Chapter 8 - THE FALSE TRANSFER
They had thirty-eight minutes before the transfer.
Arthur and Naomi entered the conference room where Warren was being held.
His bow tie had been removed.
His confidence had not returned.
Naomi placed the transfer document before him.
“Stop it.”
Warren read the amount.
“I can’t.”
“You are the second trustee.”
“Not anymore.”
He pushed another document across the table.
A physician had declared Arthur medically incapacitated.
The signature belonged to Miriam Sloane.
“I am standing here,” Arthur said.
Warren laughed without humor.
“Three years ago, you gave Gideon emergency authority. If both trustees became unavailable, he could control the trust for seventy-two hours.”
Warren had been arrested.
Arthur had been declared incompetent.
Gideon now controlled one hundred and eighty million dollars.
Naomi seized Warren’s shirt.
“You attacked my daughter to help him.”
“He told me the camera was disabled.”
“You still picked up the board.”
Warren looked at Lila’s bandage.
“That was not part of the plan.”
“No. That was your choice.”
He could not deny it.
Gideon had ordered Warren to plant Ethan’s phone on Lila.
Warren would accuse her publicly and claim she stole it days earlier.
Naomi would defend her daughter.
Gideon would portray Naomi as emotional and unstable.
Any evidence from the phone could be dismissed as contaminated by a child.
“Why Lila?” Arthur asked.
“Because Ethan created two copies of the financial records.”
One was inside the phone.
The second was hidden in something belonging to his daughter.
Warren did not know what it was.
Gideon believed Lila could unlock it.
Lila studied the transfer document.
“The numbers are backward.”
A routing code appeared beside the destination account.
M-17.
Reversed, it became 71-M.
Arthur recognized it.
“Vault 71 at Meridian Bank.”
The private transfer suite was three blocks away.
Twenty-nine minutes remained.
Ortiz ordered police vehicles to the bank.
As Naomi turned to leave, Warren caught her sleeve.
“Gideon will not be there.”
“Why?”
“Because this is not about stealing the trust.”
Naomi faced him.
“What is it about?”
May you like
Warren’s voice dropped.
“Making certain Ethan never tells Father who ordered the crash.”
