Chapter 7 - THE STORAGE UNIT
“Take Lily into the bedroom,” I told Emma. “Daniel’s officer is in the building. I’m calling him now.”
Emma didn’t waste breath arguing.
I heard her pick up her daughter, then a door close.
The man outside carried a maintenance badge and a replacement key.
Security stopped him before he entered.
He said Nicholas had ordered a lock inspection.
Daniel photographed the work order and recorded the man’s explanation with his permission.
Then he changed the locks for real.
Emma called me back.
Her voice shook with anger.
“You said we would be safe.”
“I gave the address to our housing office. Nicholas apparently still has access.”
“That’s an explanation. It doesn’t make it okay.”
“No. It doesn’t.”
She chose the next location herself, a hotel near her cousin.
I paid through Elaine’s office, and Daniel assigned an officer whose number Emma already had.
Every move required her agreement.
At noon, Daniel and I went to the storage facility.
My identification and the receipt matched a unit still billed to an account I owned.
The manager unlocked it while Daniel filmed an inventory.
Inside were two archive boxes, a broken desk lamp, and a document case.
I recognized the case before I remembered buying it.
My mother had given it to me when I opened my first hotel.
The lock combination came back as muscle memory.
Inside lay printed bank records and a duplicate audit memorandum.
I had apparently trusted paper more than my company network.
The memorandum described unauthorized transfers from project accounts into Harbor Renewal Partners.
The amount was nearly twelve million dollars.
A note in my handwriting ran across the cover.
Nick admits moving money. Gives deadline tomorrow. Meet auditor before telling Vivian.
Below it was a name: Peter Lang.
Daniel called the audit firm.
Peter had left two years earlier and now worked independently.
He agreed to meet us, but only with Elaine present.
“You remember the email?” he asked when he arrived.
“What email?”
“The one canceling our meeting after your accident.”
He handed Elaine a printed copy and forwarded the original for technical review.
It claimed I had approved every transfer and no longer required an investigation.
“Did you believe it?” I asked.
“I questioned it. Your sister provided a signed release and company counsel terminated our engagement.”
I looked at the sender line.
May you like
The message had come from my account at 2:06 a.m.
At that time, according to my hospital record, I had been unconscious in surgery.
