Chapter 4 - THE SAFE BEHIND THE PAINTINGI looked at my security chief.
Marcus could not hear Victor’s words.
His expression remained calm.
“Why shouldn’t I trust him?” I asked.
Marcus’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Victor continued.
“Someone inside your security team gave them access.”
“Them?”
“You’ve seen the safe.”
“How do you know?”
A pause.
“Because I opened it.”
“Why?”
“To retrieve something your father ordered me to protect.”
“My father has been dead for nine years.”
“Yes.”
“And you chose last night?”
“I had no choice.”
“Who was with you?”
Victor lowered his voice.
“Meet me alone.”
“That will not happen.”
“Then the ledger disappears.”
The missing book.
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere your cameras cannot reach.”
“You frightened my daughter.”
“I tried to keep her alive.”
My grip tightened around the phone.
“Do not use those words unless you can explain them.”
“The person who took that ledger already knows she saw us.”
I looked at Emma.
She was watching my face.
I made my expression still.
“Who took it?”
Victor answered with a question.
“Do you know why your father never allowed a full audit of the employee pension fund?”
The pension fund supported more than eight thousand retired workers.
I had ordered annual audits since inheriting the company.
“No irregularities were reported.”
“Because your auditors reviewed the records they were given.”
“Victor.”
“The original figures were inside that safe.”
“Who took them?”
Victor breathed slowly.
Then said a name I had not heard in months.
“Your uncle Malcolm.”
The call ended.
I stared at the screen.
Malcolm Whitmore was my father’s younger brother.
He had served as company chairman before I took control.
He now lived in Palm Beach and rarely attended board meetings.
He also wore black-stone cuff links.
A matching pair had been given to every Whitmore man on my grandfather’s sixtieth birthday.
The broken piece did not belong only to Victor.
It could belong to Malcolm too.
Marcus stepped closer.
“What did he say?”
Before I could answer, the security panel emitted a warning.
REMOTE ACCESS DETECTED.
Someone was attempting to erase the safe’s entry log.
Marcus reached for the control tablet.
The screen went black.
Then every light in the study turned off.
Emma screamed.
I pulled her against me.
May you like
From the dark hallway came the sound of a door closing.
Someone was still inside the mansion.
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