CHAPTER 4: THE COMPANY BENEATH THE COMPANY
Daniel’s statement changed everything.
The investigators searched his office immediately.
They found no obvious evidence.
His computer had been wiped remotely minutes before his arrest. His filing cabinets contained ordinary contracts, tax records, and expense reports.
Someone was still protecting him.
Hannah helped me regain temporary access to the company’s internal systems.
We reviewed every major shareholder transaction from the previous three years.
On the surface, nothing appeared unusual.
Then Hannah noticed a pattern.
Small investment firms had been purchasing Hale Systems shares through separate accounts.
Each firm owned less than five percent, allowing them to avoid certain disclosure requirements.
Individually, they seemed harmless.
Together, they controlled nearly twenty-two percent of the company.
“Who owns the investment firms?” I asked.
“We don’t know,” Hannah said. “They’re registered through holding companies.”
Samuel joined us in my office.
“If Daniel gained Evelyn’s eighteen percent and combined it with these shares, he would control forty percent.”
“More than I own.”
“And enough to pressure the remaining board members into approving a sale.”
“To whom?”
Hannah turned her screen toward us.
A document had been recovered from Daniel’s deleted email archive.
It mentioned a private corporation called Northstar Meridian.
I recognized the name.
Northstar Meridian had attempted to purchase Hale Systems five years earlier.
I refused.
The company specialized in acquiring defense and security firms, stripping their patents, dismissing employees, and selling the technology to foreign buyers.
My father had created Hale Systems to protect critical infrastructure.
Northstar wanted to turn it into a collection of assets.
“Daniel has been working for them,” I said.
Samuel studied the document.
“Perhaps longer than you realize.”
My phone rang.
The hospital.
My mother was awake.
I drove there immediately.
Evelyn looked smaller beneath the white blankets, but her eyes were clear.
When I sat beside her, she took my hand.
“I tried to tell you,” she whispered.
“I should have listened.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I should have known.”
Her fingers tightened around mine.
“Celeste never wanted me here.”
“Why didn’t you tell Rosa to call the police?”
“We tried.”
My mother looked toward the door.
“Celeste took Rosa’s phone. She threatened her family.”
“What family?”
“Her younger brother.”
Rosa had never mentioned a brother.
Before I could ask more, Evelyn continued.
“Daniel came to the house.”
“How often?”
“Several times. Usually at night.”
“Did he threaten you?”
“He wanted my signature.”
She closed her eyes as the memory returned.
“He said if I refused, Rosa’s brother would be arrested.”
“For what?”
“I don’t know.”
Rosa entered the room with a bandage above her eyebrow.
She had insisted on visiting my mother before being discharged.
When I asked about her brother, she stopped walking.
“His name is Miguel,” she said. “He is twenty-two.”
“What did Daniel have on him?”
“Nothing real.”
Rosa explained that Miguel had worked as a delivery driver for a medical supply company. Months earlier, drugs were discovered inside a shipment assigned to his route.
Miguel claimed he knew nothing about them.
The charges disappeared after Daniel contacted Rosa.
In exchange, Daniel demanded her silence.
“He said the case could return whenever he wanted,” Rosa said.
“So you stayed in the house.”
“I stayed because your mother needed someone.”
“You could have told me.”
“Celeste monitored every call. Daniel showed me photographs of Miguel leaving work. He knew where my parents lived.”
Rosa looked down.
“I began collecting documents. I hid the recorder. I thought if I found enough evidence, I could protect everyone.”
“You did protect her.”
“I didn’t protect her enough.”
My mother reached for Rosa’s hand.
“You saved my life.”
Rosa began to cry quietly.
A nurse entered and told us a legal representative had arrived to discuss my mother’s transfer to a private rehabilitation facility.
“I didn’t authorize a transfer,” I said.
The nurse looked confused.
“The request was signed by her medical power of attorney.”
Celeste.
I hurried into the hallway.
Two private medical transport workers stood beside an empty stretcher.
A man in a gray suit held the forged documents.
When he saw me, he turned and ran.
Detective Bennett’s officers caught him near the elevator.
Inside his briefcase, they found sedatives, false identification papers, and a flight itinerary.
The destination was Montreal.
Someone intended to remove my mother from the country.
The man refused to speak.
But his phone contained one recently deleted message.
Take Evelyn tonight. Northstar wants no witnesses when the sale is announced.
May you like
The message had not come from Daniel.
It had come from a member of my own board.
