Chapter 15 - The Director of Risk
|
I stared at the photograph of Martin Vale. The pieces of the conspiracy were finally snapping together with terrifying precision.
A hidden scholarship investigation threatening millions. Four wealthy families with everything to lose. One frightened son carrying stolen documents to a journalist. A highly trained corporate fixer masquerading as a university official who had no documented reason to be in that garage.
And evidence systematically disappearing before anyone had even spoken with Nora in the ER.
“What happened after this frame?” I asked Bell, pointing at the reflection of Vale stepping out of the shadows.
Bell looked at me, frustration radiating from him. “That's the problem. The footage ends right there.”
“You said it wasn't deleted from the cloud.”
“It wasn't deleted,” Bell clarified, shaking his head. “The camera feed was digitally redirected. Someone logged into the mainframe and hijacked the IP address, pointing the camera feed at a blank wall for exactly seventy-six seconds.”
“By Vale?” I guessed.
“We don't know. Vale is muscle, not a hacker.”
Bell placed a third sheet of paper on the table. It was a printed log of IP addresses and server timestamps.
“But my cyber unit discovered something else while tracing the system access override,” Bell said, a grim smile touching his lips. “They got sloppy.”
“What did you find?”
“The administrative account used to disable the cameras and redirect the feed didn't belong to Martin Vale. It didn't belong to campus security or the IT department at all.”
I waited, feeling the tension in the room spike.
“It belonged to someone in the university president's executive office,” Bell revealed.
Maya went completely pale, backing away from the bed. Nora stared at Bell, the whiteboard forgotten in her lap.
I felt the entire investigation drastically shift its axis once again. We weren't just fighting corrupt fathers anymore. We were fighting the institution itself.
“Whose account, Detective?” I asked softly.
Bell looked directly at me. “Eleanor Caldwell.”
I frowned, trying to place the name on the family tree. “Preston Caldwell’s mother?”
“No,” Bell’s answer came quietly, carrying the weight of a death sentence. “His grandmother.”
May you like
He paused, letting the silence stretch before delivering the final blow.
“And she also happens to be the Chairwoman of Wellington University's Board of Trustees.”
