Chapter 9 - The Brother-in-Law
Vanessa's brother, Eric Sterling, ran a small financial consulting firm that had recently lost several clients. Daniel had assumed the family connection was harmless when Vanessa introduced him. Eric had offered to help review the company's investments, but Daniel declined and used his regular advisers instead.
Now the bank records showed that Northstar had transferred money to Eric's firm in three installments. The transfers were not proof of theft by themselves, but the descriptions were vague, and no matching work product could be found in the company files.
Mark asked the bank to preserve all relevant records and prepared a formal notice to the trustees. Daniel agreed to suspend any new payments to related vendors until the review was complete. He also informed the board's audit committee, even though the decision meant admitting that he had signed paperwork without reading it closely enough.
Jake watched his father make the calls from the dining room. “Are you going to lose the company?” he asked.
“I don't know,” Daniel said. “But if someone took money, hiding it won't bring it back.”
The mention of Jake's mother, Laura, hung in the air. Daniel had spent years trying to make the house feel whole again, and in doing so he had let Vanessa define what counted as a family memory. He realized he'd stopped displaying Laura's photographs because Vanessa said they made it hard to move forward.
That night, Detective Grant called. The forensic team had recovered part of the missing camera footage. It showed someone entering the study on the night the system went offline. The image was grainy, but the person carried the brass key.
“We're still working on it,” Grant said. “But there is one thing you should know. The person didn't leave empty-handed.”
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“A folder. And the camera caught the label.”
The folder was marked with Daniel's father's name.
