Chapter 4 - THE NINETEENTH FLOOR
Derek’s mother had been dead fifteen years.
Isabella Drake.
Beautiful in every photograph.
Private.
Elegant.
According to Derek:
Completely uninvolved in business.
Thomas Cole’s files suggested otherwise.
Isabella approved transfers from the nineteenth-floor family office into Aster.
Was she complicit?
Or another identity being used?
Jasmine refused easy conclusions.
Good.
Derek struggled more.
“My mother hated Malcolm.”
“People can hate someone and still sign documents.”
“I know.”
He did not sound convinced.
Independent forensic review compared signatures.
Some real.
Some copied.
Isabella approved three transfers legitimately.
Why?
Supporting memo:
SECURITY CONTINGENCY.
What security?
Derek remembered.
Twenty years earlier, his family faced threats after a dock dispute.
Malcolm may have claimed Aster paid private security.
Some did.
Most money vanished elsewhere.
Isabella might have authorized legitimate front-end spending without seeing theft behind it.
Then Jasmine noticed a pattern.
All suspicious invoices had reference numbers ending:
Again.
She stared.
“Nineteen-fourteen.”
Naomi asked:
“Year?”
“No.”
Jasmine pulled old office directories.
Floor nineteen.
Office fourteen.
Who occupied 19-14?
Malcolm?
No.
Archive showed:
VICTOR DRAKE — PRIVATE CONFERENCE ROOM.
Derek’s father.
Her stomach tightened.
Maybe Victor knew more.
Then brass key from the book.
Number stamped:
Of course.
The key belonged to an old safe deposit cabinet removed during headquarters renovation.
Where now?
Drake archival warehouse.
Different warehouse.
Not the fire site.
Derek obtained access through formal company process with attorneys present.
Cabinet 1914 contained:
One envelope.
One VHS tape.
One notebook belonging to Victor Drake.
Derek opened notebook.
First line relevant:
Thomas Cole is right.
Jasmine stopped breathing.
Victor knew.
Next:
Malcolm has been taking money for at least four years.
Derek closed his eyes.
Then:
I cannot expose him until I know where the money went. If I accuse him too early, he will destroy records and disappear.
Reasonable.
Dangerous.
Then:
Isabella signed three legitimate security transfers. She does not know Aster became something else.
Good.
His mother cleared.
Then:
Thomas wants police.
He is right.
I asked him for forty-eight hours.
My mistake.
Derek’s hand trembled.
Next entry dated after warehouse fire:
Thomas is dead.
Malcolm says accident.
I do not believe him.
Then:
I have chosen the company over truth for one day.
I pray it does not become two.
But according to later records, Victor never exposed Malcolm.
Why?
The VHS answered.
Victor sat in his office.
Older than Derek remembered.
“If Derek sees this, then I failed.”
Derek went rigid.
Victor explained.
After Thomas’s death, Malcolm showed him something.
Proof that Drake companies had also engaged in illegal port payments authorized years earlier by Victor himself.
Malcolm had leverage.
Expose Aster and Malcolm would expose Victor’s crimes.
Mutual destruction.
Victor chose silence.
For twenty years.
Jasmine looked at Derek.
He looked sick.
Then the tape continued.
“I do not know whether Malcolm caused Thomas Cole’s death.”
Pause.
“But I know who ordered the warehouse doors locked that night.”
Jasmine stopped breathing.
Victor named the head of security.
May you like
Marcus Vale.
The father of the man currently waiting outside Jasmine’s apartment building.
