CHAPTER 4 — THE DOCUMENT NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO SEE
CHAPTER 4 — THE DOCUMENT NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO SEE
At exactly 9:17 p.m., Arthur spoke again.
"Cassidy."
I looked toward the phone.
"The forensic audit team has finished."
Brendan frowned.
"Forensic audit?"
Arthur didn't answer him.
He answered me.
"We found what you suspected."
A knot tightened in my stomach.
"How much?"
A pause.
Then—
"Thirty-eight million, four hundred twelve thousand dollars."
The number echoed through the room.
Jessica laughed nervously.
"Thirty-eight million of what?"
Arthur's voice became colder.
"Misappropriated corporate funds."
Brendan slammed both hands on the table.
"That's a lie!"
Arthur continued as if he hadn't spoken.
"The transfers occurred over four years."
He listed them one by one.
"Luxury travel."
"Private club memberships."
"Offshore consulting fees."
"Real estate renovations."
"Personal investment accounts."
Every item ended with the same phrase.
Approved using Brendan Morrison's executive credentials.
Brendan's breathing became ragged.
"I didn't steal anything."
"No," I said quietly.
"You just signed whatever someone put in front of you."
His head jerked toward me.
"What are you talking about?"
I reached into the leather folder once more.
This time I removed a thick stack of printed bank records.
I slid the top page across the table.
Brendan looked down.
The signature at the bottom was his.
His own handwriting.
Authorizing a $6.8 million transfer.
"I don't remember this."
"I know."
"You forged it."
I shook my head.
"You signed it at the Aspen retreat."
His expression changed.
He remembered champagne.
A celebration.
Golf with investors.
A pile of documents waiting in his hotel suite.
He had signed every page without reading.
Exactly as always.
Arthur spoke.
"Unfortunately for Mr. Morrison..."
A brief pause.
"Someone else did read them."
Another voice entered the speakerphone.
Female.
Confident.
"Good evening."
"I've been waiting a long time for this conversation."
Brendan stiffened instantly.
"No..."
The woman continued.
"My name is Olivia Grant."
Jessica looked confused.
"Who is Olivia?"
Brendan looked as though he'd seen a ghost.
Olivia had been his executive assistant for seven years.
The woman who had quietly handled every signature, every schedule, every expense report.
The woman he fired six months earlier—
After blaming her for accounting discrepancies she had repeatedly warned him about.
Olivia's voice remained steady.
"I kept copies of every warning email you ignored."
Another pause.
"And every instruction your mother gave me to classify family expenses as corporate development."
Diane's wineglass slipped from her hand.
It shattered across the marble floor.
For the first time that evening...
The room wasn't afraid of losing money.
They were afraid of prison.
And as thunder rolled outside over the estate, another vehicle turned into the driveway.
May you like
This one didn't belong to Corporate Security.
It bore the seal of the federal financial crimes task force.
