Chapter 13
|
The confrontation with her father did not intimidate Emily; it provided her with absolute, diamond-hard clarity. The next morning, she arrived at the Federal Reserve at 5:00 AM. She locked herself in her office, ignoring the ringing phones and the rising chaos in the bullpen, focusing entirely on the financial architecture of Bennett Enterprise Holdings.
Sarah knocked timidly on the glass door around 8:00 AM, holding a stack of physical ledgers.
"Director Vance asked me to bring you the decrypted tax returns for the Bennett commercial properties," Sarah said, setting them on the desk. "Emily, are you okay? The rumor mill says you're auditing your own father."
"I am auditing a criminal syndicate, Sarah," Emily replied without looking up from her monitors. "The biological connection is irrelevant. Look at this."
Sarah walked around the desk, peering at the screen.
"My father's firm claimed they were receiving foreign investment capital from a Swiss consortium," Emily explained, typing rapidly. "But I cross-referenced the SWIFT codes with the Apex Zenith ghost servers. The 'Swiss consortium' doesn't exist. It's a digital mirror. The money was being skimmed from the Midwest banks, bounced through the Caymans, and then funneled directly into the concrete foundation of my father's new high-rise project in the Loop."
"He's washing the money through construction costs," Sarah realized, her jaw dropping. "That's brilliant. It's almost impossible to audit raw materials like steel and concrete."
"It's impossible to audit the physical materials," Emily agreed, a sharp smile forming on her lips. "But it is very easy to audit the invoice discrepancies. I found a massive overpayment to a steel supplier. They paid three times the market rate for structural beams."
"Why?"
"Because the steel supplier is owned by Elias Thorne," Emily concluded, leaning back in her chair. "It's a closed loop. They skim the money, wash it through fake construction invoices, and pocket the clean profits when the building is completed. I have the entire network."
Marcus Vance opened the office door, his face grim. "Emily, grab your coat. The FBI just found Elias Thorne. He didn't make it to his lawyers."
May you like
Emily stood up instantly. "What happened?"
"He's dead," Marcus said quietly. "Car accident. But Agent Carter thinks the brakes were cut."
