Chapter 5 - THE INITIALS THAT SHOULDN’T EXIST
Grant stared at the ledger.
“That’s impossible.”
Adrian’s voice was unreadable.
“Is it?”
“You think I took money?”
“I think someone used your initials.”
Grant stepped back.
“Or someone wants you to think I did.”
That was possible.
Elena’s ledger ended the year she died.
But these newer entries had been added later.
Someone continued using the book.
Which meant the ledger had not simply been hidden.
It had been maintained.
“Who knew where the case was?” I asked.
Nobody answered.
Adrian looked through the later pages.
More payments.
Politicians.
Companies.
Officers.
And again:
G.M.
Then a different line caught my attention.
NB CONSULTING.
Nora Bennett.
My stomach dropped.
“That’s me.”
Adrian looked at me sharply.
“What?”
“My initials.”
Grant gave a humorless laugh.
“Convenient.”
“I don’t own a consulting company.”
Adrian turned toward me.
“Have you ever?”
“No.”
“Any business?”
“No.”
Grant folded his arms.
“Then maybe you’re not as innocent as you look.”
Adrian’s expression went cold.
“Enough.”
“No, Adrian. She appears out of nowhere, knows your routines, chooses the one object containing a hidden message, and now her initials are in the ledger.”
My face burned.
I looked at Adrian.
For the first time, suspicion entered his eyes too.
It hurt more than it should have.
“I didn’t know any of this.”
Grant continued.
“When did she start working here?”
“Three years ago.”
He checked the page.
The NB Consulting entry was dated two years ago.
Payment:
$75,000.
Purpose:
Archive retrieval.
I felt sick.
“I never received that.”
Adrian closed the ledger.
“Then we find who did.”
Grant shook his head.
“You’re trusting her too quickly.”
Adrian looked at him.
“No.”
Then at me.
“I’m trusting evidence.”
That should have comforted me.
It didn’t.
Because evidence currently included my initials.
We returned to Vale House after dark.
Adrian placed the ledger in a biometric safe.
Grant left without saying goodnight.
I went back to the staff quarters.
At 1:07 a.m., someone knocked on my door.
I opened it.
Adrian stood there.
No jacket.
No tie.
For the first time, he looked exhausted.
“What happened?”
He held out a bank statement.
“NB Consulting exists.”
My stomach dropped.
“Who owns it?”
He handed me the page.
Registered owner:
Nora Bennett.
My name.
My date of birth.
My old address.
Everything correct.
Except I had never created the company.
Then I saw the bank account balance.
$312,000.
And one of the deposit sources was Vale Security Services.
Adrian’s company.
May you like
Someone had built a business using my identity.
And his money.
