Chapter 19 - The Lingering Shadow
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The evening was winding down. The speeches were finished, the grants had been awarded, and the guests were happily dancing to a soft jazz band. I stepped out onto the terrace to catch a breath of cool night air, leaning against the stone balustrade, looking out at the city lights.
"It was a beautiful event, Claire," a deep, familiar voice said from the shadows near the door.
I turned to see Mara, my chief counsel, stepping out onto the terrace. She was holding two fresh glasses of champagne.
"We did good work tonight, Mara," I said, accepting a glass. "Those women have a real chance now."
"You gave them that chance," Mara corrected gently. She took a sip of her drink, her expression turning slightly serious. "Speaking of chances... I received an interesting phone call from the federal prosecutor's office this afternoon."
I frowned, the relaxed atmosphere instantly dissipating. "Regarding Grant?"
"No," Mara shook her head. "Grant is still securely on probation, whining about his community service. This was regarding Richard. Grant's father."
"Richard?" I asked, genuinely surprised. "He wasn't involved in the embezzlement. The feds cleared him. He was just an incompetent CEO who lost his company."
"That's what we all thought," Mara said, leaning against the railing next to me. "But the prosecutor said that during a routine audit of the liquidated Vance assets, they found a secondary, highly encrypted offshore account. It was buried under layers of old, inactive corporate shell companies."
"And?"
"And the account wasn't completely empty, Claire," Mara explained, her voice dropping lower. "It contained several million dollars. And the primary signatory on the account wasn't Grant. It wasn't Eleanor, or Kyle."
I stared at her, a cold prickle of unease crawling up my spine.
May you like
"It was Richard," I realized.
"Yes," Mara confirmed. "And according to the transaction logs, a significant withdrawal was made from that account exactly three days ago. Sent to a private security and investigations firm known for 'fixing' problems for high-net-worth individuals."
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