Richard glanced down.
"Those aren't mine."
"Your digital authorization."
"Could have been copied."
Jonathan looked at Elena.
She spoke.
"That's what Thomas said."
Richard looked at her.
"What?"
"That everything was probably nothing."
Richard's expression hardened.
"You don't know what you're talking about."
"I know enough."
She placed a USB drive on the table.
"What's that?"
"Records."
"Of what?"
"The real ownership structure of Northbridge Holdings."
Richard went completely still.
Elena noticed.
Margaret noticed too.
Jonathan picked up the drive.
"Where did you get this?"
"My accountant sent it to me before he disappeared."
Richard's face had gone pale.
Jonathan inserted the drive into the computer.
A spreadsheet appeared.
Hundreds of transactions.
Names.
Dates.
Accounts.
At the top was a list of beneficial owners.
Northbridge Holdings.
Three shell companies.
Two offshore trusts.
And one hidden account.
The account holder was listed as R. Cole.
Margaret stepped backward.
"No."
Richard shook his head.
"It's fabricated."
Elena looked at him.
"Then explain why the account received $9.2 million."
Richard didn't answer.
Jonathan stared at his brother.
"Richard."
Still nothing.
Margaret's voice broke.
"Did you do this?"
Richard finally looked at her.
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it."
"It wasn't supposed to happen this way."
Jonathan's eyes narrowed.
"What wasn't?"
Richard sat down.
For the first time, he looked old.
Not powerful.
Not respected.
Just tired.
He admitted that he had created Northbridge Holdings years earlier.
But he claimed it was originally intended to conceal investments from competitors.
Then the scheme grew.
Other executives became involved.
Thomas Greene managed the internal transfers.
Several outside companies provided false invoices.
Richard insisted he never intended to steal from Elena.
But Elena wasn't interested in intentions.
"Thirty-one million dollars moved through my company."
Richard lowered his eyes.
"I know."
"My accountant disappeared."
"I didn't order that."
"Then who did?"
Richard hesitated.
"Thomas."
Elena stared at him.
"Where is he?"
Richard shook his head.
"I don't know."
Then his phone rang.
Everyone looked at it.
Richard checked the screen.
The call came from Thomas.
Jonathan gestured for him to answer.
Richard pressed the button.
"Hello?"
Thomas's voice came through.
"Richard, they know."
Richard closed his eyes.
"Where are you?"
"That doesn't matter."
"It matters to me."
"You need to leave."
Richard stood.
"Why?"
"Because the person who started this is coming for all of us."
The call ended.
Elena looked at Jonathan.
"What did he mean?"
Before anyone could answer, the lights went out.
The conference room became completely dark.
A security alarm sounded downstairs.
Then came the sound of breaking glass.
Jonathan shouted for everyone to stay down.
A moment later, emergency lights came on.
Margaret looked toward the hallway.
"What's happening?"
Security officers rushed past.
Someone had broken into the executive floor.
But they hadn't stolen money.
They hadn't taken computers.
They had gone directly to one office.
Richard's office.
When the door was opened, everyone discovered what the intruder had been looking for.
A locked metal cabinet stood against the wall.
It was empty.
Richard stared at it.
"What was inside?"
He didn't answer.
Elena stepped closer.
"Whatever it was, someone was willing to break into a bank to retrieve it."
Richard looked at her.
"There was a second ledger."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Elena studied him.
"You do."
Richard shook his head.
"No."
Then a voice came from behind them.
"I do."
Everyone turned.
Andrew stood in the doorway.
He held a small black notebook.
"I found it."
The Ledger
The notebook contained names.
Not just the names of employees.
It contained executives, contractors, politicians, business owners, and intermediaries.
Beside each name were numbers.
Payments.
Dates.
Account codes.
Andrew had found the ledger hidden inside an old archive cabinet.
Richard had apparently believed it was safe.
He was wrong.
The ledger revealed that the fraud had been operating for almost seven years.
The $31 million connected to Elena's company was only one part of a much larger operation.
Nearly $140 million had passed through the network.
Elena read the numbers silently.
Her anger was no longer directed at Andrew.
It wasn't even directed entirely at Richard.
She was thinking about her accountant.
His name was Samuel Price.
Samuel had worked with her for eleven years.
He had warned her about the discrepancies.
Then he disappeared.
Elena turned to the investigators.
"Find Samuel."
"We're trying."
"Try harder."
Her voice shook for the first time.
"He's alive."
Jonathan looked at her.
"How do you know?"
"Because if he were dead, they wouldn't still be looking for his files."
The investigators took the ledger.
Within hours, federal agents arrived.
Richard Cole was arrested.
Thomas Greene was located two days later at a motel outside the state.
He had been injured and frightened.
He confessed.
But his confession revealed something even more disturbing.
Thomas hadn't ordered Samuel Price's disappearance.
Someone else had.
A man named Victor Hale.
Victor was a former consultant for Harrington & Cole.
He had designed the bank's internal compliance software.
He also knew how to erase digital records.
And he had been paid more than $11 million through Northbridge.
Agents searched his properties.
They found computers.