Chapter 3 - THE MAN DANIEL FEARED
I nearly dropped the laptop.
Marcus immediately closed the blinds in the security office.
“Do you know what he meant?”
“No.”
“Did anyone have access to your house?”
I thought about the eighteen months before Daniel died.
Nurses.
Home health aides.
Insurance representatives.
A hospice coordinator near the end.
Friends.
Neighbors.
My landlord.
Too many people.
I opened the next video.
Daniel looked thinner this time.
His diagnosis had already happened.
“I need to explain something,” he said.
“I didn’t tell Rachel about the Carter Foundation because I thought I could fix this quietly.”
His voice sounded exhausted.
“I was wrong.”
He held up several printed documents.
“The foundation raises money by telling donors they’re paying medical bills for low-income cancer patients.”
He looked directly into the camera.
“They are paying some bills.”
Then his expression darkened.
“But the largest payments are fake.”
Marcus whispered:
“Money laundering?”
Daniel continued as if answering him.
“The fake patient accounts route money through Harbor Health Consulting. From Harbor Health, the money moves offshore.”
My pulse quickened.
I opened the HARBOR HEALTH folder.
The registered owner was a man named Malcolm Reed.
I didn’t recognize him.
Then I opened his photograph.
My stomach turned.
“I know him.”
Marcus looked at me.
“Who?”
“He came to Daniel’s funeral.”
A tall man.
Gray suit.
Quiet voice.
He had introduced himself as Daniel’s former supervisor.
He brought flowers.
He hugged me.
He told me Daniel had been one of the most honest men he had ever employed.
Marcus muttered something under his breath.
I returned to the video.
Daniel continued.
“Malcolm knows where I live.”
My fingers went numb.
“He has been inside our house.”
A memory flashed through my mind.
Three months before Daniel died, I came home from the pharmacy and found him arguing with a man on the front porch.
Malcolm.
Daniel told me it was about an unpaid consulting invoice.
I believed him.
“I told Malcolm the evidence was somewhere he could never find it,” Daniel said.
“I lied.”
He lowered his voice.
“It’s closer than he thinks.”
The video ended.
Marcus sat back.
“This is bigger than a fake theft accusation.”
I nodded.
“Vanessa wanted the USB.”
“But why frame you?”
“So she could get you out of the hotel?”
“Why would that help?”
Marcus looked toward the monitor.
“Because maybe she didn’t know you had the USB.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“She planted the envelope. She expected you to find it.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe she expected you to recognize Daniel’s picture, panic, and take the envelope home.”
“But I left it in the room.”
“Exactly.”
I understood.
Vanessa had expected me to steal something.
Not a ring.
The envelope.
When I didn’t, she created a theft accusation anyway.
“To search me,” I whispered.
Marcus nodded.
“She needed management to search your cart, your locker, maybe your belongings.”
My blood went cold.
Then someone knocked on the security office door.
Three slow knocks.
Marcus looked at me.
Nobody spoke.
A man’s voice came from the hallway.
“Marcus? Mr. Lowell wants Rachel Bennett brought upstairs.”
My former manager.
Marcus didn’t move.
The voice continued.
“And there’s someone here who says he represents the Carter family.”
I looked at Marcus.
“Who?”
May you like
The man outside answered as though he had heard me.
“Malcolm Reed.”
