Chapter 5 - Blue Alder
At 8:00 the next morning, Maya and I sat in a conference room at her law firm with coffee neither of us touched.
The copy of the flash drive from my clutch was still safe.
Daniel had stolen the original from the hotel room, but he had never known I made duplicates.
We opened the folders one by one.
The first contained vendor invoices from Blue Alder Materials.
Forty-seven invoices in eleven months.
Same billing address. Different descriptions. Concrete additives, safety barriers, temporary fencing, diesel surcharges.
Total paid: $2.4 million.
I searched the state business registry.
Blue Alder Materials had been formed fourteen months earlier.
Its registered agent was a law office used by Patricia Mercer’s brother, Howard Lane.
Maya whistled softly.
“Family vendor.”
“Maybe.”
Then I opened the lien waivers.
Several were supposedly signed by subcontractors I knew personally.
One signature belonged to Miguel Santos, owner of Santos Electrical.
I called him.
“Elena?” he answered. “I heard about the wedding. Are you okay?”
“I will be. I need to ask you something. Did Mercer Construction pay your final invoice for the Westhaven project?”
Silence.
“No.”
“How much are they behind?”
“Two hundred twelve thousand.”
I looked at the waiver on my screen stating PAID IN FULL.
“Did you sign a lien release dated May fourteenth?”
“No.”
My pulse quickened.
Miguel lowered his voice.
“Daniel told us the bank had frozen draws because of a paperwork issue. Then Patricia’s office offered sixty cents on the dollar if we signed new releases.”
“Did you?”
“No. And Elena?”
“Yes?”
“You’re not the first woman they asked to clean up paperwork.”
I sat straighter.
“What does that mean?”
May you like
Miguel hesitated.
“Ask Daniel what happened to Lydia Kane.”
