Chapter 10 - What the Money Bought —
The company had no employees.
No office.
No history of safety work.
It existed on paper, collected payments, and moved the money out again.
Some went to Vanessa.
Some paid Daniel’s credit cards.
The rest moved through accounts investigators were still tracing.
Ortiz spread copies across the small table in my room.
“Pike was paying for approvals,” she said. “Your husband was signing off on work that wasn’t done.”
“And Vanessa moved the money.”
“That’s what the records show.”
I looked at a charge for a weekend rental.
Daniel had told me it was a training conference.
I recognized the dates because I had made him sandwiches for the drive.
That tiny memory nearly broke me.
Not the millions.
Not the forged signature.
Two sandwiches wrapped in foil while he stood behind me and kissed my neck.
I turned away.
Ortiz gathered the pages.
“We can stop.”
“No.”
“You can be angry without looking at every receipt.”
“I need to know which parts of my life actually happened.”
She waited until I could face her again.
“All of your part happened.”
I wiped my eyes with the heel of my hand.
There was a knock.
Ben stood outside with an officer.
I hadn’t agreed to see him, but I nodded.
He came in and stopped at the foot of the bed.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him.
“Did you hear me?”
He didn’t pretend not to understand.
“Once.”
“Calling Daniel?”
“Yes.”
My stomach clenched.
“And you stayed outside.”
Ben’s face crumpled.
“He said the crew was going around the back.”
“Was there a crew?”
“No.”
I let the silence sit between us.
Finally, he said, “I’ve corrected my statement. All of it.”
“That doesn’t undo it.”
“I know.”
After he left, Ortiz’s phone rang.
She answered, listened, then asked the caller to repeat something.
Pike had agreed to meet investigators.
He wanted protection.
He said he had kept a message from Daniel because the whole arrangement was beginning to scare him.
A voice message.
Sent the morning of the wedding.
“What did Daniel say?” I asked.
May you like
Ortiz looked at me.
“He told Pike to make sure the bride used the service corridor.”
