Chapter 8 - The Missing Millions
By morning, the FBI was involved.
Victor Lang’s acquisition company planned to buy Sterling Medical Systems.
I sat across from Richard in a federal conference room.
“Who moved the money?”
Richard rubbed his face.
“Victor approved the vehicles.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“Claire handled internal access.”
My jaw tightened.
“She doesn’t work for Sterling.”
“She didn’t need to.”
He looked ashamed.
“Your credentials did.”
Lena placed both palms on the table.
“How did she get them?”
Richard looked at me.
“Through Owen.”
My former security chief.
I thought of every time he had stood outside Emma’s room.
Richard explained that Owen cloned my security token seven months earlier.
Claire used it to access board files and certain executive approvals.
But she still needed someone inside finance.
“Who?” I asked.
Richard hesitated.
I knew before he said it.
“Ben.”
Benjamin Cross.
My CFO.
My best friend since college.
The man who held Emma in the hospital the night she was born.
“No.”
Richard nodded.
“Ben authorized three transfers.”
“No.”
Then the conference room door opened.
Ben walked in with two federal agents.
His face was gray.
He looked at me once.
“I can explain.”
I laughed.
It sounded ugly.
“One hundred and eighty-seven million dollars?”
“I didn’t steal it.”
“You signed it.”
“I was trying to buy time.”
“For what?”
Ben’s eyes filled.
“For your father.”
The room went still.
My father had been dead for three years.
Ben reached into his coat and placed a copy of an old audit report on the table.
The first missing transfer wasn’t seven months old.
May you like
It was six years old.
And the authorization at the bottom carried my father’s signature.
