Chapter 3 - THE SIGNATURE THAT MADE ME A SUSPECT
I stared at my sister.
"What did you say?"
Elena reached inside her coat and pulled out a folded document protected by a plastic sleeve.
She handed it to me.
Across the top were the words:
CARTER HOLDINGS — AUTHORIZED TRANSFER
The document was dated seventeen years earlier.
Three days before the warehouse fire.
It directed a substantial transfer from the Beatrice Carter Family Assistance Trust into a private investment vehicle.
At the bottom was my signature.
Roman Alexander Carter.
I recognized it.
Or rather, I recognized what somebody had tried to make look like it.
"That's impossible."
Elena's expression hardened.
"That's what I wanted to believe."
I examined the date.
I had been twenty-one, working in Carter Holdings' commercial leasing division while finishing my business degree.
My father controlled every major financial decision.
I had no authority over the charitable trust.
"I never approved this."
Elena watched me carefully.
"Then somebody used your name."
I looked at the signature again.
The person who forged it had copied the distinctive downward stroke on my final initial.
Whoever created the document had access to my actual paperwork.
Before I could say more, Luca called.
"Roman, we found Grace."
I was already moving.
Elena followed me through the concealed passage, which connected the hidden room to an old maintenance corridor behind the infirmary.
That was how someone had entered a room I believed had been sealed for seventeen years.
The study entrance had been closed.
The service entrance had not.
When I reached the infirmary, Dr. Nolan was examining Grace.
She lay on the bed, pale and barely conscious, with a bruise near her hairline.
An opened medical kit stood beside her.
Dr. Nolan looked up.
"She has a head injury and needs hospital assessment. I'm arranging transport."
Grace's eyes opened when she heard my voice.
"Mr. Carter?"
I approached.
"Don't try to sit up."
Her gaze moved desperately toward the doorway.
"My girls."
"They're safe."
Tears filled her eyes.
"Please don't fire me."
For a moment, I couldn't speak.
This woman had been injured inside my home.
Her six-year-old daughter had tried to clean my forbidden office because she believed her family would be evicted.
And Grace was still worried about losing her job.
"You're not being fired."
She started crying.
I took a chair beside her.
"Tell me what happened."
Grace swallowed painfully.
"Mr. Crane found me helping a woman through the infirmary passage."
"Elena."
Grace nodded.
"He said she'd broken into the estate."
"What happened next?"
"I told him I recognized her from a photograph Daniel kept."
My eyes narrowed.
"Daniel?"
"Daniel Harper. My husband."
I knew Daniel had worked in the compliance department of Carter Logistics before his fatal road accident sixteen months earlier.
I had signed the company's condolence letter.
Attended the memorial.
Arranged a benefit payment through human resources.
But I had never connected him to my sister.
"How did Daniel know Elena?"
Grace closed her eyes.
"He was investigating missing trust payments."
My stomach tightened.
"From my mother's fund?"
She nodded.
"He found transfers that didn't match the beneficiary records. He thought someone was diverting money intended for injured workers' families."
"And Elena?"
"He found her while tracing one of the old transactions. She was living under another name."
I glanced toward the corridor.
"Did Victor know your husband was investigating?"
Grace's expression changed.
"Daniel told him."
Something cold settled inside my chest.
Before I could ask another question, Dr. Nolan returned and told us the ambulance had arrived.
Grace caught my sleeve.
"Mr. Carter."
I leaned closer.
"Daniel didn't die because he lost control of his car."
My heart stopped.
She whispered:
"Three days before the accident, he told me someone at Carter Logistics had discovered his investigation."
May you like
Then she looked straight into my eyes.
"And the person who called him that night was Victor Crane."
