Chapter 9 - The Name on the Second Card
Back inside the Cole Crown Casino, Victor stared at Helena's access card as if it had returned from the grave.
Owen moved the group away from the public floor and into a private conference room adjoining security.
Margaret agreed only because she wanted answers.
A casino nurse checked her blood pressure.
Margaret took her medication herself.
No one touched the bottle.
Ethan sat across the room.
Vanessa stood near the door.
Victor remained beside the monitor.
"Open Helena's archive access log," he told Owen.
Owen entered credentials.
A list appeared.
The account had been dormant since Helena's death.
Until three months earlier.
Then accessed six times.
The most recent access was yesterday.
Victor's voice dropped.
"What is stored there?"
Owen looked uncomfortable.
"Financial records. Foundation files. VIP authorization history. Legal correspondence."
"Why was it still available?"
"Retention policy."
"And why could an old card access it?"
"It shouldn't."
Victor turned on him.
"Stop saying shouldn't."
Owen accepted the rebuke.
"Someone paired the physical credential with an active employee authentication token."
"Whose token?"
"We're checking."
Vanessa spoke.
"This has nothing to do with me."
Margaret looked at her.
"Your purse is becoming very crowded with things that have nothing to do with you."
Victor almost smiled.
Almost.
Owen enlarged a transaction record.
"Helena's card was used as a VIP identity layer."
Margaret frowned.
"English."
"The system believed Helena was the authorized VIP connected to certain private betting transactions."
"After she died?"
"Yes."
"Your system didn't notice?"
"It noticed inconsistencies. Some alerts were cleared."
"By whom?"
Owen looked at Victor.
"An employee."
Victor's jaw tightened.
"Name."
"Daniel Cross."
Victor looked surprised.
"Finance compliance?"
"Formerly."
"Where is he?"
"He resigned two months ago."
Margaret watched Vanessa.
Her face did not change.
But her right hand tightened around her purse strap.
Victor noticed too.
"You know Daniel Cross?"
"No."
Owen typed.
A personnel photograph appeared.
Vanessa looked away.
Ethan whispered, "Oh my God."
Margaret turned.
"You know him?"
Ethan pointed at the screen.
"That's Dan."
Vanessa glared.
Ethan continued.
"You said he was your cousin."
Victor looked toward Vanessa.
"Cousin?"
Vanessa said nothing.
Ethan stood.
"He came to our house twice. She said he worked in insurance."
Owen searched internal records.
Daniel Cross had worked at Cole Crown for nine years.
His final eighteen months were spent in financial compliance.
He had access to transaction alerts.
VIP verification.
Account exceptions.
And identity-review queues.
Victor's face darkened.
"When Helena was alive?"
"Yes."
"Did he work with her?"
"Indirectly."
Margaret asked the question everyone was avoiding.
"Was he Vanessa's partner?"
Vanessa laughed sharply.
"This is insane."
Owen opened archived security footage.
One clip.
A parking garage.
Vanessa entering Daniel Cross's vehicle.
Timestamp: four months earlier.
Another.
Vanessa meeting Daniel near an employee entrance.
Another.
Daniel passing Vanessa an envelope.
Ethan sank into his chair.
"How long?"
Vanessa looked at him.
"Nothing happened."
"That's not what I asked."
"Daniel helped me with financial documents."
"How long?"
"He's a friend."
"You said cousin."
"Because you get jealous."
Ethan laughed.
It was a broken sound.
Margaret felt no satisfaction.
She had wanted the truth.
Truth was arriving like broken glass.
Owen searched the Helena archive access.
"Here."
A document had been downloaded yesterday.
Victor looked at the filename.
His expression changed.
"Open it."
Owen hesitated.
"Mr. Cole."
"Open it."
A scanned letter appeared.
Written by Helena Cole eight months before her death.
Addressed to Victor.
Margaret looked away at first.
It felt private.
Then Victor read the first lines aloud.
"If anything happens to me before I finish reviewing the foundation accounts, please have Owen investigate Vanessa Hayes and Daniel Cross."
Nobody moved.
Vanessa's face emptied.
Victor read the next sentence silently.
His hand began to shake.
Margaret looked at him.
"What does it say?"
Victor did not answer.
Owen read over his shoulder.
His eyes widened.
Victor finally turned toward Vanessa.
"My wife knew."
Vanessa stepped backward.
"Knew what?"
Victor held up the printed screen.
"That you stole from her foundation."
Vanessa's voice hardened.
"I repaid it."
Victor's eyes were filled with grief now.
"Not all of it."
He looked back at Helena's letter.
"She believed you and Daniel had taken more than three hundred thousand dollars."
Ethan stared at Vanessa.
Margaret looked at the pension transactions.
Three hundred thousand from Helena's foundation.
One hundred eighty-seven thousand from Margaret.
And a dead woman's access card connecting everything.
May you like
This had never been about Ethan's gambling debt.
His gambling had merely been camouflage.
