leah stayed within sight through the open door.
“I found the service technician,” he said.
“He installed a remote access program during Owen’s visit.”
“Will he speak to police?”
“He already is.”
Martin placed his badge on the table.
“I should have checked the maintenance request.
I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“I also should have told you Elise was asking about access.”
“Yes.”
He nodded as though each answer was something he needed to carry.
“I can help preserve the building logs.
After that, you decide whether I return.”
For the first time, he wasn’t asking me to trust his history.
He was offering something we could verify.
I agreed.
Near midnight, the police recovered a remote access log from Martin’s office computer.
It traced a session to Owen’s apartment.
During that session, the camera system went offline.
We finally had a direct link.
Then Leah received a call from the archive manager.
A fire alarm had activated.
May you like
The storage room holding my father’s originals was filling with water.
And someone had disabled the building’s backup pump.
