Chapter 6 - The Blue Ledger)
Claire denied knowing anything about the note.
Grant no longer cared about denials.
He moved Noah and Megan to the guest wing and had Samuel's people secure it.
Claire was given a room on the opposite side of the mansion.
She was not physically detained.
Grant had no authority to imprison her.
But Samuel quietly informed her that leaving before police arrived would make her position considerably worse.
That was when Claire finally called an attorney.
By midnight, local detectives were involved in Margaret Ellison's disappearance.
Grant gave them the threat to Megan.
The altered trust documents.
The security footage.
The broken window.
He did not hide that he had slapped Claire.
Claire made certain the officers photographed her cheek.
"He's violent," she said.
Grant did not defend himself.
"I hit her after she struck my son."
One detective looked at Noah's swelling cheek.
Claire's attorney advised her to stop talking.
At two in the morning, Samuel found the first clue to the blue ledger.
An old inventory photograph from Grant's father's office showed it clearly.
Dark blue leather.
Gold corners.
Two inches thick.
The cover contained no title.
Grant sat in the study looking at the image.
"My father wrote everything down."
Samuel leaned against the desk.
"Everything?"
"Loans. Handshake deals. People he distrusted. People he owed."
"Could there be something in that ledger related to Elena's trust?"
"Elena never met my father. He died before we married."
"Then why is somebody tying them together?"
Grant did not know.
At three fifteen, Julian called.
Grant answered immediately.
"Where are you?"
"Don't ask questions over the phone."
"Margaret is missing."
"I know."
"How?"
Silence.
Grant stood.
"Julian."
"Meet me tomorrow morning."
"Where?"
"Old Vance warehouse on Harrison."
"Why?"
"Because your office is compromised."
"So is my house."
"I know."
Grant's grip tightened.
"Were you on my staircase?"
"No."
"Who was?"
"I don't know."
"Liar."
"Grant, if I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't have spent twenty years keeping your father's mistakes buried."
The line went dead.
Grant stared at the phone.
His father's mistakes.
At seven in the morning, he and Samuel drove to the abandoned Vance warehouse.
Grant told no one except Megan where he was going.
Samuel entered first.
The building smelled of rust, dust, and old machine oil.
Julian stood near the loading dock.
Alone.
Grant approached him.
"Where is Margaret?"
"I don't have her."
"Why did she disappear after meeting you?"
"She didn't disappear after meeting me."
"What does that mean?"
"She never arrived."
Grant stopped.
Julian pulled out his phone.
"I waited forty minutes. She texted me that she was parking. Then nothing."
He showed Grant the message.
Samuel photographed it.
Grant looked at Julian.
"What did you want to discuss?"
"The blue ledger."
Grant's expression hardened.
"So you know about it."
"I've been looking for it for four years."
"Why?"
Julian laughed bitterly.
"Because Elena found it before she died."
Grant felt cold.
"What?"
Julian looked genuinely surprised.
"You didn't know."
"Know what?"
"Elena knew your father falsified the original ownership structure of Vance Manufacturing."
Grant stepped closer.
"Explain."
"In 1989, Thomas Vance didn't start the company alone."
"Yes, he did."
"No."
Julian took a folder from his coat.
"His partner was a man named Robert Cross."
Grant stared at him.
"Cross."
"My father."
The warehouse became very quiet.
Julian continued.
"Thomas and my father owned the business fifty-fifty."
"That's impossible."
"After my father died, Thomas changed the records."
Grant shook his head.
"My father helped your family."
"My mother received a small insurance payment and was told Robert had sold his interest before the accident."
"Did he?"
"No."
Julian's face tightened.
"Elena found proof."
Grant struggled to process the words.
"Why would Elena hide that from me?"
"She didn't."
"What?"
"She intended to tell you."
"When?"
"The week she went into the hospital for the last time."
Grant's throat tightened.
Julian continued carefully.
"She called me."
Grant stared at him.
"Why you?"
"Because she discovered who my father was."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was angry."
"For four years?"
"I wanted evidence before accusing your dead father of stealing half a company."
"And the trust?"
Julian looked away.
Grant stepped closer.
"The trust, Julian."
"Elena changed it after finding the ledger."
"How?"
"She placed part of her shares into Noah's trust under a special restitution provision."
Grant frowned.
"What restitution provision?"
"If proof emerged that Vance ownership had been acquired through fraud, part of Noah's shares could be used to compensate the rightful heir without destroying the company."
Grant looked at him in disbelief.
"You."
Julian nodded.
Grant finally understood why Julian knew the trust so intimately.
"Then why forge a transfer?"
"I didn't."
"Your codes are on it."
"My access was stolen."
"By Claire?"
"Partly."
"Who else?"
Julian's jaw tightened.
"I don't know."
Grant almost hit him.
Samuel stepped between them.
Julian continued.
"Claire came to me three months ago. She said she'd found Elena's trust notes."
"Where?"
"Your house."
"She knew about your father?"
"Yes."
"And you met her secretly."
"I was trying to find the ledger."
"You could have told me."
"You would have reacted exactly like this."
Grant laughed bitterly.
"My wife is stealing from my son and my oldest friend is sneaking into my house at midnight, but the problem is my reaction?"
Julian lowered his voice.
"The forged transfer doesn't give Noah's shares to Claire."
Grant stopped.
"What?"
"It gives them to Northbridge Family Holdings."
"I saw that."
"Do you know who owns Northbridge?"
"Claire?"
"No."
Julian pulled another page from the folder.
Grant read it.
Northbridge's controlling beneficiary was hidden behind two trusts.
Julian pointed to a registration number.
Samuel searched it.
His face changed.
"What?"
Samuel turned the screen.
The registered agent was a company Grant knew.
Dean Strategic Services.
Grant stared.
"Walter Dean."
His own security director.
Julian nodded.
"Claire isn't running this."
"Then who is?"
"I don't know."
Grant looked at him.
"Who was in my house?"
Julian hesitated.
"I have a theory."
"Say it."
"Your father had another partner after mine died."
"Who?"
"I don't have the name."
Samuel's phone rang.
He answered.
Listened.
Then looked sharply at Grant.
"They found Margaret."
"Alive?"
Samuel nodded.
Grant exhaled.
"Where?"
"County hospital."
"What happened?"
"She was left unconscious outside an emergency entrance."
Grant turned toward the exit.
Samuel caught his arm.
"There's more."
"What?"
"She woke up ten minutes ago."
"And?"
"The first thing she asked the nurse was whether Grant Vance had found the ledger."
Grant looked back at Julian.
Samuel continued.
"Then she said one more thing."
May you like
"What?"
"Tell Grant the man he thinks is dead is not dead."
