Chapter 3 - THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE
“Show me.”
Marcus brought up another camera angle.
At 2:14 p.m., the service hallway was empty.
At 2:15, Grant Bell appeared from the kitchen entrance wearing a baseball cap and a maintenance jacket. He checked both directions, opened the coat closet, and disappeared inside for twenty-three seconds.
When he came out, a thick cream envelope was tucked under his jacket.
Alexander felt cold.
Victoria watched him without speaking.
“You knew,” he said.
“I know Grant.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
The police arrived before she answered.
Two officers took statements. Victoria immediately demanded a lawyer and claimed the shove had been self-defense. Marcus gave them the camera file. Alexander gave them permission to seize anything relevant inside the house.
As Victoria was escorted toward the front door, she stopped beside him.
“You should ask your mother why she was digging through things that didn’t belong to her.”
Alexander’s jaw clenched.
Victoria smiled without warmth. “And then ask yourself why Grant was willing to risk everything for that envelope.”
She was taken outside.
Marcus waited until the police cars disappeared.
“Do you want me to contact Bell?”
“No. If he thinks we know, he’ll run.”
“Sir, he may already be running.”
Alexander pulled out his phone and called Grant’s office.
His assistant answered on the second ring.
“Mr. Reed?”
“Where’s Grant?”
A confused pause.
“He left around noon.”
“For what?”
“He said you requested financial files at the lake house.”
“I didn’t.”
Another pause.
“Sir… he took the Reed Foundation audit binders with him.”
Alexander closed his eyes.
“How many?”
“All of them.”
Marcus swore under his breath.
Alexander ended the call.
His private line rang immediately.
The hospital.
“Mr. Reed,” a doctor said, “your mother has three fractured ribs, a broken wrist, and a concussion. She’s stable, but we found something else during imaging.”
Alexander gripped the phone tighter.
“What?”
“We need you here.”
He left within thirty seconds.
At the hospital, he found Evelyn awake, pale, and furious that anyone had cut her favorite blouse.
“You look terrible,” she told him.
He almost laughed. Instead, he sat beside her and took her uninjured hand.
“Mom, what was in the envelope?”
Her expression changed.
“Bank transfers.”
“How much?”
“Eighteen million dollars.”
Alexander stared at her.
May you like
Evelyn swallowed painfully.
“And your signature was on every one of them.”
