Chapter 3 - Forty-Eight Million Dollars
The transfers had started seven minutes after Marcus left the building.
That meant one of two things.
Either Marcus had already planned them...
Or someone else was watching.
Arthur ordered an emergency transaction freeze.
Within minutes, the bank's internal security team locked down all international wires originating from the downtown branch.
Seventeen transfers stopped immediately.
Six did not.
Nearly eleven million dollars had already moved through intermediary accounts in Delaware, Luxembourg, and Singapore.
Helen's team began tracing them.
Julian returned to Serena's interrogation room.
She looked different now.
Less like an arrogant executive.
More like someone realizing the building around her was burning.
"Forty-eight million dollars," Julian said.
She looked up sharply.
"You weren't supposed to see that."
The words came out before she could stop them.
Julian pulled out the chair opposite her.
"Who was?"
Serena's hands trembled.
"No one."
"Try again."
She stared at the table.
"Marcus told me there would be transfers."
"When?"
"This morning."
"Why?"
"He said several clients were restructuring their holdings because of the acquisition."
"And you believed him?"
"He had authorization codes."
"Whose?"
Serena hesitated.
"Arthur's."
Arthur, standing outside the room behind one-way glass, stiffened.
Julian did not react.
"Show me."
"I don't have them."
"You approved transfers totaling forty-eight million dollars without retaining authorization?"
"I didn't approve them personally."
"Then who did?"
"Marcus."
"Using Arthur's code?"
"Yes."
Julian leaned back.
That changed everything.
Executive authorization codes were not passwords.
They required encrypted hardware tokens.
Arthur's token had remained in his possession all day.
Unless...
"Has your office been compromised?" Julian asked when he joined Arthur outside.
Arthur looked offended.
Then concerned.
"I don't know."
Helen was already calling corporate security.
Twenty minutes later, they found the first physical evidence.
A small wireless relay device hidden beneath Arthur's desk.
It had been attached to the secure authorization terminal.
Whenever Arthur approved a legitimate transaction, the relay captured temporary authentication data.
The device was sophisticated.
Expensive.
Professionally installed.
Arthur stared at it.
"How long?"
The technician checked the internal log.
"At least eight months."
Arthur looked as if he had been punched.
For eight months, someone had been inside the highest security level of his office.
Julian asked, "Who has regular access?"
"Executive assistants. Cleaning staff. Security."
"And family?"
Arthur looked at him.
"You."
"I haven't been in this office in almost a year."
Arthur's jaw tightened.
"There is one other person."
Julian already knew.
His younger brother.
Nathan Vance.
Nathan had worked for Metropolitan Crown for six years before leaving to launch a financial technology company.
He and Julian had not spoken in fourteen months.
Not since their mother's funeral.
Not since Nathan accused Julian of choosing business over family.
Arthur took out his phone.
"I'll call him."
Julian stopped him.
"No."
Arthur stared.
"You think Nathan installed this?"
"I think somebody wants us to think he did."
Helen returned carrying another file.
"We found something else."
She placed a printed access log on the table.
Arthur's office had been entered after midnight six times during the past year.
All six entries used an executive family credential.
The credential belonged to Nathan.
Arthur went pale.
"That's impossible."
Julian read the timestamps.
One date caught his eye.
December 14.
His mother's birthday.
Nathan had been in Boston that night.
Julian knew because Nathan had sent him a photograph from Logan Airport during their last argument.
Therefore the badge had been cloned.
"Someone is building a trail toward Nathan," Julian said.
Arthur stared at him.
"Why?"
"Because if the theft is discovered, they need someone believable to blame."
Arthur looked toward Serena's interrogation room.
"And Serena?"
"Disposable."
Julian reopened Ellen Crawford's complaint.
Her husband's name was Samuel Crawford.
Former chief internal auditor for Metropolitan Crown.
He had died in a boating accident three years earlier.
One month before his death, Samuel had prepared an internal report that disappeared from the bank's archive.
And according to his widow, Samuel had been terrified of someone named Vale.
Julian called Ellen.
No answer.
He tried again.
Still nothing.
Helen searched her contact information.
"She lives twenty minutes away."
Julian stood.
"I'm going there."
Arthur reached for his coat.
"I'm coming."
They drove to Ellen Crawford's house with two corporate investigators.
The front door was open.
Inside, every drawer had been emptied.
Furniture had been overturned.
Documents littered the floor.
Julian moved toward the kitchen.
A cup of tea sat on the table.
Still warm.
Arthur called Ellen's name.
No answer.
Then Julian noticed something beneath the chair.
A photograph.
It showed Samuel Crawford standing beside Arthur at a corporate charity dinner.
Behind them was a younger man Julian recognized instantly.
Marcus Hale.
And beside Marcus stood another man.
Tall.
Silver-haired.
Smiling.
May you like
On the back of the photograph, someone had written one name.
Vale.
