Chapter 4 - Thirteen Months Earlier
Claire and I had fought in my office thirteen months earlier.
I remembered every word differently now.
She closed the door behind her and dropped a stack of invoices on my desk.
"Vanessa is moving money."
I barely looked at them.
"Not today, Claire."
"Then when?"
"You have been after her since we got engaged."
"This is not about whether I like her."
"You don't."
"Correct. I also don't like fake vendors."
"Enough."
She pointed at one invoice.
"Northstar Medical Advisory billed us for three compliance reviews that never happened."
"Marcus approved them."
"That's the problem."
"Dad trusted Marcus for twenty years."
"Dad also thought people changed when money got tight."
That sentence made me angry because it sounded like him.
I told Claire she was obsessed.
Then I said the sentence I would replay for the rest of my life.
"Maybe you should stay out of my life for a while."
She picked up the invoices.
"Fine. But when this lands on your desk, remember I tried."
That was the last time I saw her alive.
Now Rachel placed the same Northstar invoices in front of me.
Northstar charged Carter Holdings $2.8 million in eighteen months.
Half the listed services had no supporting records.
Several approvals bore Claire's signature after her death.
The money moved through two banks and into three consulting firms.
One belonged to Vanessa's brother.
The third, Stonegate Research, belonged to a trust I did not recognize.
"It's controlled by a board proxy."
"Whose proxy?"
"Claire's."
My sister's voting rights had remained active after her death because nobody told the company she was dead.
Someone had been using her corporate identity to move money and vote her shares.
I whispered, "Why hide the death?"
"Because under your father's succession agreement, Claire's shares transfer to you immediately upon verified death."
If Claire's death became official, I gained enough votes to remove Marcus from the board.
Someone needed Claire alive on paper.
"We found the apartment records."
"What records?"
"Your sister's building access logs."
Claire entered her apartment the night she disappeared.
Two other people entered after her.
May you like
Marcus Hale.
And Vanessa.
