Chapter 5 - THE MAN WITH THE GOLD WATCH
Tyler did not run.
That surprised Emma.
She expected him to disappear after Richard remembered the warning.
Instead, Tyler walked into Hale Atlantic headquarters the next morning and attended a strategy meeting.
Emma found him alone afterward.
“Why did you warn my father?”
Tyler closed his laptop.
“Because someone was watching him.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police?”
“Richard told me not to.”
“Why?”
Tyler smiled bitterly.
“You really don’t know your father.”
Emma sat across from him.
“Explain it.”
“Richard thought the threat came from inside Hale Atlantic.”
“Who did he suspect?”
“Everyone.”
“Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
Emma pointed at his wrist.
“You’re still wearing his watch.”
Tyler removed it.
He placed it on the table.
“Take it.”
Emma did.
“Why did you have it?”
“Richard gave it to me as collateral.”
“For what?”
“A file.”
Emma stared.
“What file?”
Tyler leaned back.
“Now we get to the part Vanessa doesn’t know.”
He told Emma that Richard had hired him privately three months before the crash.
Not for corporate strategy.
For an internal investigation.
Money was disappearing from Hale Atlantic through shell vendors.
Small amounts at first.
Then millions.
Richard suspected someone was preparing a hostile takeover from inside the company.
“Why you?”
“Because I had a reason to hate him.”
Emma frowned.
Tyler continued.
“My father owned Carter Freight.”
Emma knew the name.
Hale Atlantic had acquired Carter Freight eighteen years earlier.
“My father lost everything after Richard forced the company into bankruptcy.”
Emma’s expression hardened.
“And Richard hired you?”
“He knew exactly who I was.”
“Why?”
“Because nobody would believe I was secretly helping him.”
Tyler nodded toward the watch.
“He gave me that as proof I was acting with his authority.”
Emma looked at it.
“Then why laugh while he was crawling on the floor?”
Tyler’s jaw tightened.
“I wasn’t laughing at him.”
“I saw you.”
“Vanessa had just told me Richard had hidden a second medication bottle inside the couch. I thought he was pretending again to catch her.”
Emma stared.
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
Tyler leaned forward.
“I expect you to investigate it.”
Emma hated that answer because it sounded like something she would say.
“Did you drug him?”
“No.”
“Did Vanessa?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you arrange the crash?”
“No.”
“Who owns the SUV?”
Tyler paused.
“My company.”
Emma stood.
“There it is.”
“It was stolen.”
“When?”
“Eight days before Richard’s crash.”
“Police report?”
“I filed one.”
Emma’s confidence faltered.
Tyler opened his phone and showed her.
The report existed.
Emma read the date.
He continued.
“Someone stole my SUV, used it to hit Richard, then abandoned it.”
“Where?”
“They didn’t.”
“What?”
“It was recovered yesterday.”
Emma stared.
“Where?”
Tyler’s eyes hardened.
“In one of Richard’s warehouses.”
Emma sat again.
“Who has access?”
“Senior executives. Security. Richard. Vanessa.”
“And you.”
“Yes.”
Tyler did not evade it.
Emma looked at him.
“You said Dad hired you to investigate missing money.”
“He did.”
“What did you find?”
Tyler opened his laptop.
A spreadsheet appeared.
Millions of dollars moved through a vendor called Northstar Risk Management.
Emma recognized the name.
“Dad’s private security company.”
“Exactly.”
“Who authorized the payments?”
Tyler turned the screen.
Emma read the electronic signature.
RICHARD HALE.
Her stomach dropped.
Tyler said, “Either your father has been stealing from his own company…”
“Or?”
“…someone has been using his identity.”
Emma stared at the screen.
Then Tyler opened one final document.
A transfer authorization for twenty million dollars.
Scheduled for Friday.
May you like
The beneficiary was not Vanessa.
It was Emma Hale.
