Chapter 5 - THE COUSIN WHO ARRIVED TOO EARLY
Julian Calder was waiting in my library when I came downstairs.
I hadn't invited him.
That was the first problem.
The second was that Dominic stood beside him.
Julian wore a charcoal-gray coat and carried the silver pocket watch our grandfather had left him.
He'd been my closest childhood friend.
We learned to swim together, fought over baseball cards, and buried our first dog beneath the same apple tree.
But blood didn't guarantee loyalty.
Not in my world.
Not anymore.
"Vincent," Julian said, rising. "Dominic told me there'd been a security incident."
I looked at Dominic.
"You called him?"
"I thought he should know."
"You thought wrong."
Julian glanced between us.
"What's going on?"
I placed the photograph on the desk.
"You visited Noah in the hospital before the doctors told us he'd survive."
Julian's face drained of color.
He didn't ask where I'd found the picture.
That told me enough.
"Explain," I said.
He stared at the photograph.
"Caroline asked me to come."
My chest tightened.
"When?"
"Two days before the explosion."
"Why?"
"She thought someone was following her."
I stepped closer.
"And you never told me?"
"She made me promise."
"She's dead, Julian."
His eyes flashed.
"I know she's dead."
For the first time, his calm exterior broke.
"I stood beside you while they lowered her into the ground."
"Then why keep her secrets?"
"Because she wasn't afraid of strangers, Vincent."
The room went silent.
Julian looked toward Dominic.
Then back at me.
"She was afraid someone close to you had become desperate."
I felt my temper rising.
"Who?"
Julian reached for his pocket watch.
His fingers trembled.
"She wouldn't tell me."
I didn't believe him.
Neither did Emma, who stood beside the library door.
"Then why did you visit Noah?" she asked.
Julian looked at her sharply.
"Who are you?"
"Emma Reed."
His expression changed.
"Daniel's sister?"
She nodded.
Julian lowered himself into the chair.
For a moment, he looked older than his forty-six years.
"Then you know about the records."
Emma took a step forward.
"What records?"
"The cooperative accounts."
I looked between them.
East Wharf Cooperative had handled legitimate shipping operations for decades.
After I acquired it, the company became part of our waterfront logistics network.
Julian had remained president.
"What about the accounts?"
Julian opened his watch.
Inside, behind the clock mechanism, was a tiny folded photograph.
A picture of Caroline and Noah sitting on a dock.
Noah was grinning, holding a fishing rod.
Caroline looked happy.
Pain tightened my throat.
"She gave me that the week before she died," Julian said. "Told me to remember what mattered."
I didn't move.
"Why?"
"Because she found money missing from the cooperative. Millions, Vincent. Payments disguised as security improvements."
Dominic frowned.
"Why wasn't I informed?"
Julian looked at him.
"Because some of those payments were issued under your department."
Dominic stepped forward.
"That's a lie."
"Then explain the invoices."
Julian opened a leather folder.
Inside were copies of payment records.
Security equipment.
Vehicle maintenance.
Private transport.
All approved through my executive account.
I scanned the pages.
One payment caught my attention.
$180,000.
Made three days before the explosion.
The recipient was a contractor I'd never heard of.
Harbor Industrial Systems.
Emma leaned closer.
"Daniel investigated that company."
Julian nodded.
"He found its owner wasn't a technician."
"Who was he?" I demanded.
"A middleman who sold access to private properties."
I felt the room tilt.
Someone had paid nearly two hundred thousand dollars to gain access to my home.
With money from my own company.
"Who authorized it?"
Julian looked at Dominic.
Dominic shook his head.
"No. Absolutely not."
Julian placed another page on the desk.
An authorization record bearing Dominic's electronic signature.
I turned toward my security chief.
"Tell me this is forged."
Dominic examined it.
His jaw tightened.
"It is."
"Prove it."
He reached into his jacket.
Julian moved instinctively.
I caught Dominic's wrist.
"Slowly."
He withdrew his phone.
"Check the timestamp. That approval was made while I was at the hospital with your father."
My father had died five months before the bombing, after a long illness.
On that date, Dominic had accompanied him to a specialist in Boston.
I remembered because Caroline had complained that Dominic shouldn't have to drive three hours after working an overnight shift.
I looked at the timestamp.
Dominic was right.
He couldn't have physically approved the transaction from his assigned terminal.
Unless someone had remote access.
Emma examined the record.
"Someone copied his signature too."
I felt a terrible realization forming.
"Someone is trying to make us suspect each other."
Julian looked exhausted.
"That's what Caroline believed."
I turned toward him.
"Then why didn't you come to me?"
His expression hardened.
"Because you wouldn't have listened."
I wanted to deny it.
But I knew he was right.
At the time, I'd been consumed by a violent dispute with a rival organization.
I'd dismissed Caroline's concerns about security as anxiety.
I'd told her I had everything under control.
Now I couldn't escape the memory of her expression.
The disappointment.
The fear.
The way she'd stopped arguing.
Julian spoke again.
"I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know how bad it was until after the explosion."
"Then what happened at the hospital?"
He looked down.
"Someone approached me outside Noah's intensive care room."
"Who?"
"A woman from our accounting department."
My pulse quickened.
"Name."
"Rebecca Vale."
I knew Rebecca.
She had worked for Calder Holdings for seventeen years.
Quiet.
Efficient.
Widowed.
She handled executive expense audits and rarely attended company events.
"What did she want?"
"She told me Caroline had been investigating money transfers. Then she said I should stop asking questions if I wanted my children to stay safe."
Julian's voice cracked.
"I have two daughters, Vincent."
For the first time, I saw something beyond fear in him.
Shame.
"I should have told you. Instead, I kept quiet."
I thought about the cousins who'd grown up like brothers.
And the distance that had opened between us.
"Where is Rebecca now?"
"Working from home. She requested leave last week."
Emma spoke.
"Daniel mentioned that name."
We all turned.
She reached into her bag and withdrew a small notebook.
"My brother kept records of the equipment he inspected."
She flipped through the pages.
"Rebecca approved several reimbursements for contractors he couldn't verify."
I leaned over her shoulder.
At the bottom of one page, Daniel had written:
R.V. knows where the payments went, but she isn't the one giving orders.
I stared at the initials.
Rebecca Vale.
Julian rubbed his face.
"Then who is?"
Emma turned another page.
Her fingers stopped.
On the paper was a sketch of an old-fashioned silver pocket watch.
The same kind Julian carried.
Beneath it, Daniel had written:
The man with the watch was seen at Harbor Industrial two days before the blast.
I slowly lifted my eyes.
May you like
Julian was staring at his open pocket watch.
And for the first time in my life, I saw fear on my cousin's face that had nothing to do with losing his children.
