Chapter 5 - The Brother Who Disappeared With Seven Million Dollars)
By midnight, the Carter birthday party had become a crime scene.
Guests were interviewed.
Phones were collected voluntarily from several cousins.
Security footage from the estate was copied.
Bradley was ordered not to leave the county.
Barbara called three attorneys.
None arrived quickly enough to restore her authority.
Maddie changed into dry clothes inside the mansion's upstairs office.
Not Bradley's bedroom.
Not their bedroom.
She could not think of it that way anymore.
Daniel Harlow waited outside while Lena entered.
"Any word?"
Maddie asked.
"No."
"Ethan wouldn't steal from me."
"I didn't say he did."
"The account access came from his credentials."
"Credentials can be copied."
"His message said he didn't have a choice."
Lena sat opposite her.
"Tell me about him."
Maddie hated the question.
Investigators always asked questions like that when they suspected someone.
"He's thirty."
"Occupation?"
"Chief technology officer at Blue Meridian."
"Financial problems?"
"No."
"Gambling?"
"No."
"Drugs?"
"No."
"Relationship issues?"
Maddie hesitated.
"Ethan was engaged last year."
"What happened?"
"She left."
"Name?"
"Rachel Pierce."
Lena wrote it down.
"Why did she leave?"
"I don't know."
That was not entirely true.
Rachel had disappeared from Ethan's life abruptly.
No goodbye to Maddie.
No explanation.
Ethan refused to discuss it.
For months afterward, he barely slept.
Maddie had assumed heartbreak.
Now she wondered.
Lena continued.
"Did Ethan know Blue Meridian held the Carter debt?"
"Yes."
"Could he activate account transfers?"
"With secondary approval."
"Whose?"
"My chief financial officer."
"Name?"
"Caleb Ross."
Maddie's phone rang.
Caleb.
She answered immediately.
"Caleb."
"Maddie, thank God."
He sounded breathless.
"Where are you?"
"Office."
"Is anyone with you?"
"No."
"Leave."
"What?"
"Leave the building now."
"Maddie, the system is locked. Ethan's credentials triggered emergency transfers and now someone's wiping archived authorization logs."
Maddie stood.
"Can you stop it?"
"I've isolated the main servers, but whoever's doing this has administrator access."
"Who has that?"
"Me. Ethan. You."
Only three people.
Caleb lowered his voice.
"And the original systems architect."
Maddie froze.
"Rachel."
Lena looked up.
Maddie put the call on speaker.
Caleb continued.
"Rachel Pierce still has legacy architecture credentials buried in the recovery system."
"Those were supposed to be deleted."
"They were."
"Then how?"
"I don't know."
A crash sounded through the phone.
Caleb stopped speaking.
"Caleb?"
Silence.
"Caleb?"
Another sound.
A door opening.
Then a man's voice.
Distant.
"Put the phone down."
The call ended.
Maddie's blood went cold.
Lena was already moving.
She called dispatch.
"Units to Blue Meridian headquarters immediately."
Maddie grabbed her coat.
"You're staying here."
"No."
"Maddie."
"That is my company."
"And someone may be inside it with a weapon."
Maddie stared at her.
"My brother is missing. My CFO may be in danger. Someone is inside my system transferring millions of dollars using Ethan's identity. I am not staying at a pool party."
Lena studied her.
Then nodded.
"Stay behind me."
They drove toward downtown in separate vehicles.
Rain began falling halfway there.
Maddie sat in the back seat of Daniel Harlow's SUV staring at Ethan's last messages.
I'm sorry.
I didn't have a choice.
Don't trust anyone at Blue Meridian.
She replayed them again and again.
At twelve thirty-eight, they reached headquarters.
Police already surrounded the building.
The front glass doors were shattered.
Caleb Ross sat inside an ambulance holding gauze against his forehead.
Maddie rushed toward him.
"Caleb."
"I'm fine."
"What happened?"
"Someone hit me from behind."
"Did you see who?"
"No."
"What did they take?"
His face tightened.
"The recovery server."
Maddie's stomach dropped.
The recovery server contained encrypted historical records dating back twelve years.
Including every document connected to the Carter acquisition.
Lena approached.
"There's something else."
She held up a clear evidence bag.
Inside was a woman's silver necklace.
Maddie recognized it immediately.
Rachel Pierce had worn it almost every day.
Maddie stared at Lena.
"Rachel disappeared a year ago."
"Maybe," Lena said, "she didn't disappear."
A uniformed officer came running from inside.
"Detective."
Lena turned.
"We found someone."
Maddie stopped breathing.
"Who?"
The officer looked toward her.
"Male. Basement server room."
"Ethan?"
"We don't know yet."
Maddie ran before anyone could stop her.
Down the corridor.
Past shattered glass.
Down the emergency stairs.
The basement smelled like smoke and electrical insulation.
Two officers stood near the server room.
A man sat against the wall.
Hands zip-tied.
Blood on his shirt.
Maddie stopped.
It was not Ethan.
It was Bradley's cousin Aaron.
He looked up at her.
Terrified.
"Maddie."
She stared.
"What are you doing here?"
Aaron swallowed.
"They made me."
"Who?"
He shook his head.
"I can't."
Maddie stepped closer.
"My brother is missing."
Aaron's eyes filled with tears.
"I know."
"Where is he?"
Aaron looked toward the dark server room.
May you like
Then whispered something that changed the investigation completely.
"Your brother was never the target."
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