Chapter 6 - THE MAN IN THE PARKING LOT
I moved away from the window.
“Daniel, where are you?”
“Manila. I came home last week.”
“Why?”
“Because somebody opened my apartment while I was at work.”
I called Suarez from Nina’s phone while Daniel stayed on mine.
Within minutes, an unmarked vehicle was outside my gate.
The dark car drove away before the agents reached it.
Nobody chased blindly.
Suarez wrote down what I had seen.
Then he spoke directly to Daniel.
The meeting happened the following afternoon in an office with cameras, controlled access, and terrible coffee.
Daniel was younger than I expected.
Twenty-four, maybe.
His shirt collar was frayed.
He kept checking the door.
“Marco said the payments were confidential,” he told us. “Executive vendors. Special handling.”
“Who approved them?” Suarez asked.
“Victor Hale.”
I knew the name.
Regional finance director.
The second signature.
Victor had answered every question during the initial audit.
Promptly.
Politely.
He had even thanked me for being thorough.
Daniel placed a small notebook on the table.
“I wrote down the invoice numbers.”
“Why?”
“Because the dates kept changing.”
He explained how vendors had been entered, deleted, and recreated.
How rejected payments returned under slightly different names.
How Marco instructed him to stop asking questions.
Then he looked at me.
“He used your name.”
My stomach turned.
“What did he say?”
“That you were the outside specialist. That you designed the structure to avoid delays.”
I looked down at my hands.
Daniel reached into his bag.
Suarez stopped him gently.
“Tell me what you’re taking out.”
“A drive. Copies of emails I received.”
The drive went into an evidence envelope.
Daniel’s breathing grew shallow.
“There’s something else.”
He opened the notebook to a page near the back.
A list of names.
Workers.
Drivers.
Receptionists.
People who had invested savings in a program Stella promoted.
Guaranteed returns.
Company-backed opportunities.
It hadn’t only been corporate money.
“How many?” I asked.
“I know about nineteen.”
Suarez’s expression changed.
Daniel looked at the office window.
“Stella wasn’t just spending the money.”
He swallowed.
“She was recruiting the people they took it from.”
My phone vibrated.
A message from Marco’s attorney.
My client wishes to cooperate.
May you like
Then another line appeared.
He will speak only if his wife comes.
