Chapter 5 - THE COMPANY WAS BLEEDING THROUGH A NAME THAT DIDN’T EXIST
The search warrant was executed the next morning.
That was the raid Derek watched from my hospital room.
Investigators searched the Villanova house and two Mercer Millwork offices.
They seized computers, bookkeeping files, external drives, and boxes from Walter’s basement workshop.
They did not find the blue ledger.
At least not that day.
What they did find was enough to deepen the problem.
Whitmore Project Services was legally owned by a Delaware LLC.
The LLC was controlled through another entity.
That entity eventually connected to Derek.
Not directly enough for an instant accusation.
Directly enough for investigators to keep following the money.
Caroline brought a forensic accountant named Priya Menon into my civil case.
Priya was careful with language.
She never called a payment stolen until she could prove where it went.
She mapped the Whitmore transfers.
Some went to legitimate subcontractors.
That surprised me.
The shell company was not entirely fake.
That made it more effective.
Other money went elsewhere.
A private loan payment.
Credit-card balances.
A boat loan I did not know Derek had.
Then $118,000 disappeared through a second transfer.
Priya could not immediately trace it.
“Could Elaine be receiving money?”
“Possibly.”
“Walter?”
“Possibly.”
“Me?”
Priya looked at me.
“That is something we need to discuss.”
My stomach tightened.
She placed three authorizations on the table.
They carried my electronic approval.
I had not signed them.
But there was a problem.
The authentication logs showed my account.
My home IP address.
My laptop identifier.
Not Derek’s computer.
Mine.
“That’s impossible.”
“Who had physical access to your laptop?”
“Derek.”
“Password?”
“Yes.”
“Multifactor code?”
“My phone.”
“Could he access that?”
“He knew the passcode.”
Priya did not judge me.
She did not need to.
I felt stupid enough on my own.
Years earlier, when we joined the family business, Derek and I treated passwords like grocery lists.
He knew mine.
I knew his.
It had seemed intimate.
Normal.
Trusting.
Now my own device history could make me look like the person moving company money.
The hidden truth was no longer simply that Derek had secret financial interests.
Somebody had structured transactions to travel through my credentials.
That meant one of two things.
Either Derek was astonishingly careless about where he hid his fraud.
Or he wanted my name attached to it.
I thought about the resignation page he brought to my hospital bed.
Health reasons.
Effective immediately.
If I signed, I would leave the company while questionable transactions remained under my credentials.
Caroline saw my face.
“You're thinking what I'm thinking.”
“He wanted me gone before anyone audited this.”
“Maybe.”
“Why not fire me?”
“Because firing the controller after she finds accounting problems looks different from her resigning because she’s medically unable to work.”
The injury had suddenly become more than punishment.
It created a narrative.
Abigail fell.
Abigail is heavily medicated.
Abigail is overwhelmed.
Abigail resigns.
Then somebody eventually discovers transactions approved through Abigail’s login.
That possibility made me nauseous.
When Elaine returned to my hospital room that afternoon, she pretended we had never fought.
She brought flowers.
I told the nurse to leave the door open.
Elaine placed the flowers on the windowsill.
“You look better.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
She glanced toward the hallway.
“Derek is under enormous pressure.”
“He should hire a therapist.”
“Don't be childish.”
I smiled.
She hated that.
Then she lowered her voice.
“You don't understand how serious the company situation is.”
“I understand more every hour.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You've made mistakes too.”
“What mistakes?”
“Be careful with righteous people, Abigail. They always assume their own hands are clean.”
That sentence stayed with me.
Not because I believed her.
May you like
Because Elaine looked almost relieved when she said it.
As if she knew something about my name in those records that I had not found yet.
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