Chapter 6 - THE DIRECTOR WHO WOULD NOT LOOK AT ME
Marcus Hale chose a church.
Not a restaurant.
Not a law office.
Not one of the private clubs where Vale Meridian directors usually conducted conversations they did not want overheard.
He chose St. Matthew's, an old stone church three blocks from the river.
The request made my father suspicious immediately.
"You are not going alone."
"He asked me to."
"That is exactly why you are not going alone."
Samuel agreed with him.
Detective Brooks agreed with both of them.
I went anyway.
Technically, I was not alone.
Two security officers stayed outside the building.
Detective Brooks waited in an unmarked car across the street.
Samuel remained close enough to reach me in less than a minute.
But when I walked through the church doors, no one walked beside me.
Marcus was sitting in the last pew.
He looked ten years older than he had on the board call.
His coat was wrinkled.
His tie was missing.
He kept rubbing his hands together even though the church was warm.
I sat at the opposite end of the pew.
"You wanted to see me."
He stared at the altar.
"I am sorry."
"For abstaining?"
"For much more than that."
My stomach tightened.
"Did you help Julian steal from CBL?"
His head snapped toward me.
"No."
"Did you help Nathan?"
He looked away.
That was answer enough.
"How long?"
"I did not know what he was doing at first."
"That is not an answer."
"Two years."
I felt the number settle heavily between us.
"You have been working with Nathan for two years?"
"Working with is not the word."
"What word would you use?"
"Obeying."
I almost laughed.
"You are a director of a multibillion-dollar company."
"That does not make a man brave."
He finally looked at me.
His eyes were wet.
"Nathan has something on my son."
I said nothing.
Marcus took a photograph from his coat.
A young man stood outside a nightclub, smiling at the camera.
"His name is Peter."
"I remember him."
Peter had attended two company Christmas parties.
He had been polite and awkward and eager to leave both times.
Marcus put the photograph back.
"Three years ago, Peter was driving after drinking."
His voice shook.
"He hit a cyclist."
I closed my eyes briefly.
"Did the cyclist survive?"
"Yes."
"Was Peter charged?"
"No."
"Why not?"
Marcus swallowed.
"Because Nathan made it disappear."
The answer disgusted me.
"And you let him."
"I was trying to save my son."
"You helped Nathan bury a crime."
"Yes."
"Then he owned you."
Marcus nodded.
"Every vote."
"Every document?"
"Most of them."
"Did you know about the transfers from my mother's trust?"
"Not until last year."
"And you said nothing."
He lowered his head.
"I told myself I needed proof."
"That is what cowards call silence when they want to respect themselves."
He flinched.
I did not regret it.
"Why meet me now?"
"Because Nathan called me this morning."
"From London?"
Marcus laughed without humor.
"Nathan has not been in London for three weeks."
"Where is he?"
"Here."
I leaned forward.
"In the city?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I do not know."
"What did he want?"
"He told me to keep Julian in the CEO chair for forty-eight hours."
"Why forty-eight hours?"
"He said after that it would not matter who controlled Vale Meridian."
A cold feeling moved through me.
"Because there would be nothing left to control?"
Marcus looked at me.
"That is what I think."
I reached for my phone.
He grabbed my sleeve.
"Wait."
I looked at his hand.
He released me immediately.
"There is more."
"Tell me."
"Julian does not know everything Nathan is doing."
"Selene said Julian signed the papers but did not create them."
"That sounds right."
"So Julian is Nathan's puppet?"
Marcus shook his head.
"Do not make the mistake of thinking Julian is innocent because someone smarter used him."
"I am in no danger of making that mistake."
Marcus stared at the floor.
"Julian knew the money was not his."
"Did he know it was mine?"
"Eventually."
"When?"
"I heard them argue about it eight months ago."
My heart began beating faster.
"What did they say?"
"Nathan told him the Blackwood holdings had to be moved before you found out."
"And Julian?"
"He said you would never find out."
I heard Julian's voice in my memory.
Elena does not understand money.
Elena hates business.
Elena prefers a quiet life.
He had not simply underestimated me.
He had worked hard to keep me ignorant.
"What happens in forty-eight hours?"
Marcus looked toward the front doors.
"A debt covenant expires."
"Which debt?"
"Orion facility."
I knew the name only vaguely.
Vale Meridian had announced Orion two years earlier as a strategic financing package for overseas expansion.
Julian had bragged about negotiating it personally.
"How large?"
"Nine hundred million."
For a second, I thought I had misheard him.
"Nine hundred?"
"If the covenant is breached, the lender can seize pledged assets."
"Which assets?"
Marcus looked ashamed.
"Most of Vale Meridian's logistics division."
"Who is the lender?"
"A consortium."
"Controlled by whom?"
He did not answer.
I already knew.
"Nathan."
Marcus nodded.
The entire structure became horrifyingly clear.
Nathan had helped Julian move money out of my mother's trust.
He had helped bury suspicious transactions.
He had collected leverage over directors.
Then he had arranged debt that could swallow the company if Julian failed.
Julian thought he had been stealing an empire.
Nathan had been building a trap beneath it.
"Why would Nathan destroy Vale Meridian?"
"He does not want to destroy it."
Marcus finally met my eyes.
"He wants to own it after everyone else is ruined."
I stood.
"You are coming with me."
Marcus did not move.
"Where?"
"To Detective Brooks."
His face drained of color.
"I cannot."
"Then why did you tell me any of this?"
"Because I need you to stop him."
"You stop him by telling the truth."
"If I confess what happened with Peter, my son goes to prison."
"He may deserve to."
Marcus closed his eyes.
"I know."
The words were so quiet I almost did not hear them.
"Then let him answer for what he did."
Marcus's phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen and went pale.
"What is it?"
He handed me the phone.
A photograph showed Peter Hale sitting inside a car.
The photograph had been taken through the windshield.
Below it was a message.
SMART CHOICE, MARCUS.
DO NOT MAKE ANOTHER ONE.
My anger changed shape.
"When was this taken?"
"Just now."
I called Detective Brooks.
Within seconds, officers were sent to Peter's location.
Marcus was shaking badly.
"Nathan knows I am here."
"Then we stop pretending secrecy protects you."
I held out my hand.
"Come with me."
This time, Marcus stood.
He walked beside me toward the church doors.
Halfway there, he stopped.
"Elena."
I turned.
"There is one more thing about the night Julian hurt you."
My blood ran cold.
"What?"
"Nathan knew it was going to happen."
"How?"
"Because Julian told him he was going to teach you a lesson."
The church seemed to become very quiet.
"And what did Nathan say?"
Marcus looked sick.
"He told Julian to turn off the cameras."
I remembered the security log.
Nathan had changed the permissions two days earlier so Julian's purge would fail.
Not to protect me.
To preserve leverage.
He had known.
He had prepared for it.
And he had allowed it to happen because the recording might become useful.
Outside, Detective Brooks was already crossing the street.
My phone rang before I reached her.
The caller ID showed Vale Meridian headquarters.
I answered.
Thomas Armitage, the chairman, sounded breathless.
"Mrs. Vale, we have a crisis."
"What happened?"
"Someone just initiated transfers from three company reserve accounts."
"How much?"
"Four hundred and twelve million dollars."
My knees nearly gave way.
"Stop them."
"We are trying."
"Who authorized the transfers?"
Thomas hesitated.
May you like
Then he said the one name I did not expect.
"You did."
