Chapter 9 - The Hidden Account
Rebecca spent Friday afternoon with Lena.
They reviewed twenty-two months of Mercer Strategic transfers.
Most were legitimate.
Payroll.
Consultants.
Travel.
Acquisitions.
One series was not.
Lena enlarged the transaction history.
“There.”
Rebecca leaned toward the screen.
Every two months, Mercer Strategic had transferred money to a consulting firm named Cobalt Advisory.
The amounts varied.
Two hundred thousand.
Four hundred thousand.
Three hundred fifty thousand.
In total, nearly three million dollars.
Rebecca frowned.
“Who owns Cobalt?”
“We don't know yet.”
Margaret entered carrying a folder.
“We do now.”
She placed the papers on the table.
“Cobalt Advisory was incorporated in Delaware three years ago.”
Rebecca opened the file.
The registered manager was an attorney.
The beneficiary was hidden behind another company.
Margaret turned the page.
“But the mailing address wasn't.”
Rebecca read it.
The address belonged to an apartment in Miami.
She knew the building.
Daniel had once claimed Mercer Strategic rented a corporate suite there.
Rebecca looked at Lena.
“Who lives there?”
Lena slid a photograph across the table.
Rebecca stared.
The woman was not Chloe.
She was older.
Early forties.
Dark hair.
Elegant.
And painfully familiar.
Rebecca whispered.
“Vanessa.”
Margaret watched her carefully.
“You know her?”
Rebecca nodded.
“Daniel's former vice president of operations.”
Vanessa Grant had left Mercer Strategic four years earlier.
Daniel said she relocated to California after a conflict with the board.
Rebecca remembered something else.
Daniel had defended her constantly.
Too constantly.
“What is Cobalt paying for?”
Lena answered.
“That is the problem.”
“There are no deliverables.”
Rebecca's face hardened.
“So Mercer Strategic paid nearly three million dollars to a shell company connected to Vanessa.”
“Yes.”
“While Daniel was borrowing from Hawthorne.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca stood.
For the first time since leaving the penthouse, anger broke through her restraint.
Not because of another possible affair.
That humiliation no longer surprised her.
Because Daniel had endangered hundreds of employees while quietly moving company money somewhere else.
Margaret picked up her phone.
“I can have a forensic accountant start tonight.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Do it.”
At the same time, across Manhattan, Daniel sat in a conference room with Martin Keller.
Martin had just discovered the same transfers.
His face had gone gray.
“Tell me Cobalt was legitimate.”
Daniel stared at the table.
“It was.”
“What services did they provide?”
“Strategic consulting.”
Martin pushed the ledger forward.
“Three million dollars?”
Daniel said nothing.
Martin lowered his voice.
“Daniel.”
Daniel looked up.
“I was paying someone back.”
“For what?”
Daniel leaned away.
“A personal matter.”
“With company money?”
Daniel's silence answered.
Martin closed his eyes.
“This is no longer just a divorce problem.”
Daniel rubbed his face.
“I can fix it.”
Martin stared at him.
“No.”
His voice was quieter now.
“You may have crossed into something no settlement can fix.”
Daniel looked toward the rain against the windows.
May you like
For the first time, he was no longer afraid of losing Rebecca.
He was afraid of what Rebecca was about to discover.
