Chapter 8 - THE TRUTH ABOUT ELLIOT
Elliot didn't shout.
He didn't throw anything.
He simply sat down.
For a long moment, he studied the seam running across the wooden desk.
Then he asked:
“Did you ever ask me whether it was true?”
Dominic looked away.
“No.”
“Did you examine the security records?”
“No.”
“Did you consider that I was nineteen and didn't have access to the system Enzo accused me of using?”
Dominic's face crumpled.
“I should have.”
Elliot nodded once.
“Yes. You should have.”
Norah stood beside him, furious on his behalf.
Dominic sank into a chair.
“I thought you couldn't explain what happened.”
Elliot looked directly at his father.
“I could have explained it. You never asked.”
The words landed harder than anger would have.
For the first time in his life, Dominic Russo seemed to have no answer.
Then Elliot turned his monitor toward him.
“These transactions were approved using my credentials during a period when I was hospitalized for pneumonia.”
Dominic examined the dates.
His face hardened.
“Enzo.”
“Yes.”
“And the medical facilities?”
“Used to hide witnesses, launder payments, and falsify medical records.”
Dominic rubbed his forehead.
“My God.”
Norah folded her arms.
“You helped create this.”
“I know.”
“Then help us stop it.”
Dominic looked toward the window.
“I can provide investigators with documents that connect Enzo to Northbridge.”
Elliot shook his head.
“Documents won't be enough. Enzo has people inside the company and possibly inside law enforcement.”
Norah remembered her mother's warning.
“The detective she contacted betrayed her.”
Dominic looked up sharply.
“What detective?”
“His name was never mentioned.”
Elliot searched the security archive.
Within minutes, he found a photograph taken outside Thomas Whitmore's apartment five years earlier.
A detective stood beside Enzo.
The man's name appeared beneath the image.
Detective Raymond Cole.
Dominic's expression turned murderous.
“I trusted him.”
Norah leaned toward the screen.
But Elliot had already noticed something else.
A second person stood partly hidden behind Cole.
A woman wearing a dark business suit.
Norah recognized her immediately.
“That's Dr. Helen Mercer,” she whispered.
Dominic frowned.
“Who?”
Norah's stomach dropped.
“She was my father's physician.”
Elliot enlarged the photograph.
Then a second image appeared.
The same woman was standing outside Northbridge Medical Holdings eleven days earlier.
Beside her was Norah's mother.
And Dr. Mercer was handing her a small package.
Norah whispered:
“What have you been keeping from me, Mom?”
Then Elliot enlarged the package label.
May you like
It contained three words.
Elliot Russo Project.
