Chapter 5 - BLUE MERIDIAN
Ethan stared at the speaker. "Amelia, I swear I didn't know."
"Blue Meridian is moving Bellmont money through resort construction invoices. Nathan is not working alone. Someone inside security is providing access logs and deleting camera records."
His boss was Raymond Pike.
Pike retired six months after my death with a pension large enough to buy three houses.
"Where is he now?" I asked.
"Arizona."
"Find him."
Vanessa said, "This is insane. You're building a conspiracy out of an old memo."
Blue Meridian had received $86 million from Bellmont development projects in eighteen months.
Pool filtration upgrades that never happened.
Fire systems billed twice.
Construction equipment that did not exist.
The final page had three initials.
N.B.
R.P.
E.C.
Nathan Bellmont.
Elias Crane.
The doctor.
The security chief.
My brother.
Ethan whispered, "You were about to expose them."
"Yes."
I had confronted Nathan in my office.
He cried, not from shame, but from rage.
He told me I was destroying the family over accounting mistakes.
I told him theft was not an accounting mistake.
That same night, my yacht exploded.
Ethan searched Blue Meridian's modern records.
The company still existed.
It now provided "hospitality risk consulting" to twelve Bellmont properties.
Annual contract: $19 million.
Approved by Vanessa Bellmont.
"My father said it was legitimate."
"You never asked what it did?"
"It passed compliance."
"Compliance reports to you."
Raymond Pike had been located.
He was in a private Bellmont villa forty miles away.
Vanessa said, "That's impossible."
"You use that word when you're scared."
Ten minutes later, the villa cameras went dark.
May you like
Five minutes after that, one guard called back.
On the kitchen table was a photograph of me, taken yesterday outside the resort.
