Chapter 8 - CALEB WARD CONFESSED TO THE WRONG CRIMECaleb sat inside a black SUV.
Adrian did not get in.
Pierce remained fifty yards away.
The attorney had insisted Adrian not meet anyone alone now.
Caleb rolled down his window.
“You brought someone.”
“Yes.”
“Police?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Adrian stared.
“Why?”
Caleb looked toward the church.
“Because if this becomes official before you understand it, people will start protecting themselves.”
“They already are.”
Caleb laughed sadly.
“Fair.”
He got out.
At seventy, he looked smaller than Adrian remembered.
Still expensive suit.
Still neat.
But tired.
Adrian did not shake his hand.
“Talk.”
Caleb looked at him.
“I stole from Whitmore Holdings.”
“You already admitted that.”
“I created vendors that billed for services that didn’t exist.”
“How much?”
“Just over two million.”
“And the other money?”
“Martin.”
Adrian froze.
“Martin stole too.”
“No.”
Caleb shook his head.
“He moved it.”
“Difference?”
“He found out what I was doing.”
“When?”
“About six months before Russell died.”
“And instead of reporting you?”
“He used the scheme.”
Adrian frowned.
“For what?”
“To create a reserve.”
“What reserve?”
“Off-book money.”
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
“Why?”
Caleb looked ashamed.
“To pay someone.”
“Who?”
“A woman.”
Adrian’s mind moved quickly.
“Evelyn?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Caleb hesitated.
“Russell’s former controller. Marianne Cole.”
Adrian barely remembered the name.
“What did she know?”
“That I was stealing.”
“Then Martin paid her to stay quiet.”
“Yes.”
Adrian felt sick.
“So Dad discovered the scheme.”
“Yes.”
“And thought you and Martin were both stealing.”
“Correct.”
“But Martin claimed he was only covering up your theft to protect the company.”
Caleb laughed bitterly.
“That’s his version.”
“What’s yours?”
“Martin cared about himself.”
“Why would your theft hurt him?”
“Because he approved vendor payments.”
Adrian understood.
Even if Martin hadn’t stolen initially, his signatures were everywhere.
He feared negligence.
Reputation.
Maybe criminal scrutiny.
“So he hid it.”
“Yes.”
“Then Dad found out.”
“Yes.”
“Did Martin sabotage the car?”
Caleb’s face changed.
“I don’t know.”
Adrian stared.
“You destroyed the evidence vehicle.”
Caleb closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Martin asked me to.”
“You authorized Harlow.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know the car had been tampered with?”
“After the crash.”
Adrian’s pulse hammered.
“Who told you?”
“Martin.”
“Then you knew the death might not be accidental.”
Caleb’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“And you destroyed evidence anyway.”
“Yes.”
Adrian wanted to hit him.
He didn’t.
“Why?”
“Because Martin said Russell had arranged it himself.”
Adrian stared.
“What?”
Caleb looked ashamed.
“He said Russell had been testing security.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know now.”
“You believed Dad sabotaged his own car?”
“Martin said it was a controlled test involving Dean.”
“Dean says no.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“I called him years later.”
Adrian’s anger rose.
“So when did you realize Martin lied?”
“Within months.”
“And still said nothing.”
Caleb looked down.
“I had committed crimes.”
There it was.
Fear again.
If Caleb exposed Martin, Martin exposed Caleb.
Everyone held everyone else hostage.
“Who told you about Vivica?”
Caleb looked up.
“Martin.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
Adrian’s skin prickled.
Martin was already telling people.
“What did he say?”
“That Evelyn’s daughter had stolen documents and was manipulating you.”
Adrian almost smiled.
“Convenient.”
“Yes.”
Caleb rubbed his hands.
“There’s something you need to understand about Evelyn.”
“What?”
“She wasn’t only Russell’s records manager.”
Adrian waited.
“She was helping him investigate us.”
That made sense.
“Did Martin know?”
“Eventually.”
“What happened to her after Dad died?”
“Martin made her sign a confidentiality agreement.”
“Legal?”
“No.”
“What do you mean?”
“He threatened her.”
“With what?”
Caleb looked away.
“Her husband.”
Vivica’s father.
Adrian frowned.
“What about him?”
“He had a gambling problem.”
Adrian’s stomach tightened.
“Debt?”
“Yes.”
“Martin paid it?”
“Some.”
“And?”
“He told Evelyn if she went to police, he’d expose her husband’s financial crimes.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Another person trapped by shame.
“Was her husband a criminal?”
“He had taken money from his employer.”
“How much?”
“About forty thousand.”
“And Evelyn stayed quiet to protect him.”
“Yes.”
Adrian felt disgust and pity at once.
“Did Vivica know?”
“I don’t know.”
That could explain why Vivica had been vulnerable to Martin too.
Family secrets passed like inheritance.
Adrian asked:
“Who was Dad meeting the night he died?”
Caleb looked genuinely frustrated.
“I never knew.”
“But you knew someone existed.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Russell called me that afternoon.”
“What did he say?”
“That by morning he’d have proof Martin had lied about where the missing money went.”
“Meaning the whistleblower knew.”
“Probably.”
“Who could have known?”
Caleb listed possibilities.
Internal auditor.
Bank employee.
Controller.
Vendor accountant.
Someone inside Martin’s side of operations.
Then he stopped.
“There was one person.”
Adrian waited.
“Russell’s security consultant.”
“Name?”
“Graham Sloane.”
Adrian frowned.
He had never heard it.
“Why him?”
“Russell hired him privately about a month before the crash.”
“To investigate the money?”
“Maybe.”
“Where is he now?”
Caleb looked at Adrian.
“Missing.”
Adrian felt cold.
“What does that mean?”
“He disappeared after Russell died.”
“Police?”
“No missing-person report I know of.”
“Family?”
“He didn’t have much.”
Adrian stared.
“Was Graham the person Dad was meeting?”
Caleb whispered:
“I always thought so.”
Adrian’s phone buzzed.
A message from Pierce.
Someone just photographed us from across the road.
Adrian looked up.
A gray sedan pulled away.
Pierce ran toward his car.
Caleb’s face went white.
“Who was that?”
Adrian stared after it.
“You tell me.”
Caleb stepped backward.
“This is exactly why I didn’t want police yet.”
Adrian’s anger flared.
“No.”
He pointed toward the disappearing car.
“This is exactly why people should have gone to police twelve years ago.”
Then Caleb said:
“If Graham Sloane is alive, Martin will know where he is.”
Adrian turned.
“Why?”
“Because Martin was the last person I saw speaking to him.”
“When?”
May you like
Caleb swallowed.
“At Russell’s funeral.”
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