Chapter 14 - THE SECOND TRAITOR
Melissa was taken back into custody under heavy guard.
This time, she started talking.
Not because she suddenly became brave.
Because she was terrified of Evan.
“There’s another person at Hart Systems,” she told detectives. “I never knew the real name. Evan called them North.”
Daniel immediately thought of executives.
Finance.
Legal.
Board relations.
Then Melissa said, “North had access to your calendar.”
Maya said, “Trust evidence. Not instinct.”
Omar audited both accounts.
Paige’s login history was clean.
His own wasn’t.
Someone had used Omar’s administrator token from a remote terminal six times over the previous month.
Omar went silent.
“I didn’t do this.”
Daniel looked at him. “Can you prove that?”
“I can prove where I was for five of them. The sixth…”
“What?”
“I was home alone.”
Then Paige arrived holding a cardboard file box.
“I think I know who North is.”
She pulled out building maintenance records.
A contractor had performed after-hours network repairs six times.
Each visit matched the stolen token log.
Company: Northline Technical Services.
Owner: Marcus Vale.
Daniel knew the name.
Marcus was Evan’s cousin.
They had met once at a company Christmas party.
Police raided Northline’s office.
It was nearly empty.
They found cloned badges, network hardware, and photographs of Daniel’s house.
Then one officer opened a metal cabinet.
Inside were folders on Daniel, Lily, Maya, Ramirez, Omar, and every member of the Hart Systems board.
At the bottom was a sealed envelope marked:
IF EVAN FALLS.
Ramirez opened it.
Inside was a list of payments.
One name appeared again and again.
Carol Vance.
May you like
Melissa’s mother had not merely known.
She had been getting paid.
