Chapter 12 - The Green Book
They reached Deauville after dark.
The sea hammered the shore behind the shuttered house.
Antoine still had a key.
Inside, dust covered the furniture but not the hallway floor.
Someone had been there recently.
Amina saw the clean shoe marks first.
"Don't touch anything."
Jules called the investigator team.
Charlotte led them upstairs to Céleste's old dressing room.
Behind a mirrored panel was a wall safe.
"My father gave me the code," she said.
"Your father or Bernard?" Antoine asked.
Charlotte flinched.
"Étienne."
The safe opened.
Inside sat the green book.
And nothing else.
Amina put on gloves before lifting it.
The entries went back decades.
Cash payments.
Off-book commissions.
Names of customs agents.
Politicians.
Executives.
Then she found a section marked EMPLOYEE FUNDS.
Antoine's face went gray.
Millions had been transferred out of the workers' pension reserve through fake actuarial fees.
"My God."
Amina turned another page.
A line dated the week of her mother's death read:
FERRAND - 40,000 - RECOVERY.
Recovery of what?
The original trust?
The ledger?
Mariam herself?
A floorboard creaked downstairs.
Everyone froze.
Antoine moved toward the door.
Amina grabbed his sleeve.
Another sound.
Then glass shattered.
The hallway lights went out.
Charlotte whispered, "He's here."
Amina heard movement on the stairs.
Jules pulled out his phone.
No signal.
A shadow crossed the landing.
Then a man's voice came from the dark.
"Put the book on the floor."
Antoine knew the voice.
"Dad?"
Bernard Beaumont stepped into the emergency light holding a fireplace poker like a weapon.
May you like
His eyes were fixed on the green book.
"You have no idea what that book can destroy.
