Chapter 4 - The Camera She Found
The next morning, the safe was empty.
Arthur descended into the cellar alone and found the steel door open.
The pills, reports, and evidence bags were gone.
A folded note rested on the bottom shelf.
You should choose better hiding places.
Arthur read the sentence twice.
Vanessa was no longer pretending.
That changed the situation.
Until then, he had hoped to gather evidence quietly, protect his companies, and control the scandal.
Now she knew he suspected her.
Arthur left the note where he found it and called Samuel Reed.
They met that afternoon inside an abandoned printing warehouse Arthur owned in Queens.
Samuel entered through a rear door accompanied by Margaret Lane, the chief financial officer of Vance Meridian.
Margaret had worked beside Arthur for eighteen years. She was fifty-eight, sharp-minded, and almost aggressively practical.
Arthur had once asked why she never smiled during board meetings.
She had answered that smiles were wasted on people trying to steal from shareholders.
Samuel placed a portable signal jammer on a table.
“No phones can transmit from this room,” he said.
Margaret looked at Arthur.
“How bad?”
“My wife knows I’m investigating her.”
Margaret did not appear surprised.
“You’ve distrusted her for years.”
“I distrusted her taste in friends. I did not believe she was poisoning me.”
Samuel handed Margaret the laboratory report.
She read it without speaking.
Arthur continued.
“I want to move controlling shares of Vance Meridian into a conditional trust.”
Margaret looked up sharply.
“That could trigger a disclosure requirement.”
“Not if we restructure through the founding charter.”
“The board will notice.”
“The board notices only what you show them.”
Samuel stepped between them.
“We need to consider the legal consequences. If Arthur dies after modifying his estate, Vanessa will challenge everything.”
“She can challenge from prison,” Margaret said.
“We do not yet have enough evidence to put her there.”
Arthur walked to a dusty window overlooking the river.
“What happens if I die under the current structure?”
Samuel answered reluctantly.
“Vanessa receives the penthouse, liquid assets, personal property, and the voting rights attached to your private shares.”
“And the foundation?”
“She becomes interim chair.”
Margaret cursed under her breath.
The Vance Foundation controlled charitable grants, medical research funding, and several redevelopment projects.
It also held confidential data regarding Arthur’s early business partnerships.
Samuel opened a binder.
“There is another problem.”
Arthur turned.
“What?”
“Two weeks ago, someone attempted to file an amendment to the marital trust.”
“Who?”
“The request came through a law firm in Delaware. The signature looked like yours.”
Arthur took the document.
The signature was nearly perfect.
“What would the amendment do?”
Samuel’s expression hardened.
“It would give Vanessa immediate control if you were declared medically incapacitated.”
Margaret looked between the two men.
“She doesn’t need him dead.”
“No,” Samuel said. “She only needs him unable to object.”
Arthur remembered Holloway’s final warning.
Your death may not be the part they’re afraid of.
A sound echoed from the far end of the warehouse.
Metal scraping against concrete.
Margaret reached inside her coat and drew a small pistol.
Samuel stared at her.
“You carry a gun?”
“I manage corporate finance.”
The sound came again.
Arthur motioned for silence.
They moved toward the loading area.
Behind a stack of broken pallets, they found a man lying on the floor.
His clothes were wet.
His face was bruised.
A strip of duct tape covered his mouth.
Arthur knelt and pulled it away.
Dr. Malcolm Holloway opened his eyes.
“They found me,” he gasped.
“Who?”
Holloway gripped Arthur’s sleeve.
“Julian is not in charge.”
“Then who is?”
The doctor tried to answer.
May you like
A red dot appeared on the center of his chest.
Arthur saw it one second before the gunshot shattered the warehouse window.
