Chapter 6 - THE SECOND REPORT
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Margaret stood very still. “What exactly did Peter say?”
Daniel opened the statement on his tablet. “He said Victor paid him through a company account. The account was registered to Margaret Cross.”
Julian looked at his sister. “You told me you knew nothing about the payments.”
“I didn't,” Margaret said. “Victor used an account I opened years ago for the family foundation. I gave him access to handle routine expenses.”
“You gave him access to an account that paid the men who attacked us?”
“I didn't know!”
Elena watched Margaret's face. Her fear looked genuine, but so had her fear when Elliot accused her earlier. It was becoming impossible to tell whether Margaret was a frightened witness or a practiced liar.
Julian rubbed his forehead. “Daniel, freeze every account connected to that foundation. Give the police the full transaction history.”
Margaret sank into a chair.
“I made one mistake,” she whispered. “I signed a form. I trusted Victor. I never wanted anyone dead.”
“One mistake can still destroy lives,” Elena said.
Margaret looked at her. “I know.”
Later, in the kitchen, Elena found Julian standing alone by the counter. He had taken off his jacket and loosened his collar. For the first time since she had met him, he looked less like a powerful businessman and more like a man who had run out of strength.
“You should sit down,” she said.
He glanced at her. “Is that an order from my former aide?”
“It's advice from someone who watched you pretend to be unable to stand.”
A faint smile touched his mouth and disappeared.
“Fair enough.”
She poured him water.
“Why did you fake the extent of your recovery?” she asked.
“Because I didn't know who was responsible. If the people who caused the crash believed I was still dependent on others, they'd underestimate what I could do.”
“And you thought making me believe it was necessary?”
“I thought it was safer.”
“For whom?”
He had no answer.
Elena set the glass down. “My father spent his final months frightened. He left me a key and a warning, and I didn't understand either. If you knew he had been involved, you could have told me.”
“I didn't know until tonight.”
“But you knew someone had tried to kill you.”
“Yes.”
“And you let an innocent employee walk into the middle of it.”
Julian looked down. “I won't defend that.”
She studied him. “Good.”
A knock interrupted them. Daniel entered carrying a sealed evidence envelope.
“The police found this in the garage locker, behind the back panel of the toolbox. It wasn't in the notebook.”
Inside was a second inspection report, this one with a handwritten note from Thomas Walsh.
The vehicle was not sabotaged at the brake line alone. The steering column was interfered with. If the first failure does not work, the second one will.
Julian read it twice.
“My father’s car was tampered with in two places.”
Daniel nodded. “The forensic team can examine the old parts, but we need the original vehicle. It was sold for scrap after the crash.”
Elena remembered the cracked side mirror from the storage depot.
“Maybe not all of it was destroyed.”
Julian looked at her.
“My father kept the mirror,” she said. “He must have believed it contained something.”
Daniel took the report. “I'll have the investigators check the storage records.”
Before he could leave, his phone rang. He listened, then his expression changed.
“Boss, Dr. Simon Reed has been identified as the physician who treated Thomas Walsh before his death.”
Elena's throat tightened.
May you like
“My father's doctor?”
Daniel nodded. “And he received payments from the same foundation account.”
