Chapter 15 - The Witness Who Disappeared
Valerie Cross was scheduled to give a sworn interview on Monday.
On Sunday afternoon she stopped answering her attorney's calls.
The instinct to imagine the worst was almost unbearable.
Claire refused to invent a disaster in the absence of evidence.
She coordinated with Valerie's counsel, who contacted the appropriate authorities to verify her welfare.
By evening they confirmed she was safe but frightened.
Valerie had received photographs of her brother outside his rehabilitation clinic.
The message accompanying them said that witnesses could make terrible mistakes.
She had gone into temporary hiding without telling the investigating team.
I felt angry at the person behind the threat and relieved that she had survived it.
Her attorney arranged a secure interview.
Valerie delivered copies of bank instructions and a long chain of correspondence linking Peter to Northline.
Several messages appeared to come from Celeste's office.
Others carried an authorization token assigned to Adrian.
The most striking was a voice recording Valerie had made of a meeting because she feared being blamed for the transactions.
The recording captured Peter saying that Adrian wanted the problem solved before his wife discovered the trust provisions.
A second voice asked whether "the boy's account" could serve as collateral.
Valerie identified that second voice as Celeste's.
The identification would need independent verification.
Still, the evidence was no longer confined to memory and rumor.
After the interview, Daniel informed me that the bidding leak had been traced to a consultant whose firm was connected to Harborstone.
Voss Meridian was cooperating with a formal inquiry and assessing the contractual damage.
The company might lose the project.
Employees asked whether layoffs were coming.
I stood beside Daniel for a staff briefing and told them what we knew and what we did not know.
I promised that any staffing decisions would be based on operating realities rather than punishment or pride.
A woman near the back raised her hand.
"Will Mr. Voss ever be in charge again?"
I said that corporate governance procedures would determine leadership, and no one was above those rules.
Later, when the room had emptied, Daniel showed me an email from a supplier.
They had received a proposal to cancel their Voss Meridian contract in exchange for a richer agreement with an unfamiliar company.
That unfamiliar company's owner was listed as Peter Lowell.
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Peter was not in Portugal.
He was assembling a replacement business while we fought over the wreckage of the old one.
