Chapter 4 - Names Behind the Numbers
The ledger covered eleven years of transactions.
It contained shell companies, political donations, manipulated property purchases, and secret payments to people who had signed confidentiality agreements.
Some entries were marked with initials. Others included full names.
Blue Harbor Consulting appeared on dozens of pages.
So did Celeste Arden.
Naomi examined the handwriting.
“Richard made notes beside every suspicious transfer. Look here.”
Next to Celeste’s name was a sentence.
Beneficiary identity used without informed consent.
Evelyn exhaled slowly.
“She may not know.”
“Or Richard believed she did not know.”
Another section contained records connected to housing developments owned by Vale Meridian. Tenants had been removed through false safety reports, allowing Dominic’s company to purchase the properties cheaply.
Evelyn recognized three buildings.
Families from those buildings had sought help from her legal clinic.
Dominic had donated money at the fundraiser where they met because his own company had created the crisis.
“He chose me,” Evelyn whispered.
Naomi looked at her.
“What?”
“He did not meet me by accident. He wanted to know how much evidence the clinic had.”
The realization hurt more than the engagement announcement.
Every thoughtful question Dominic had asked about her work suddenly had another meaning. Every generous donation had been an attempt to control the people investigating him.
Naomi closed the ledger.
“We have enough to contact federal investigators, but we must be careful. A ledger alone is not proof. We need supporting records.”
Evelyn remembered Dominic’s penthouse office.
He kept a private server behind a locked cabinet. Once, during a power failure, she had seen him remove a small silver backup drive.
She also remembered the code he used.
It was not a birthday or a company date.
It was the date his father had died.
Naomi did not ask Evelyn to enter the penthouse or take anything. That would have risked the entire case.
Instead, she requested preservation orders through proper legal channels and contacted an investigator she trusted.
For the next three months, the case grew quietly.
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Dominic believed Evelyn was isolated.
In reality, the walls around him were closing.
