Chapter 8 - THE MAN THOMAS FIRED
Richard Vale had not been a particularly talented accountant.
His gift was making people trust the numbers he chose to show them.
Thomas discovered that skill after an employee complained about missing retirement contributions.
The investigation revealed falsified vendor invoices and payments routed through a company Richard controlled.
We recovered some of the losses, but the greater damage had been to the workers who feared for their futures.
Richard left Boston under an agreement that required him to return the money and stay away from our operations.
He had not been charged in that case.
I had always wondered whether choosing a quiet settlement had been a mistake.
Now his face looked back at me from Sofia's tablet.
"How did he get into this?" I asked.
Graham's expression changed so subtly I might have missed it years earlier.
He knew the man.
"Richard is a business adviser," he said.
"Not a reliable one."
Graham shrugged.
"We use outside consultants."
"Did you ask him to obtain my company records?"
"He handles documentation."
Ellen immediately told him that the statement would be preserved.
Vanessa leaned toward her father.
"You said everything was legitimate."
"I said stay quiet," Graham replied.
Adam put his head in his hands.
I understood then that the scheme had not developed in a single evening.
My son's greed had provided the opening, but others had constructed the machinery.
I refused to let that observation excuse him.
He had carried the fraudulent form.
He had spoken my number aloud.
He had watched his wife insult my memory while he tried to use my money.
"Richard knew Thomas," I said.
"He knew our old signatures and our company structure."
Helen checked the archive's digital access history.
There had been an attempt to open a restricted file three days earlier, using credentials belonging to an employee who retired last year.
"How could those credentials still work?" Daniel asked.
"They shouldn't," Helen answered.
Ellen instructed us to engage independent forensic specialists rather than investigate through ordinary staff channels.
I authorized it immediately.
Then Adam unexpectedly stood.
"If you want to know who planned everything, look at Graham."
Vanessa gasped.
Graham fixed him with a stare of open contempt.
"Sit down, boy."
Adam did not.
"He told me you would never find out."
The words were humiliating in their simplicity.
But the next sentence was worse.
May you like
"He said Dad had already signed the arrangement before he died."
