Chapter 6 - THE COMPANY WITH MY NAME
I did not sleep.
By seven the next morning, Adrian had lawyers reviewing the company records.
NB Consulting had been created online using copies of my identification.
My driver’s license.
Social Security information.
An electronic signature.
Nothing about it was accidental.
“Who has access to your documents?” Adrian asked.
“HR.”
“Anyone else?”
“My landlord has copies of my ID.”
“Family?”
“My mother is dead.”
The words still hurt.
“My younger brother lives in Pittsburgh. He wouldn’t do this.”
Grant wasn’t present.
I noticed.
“Where is Grant?”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Working.”
I didn’t believe that was the whole answer.
NB Consulting had received more than half a million dollars over two years.
Most funds were immediately transferred elsewhere.
Some moved through companies connected to the Vale organization.
Others went to accounts we had not identified yet.
It looked exactly like money laundering.
Using my identity.
“If the authorities found this,” I whispered, “I’d look guilty.”
“Yes.”
Adrian didn’t soften it.
“Why me?”
“That’s what I’m trying to determine.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Maybe Grant was right.”
Adrian looked at me.
“About what?”
“Maybe you shouldn’t trust me.”
He stood.
“Nora.”
“What?”
“You brought me the frame.”
“So?”
“If you were part of this, that was an extremely stupid thing to do.”
“That’s your defense of me?”
“It’s one of several.”
Despite everything, I almost smiled.
Then he continued.
“You’ve had unrestricted access to rooms containing more wealth than most people see in a lifetime.”
“I’m staff.”
“That does not make you honest.”
“No.”
“But you have never stolen anything.”
“How would you know?”
His eyes held mine.
“I know everything that leaves this house.”
That should have sounded threatening.
Instead, it sounded strangely intimate.
Then his lawyer called.
The company’s formation documents contained a recovery email.
Not mine.
The address belonged to a woman named Elise Mercer.
Grant’s younger sister.
I stared at Adrian.
“Grant has a sister?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“Boston.”
Adrian’s face changed.
“No.”
“What?”
“Elise died four years ago.”
Another dead person connected to living accounts.
This was becoming a pattern.
Grant arrived forty minutes later.
When Adrian confronted him, he went silent.
Then said:
“Elise didn’t die four years ago.”
Adrian stood.
“What?”
“She disappeared.”
“You told me she died.”
“I told everyone.”
“Why?”
Grant looked toward me.
Then back at Adrian.
“Because she discovered what my father had done.”
“What had Gregory done?”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
“He helped kill your mother.”
The room went silent.
May you like
Then Grant added:
“And Elise found proof that Dominic Vale ordered it.”
