Chapter 14 - Victor’s Worst Mistake
Victor did not break into the casino again.
He almost did.
Instead he called Claire.
That was progress.
Claire contacted outside counsel, who obtained an emergency preservation order covering the west-service materials.
A Clark County judge signed it at 9:42 p.m.
The order was served electronically on Sterling Crown and Charles.
At 10:03, Charles replied through counsel.
He would comply.
At 10:18, security cameras in the west-service sublevel went offline.
Claire stared at her laptop.
“He’s doing it.”
Edward called the casino.
The acting security director claimed a network outage.
Claire checked backup logs.
Only four cameras had failed.
All surrounding the archive room.
Victor stood.
“Now?”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
Agnes watched him fighting himself.
Finally he sat.
Claire called Metro Police and Sterling Crown’s outside counsel.
Police said they would respond because of the court order and possible evidence tampering.
That was the correct process.
Slow.
Infuriating.
Correct.
At 10:31, the cameras returned.
Three boxes were gone.
One of them was the 1979 fire-investigation box.
Charles denied knowledge.
Grant Mercer had left the building at 10:25.
Police located him twenty minutes later.
His trunk contained nothing.
Victor paced.
“I could have stopped him.”
Claire snapped, “Or you could have been arrested again while the boxes disappeared somewhere else.”
Victor stopped.
Agnes said quietly, “Learning not to use power badly feels a lot like helplessness at first.”
He looked at her.
“Does that ever improve?”
“No.”
That almost made Claire smile.
The next morning Victor’s trespass case was declined for immediate prosecution while the broader investigation continued, but Sterling Crown maintained a ban from the property.
He had lost the job he built.
The reputation he enjoyed.
And the certainty that being wronged made him righteous.
Then Marcus Lane’s final encrypted USB drive was discovered inside an old tax folder.
Victor brought it directly to outside counsel.
He did not open it.
Claire noticed.
“That hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
The drive contained scanned Heritage invoices Marcus had received from Charles.
More importantly, it contained an audio recording.
Marcus had recorded his 2018 warehouse meeting.
Charles’s voice was unmistakable.
Your father was wronged. I’m not disputing that.
Marcus: Then say it publicly.
Charles: That destroys Edward. It destroys the company.
Marcus: It destroys your father’s lie.
Charles: Same thing now.
Then Charles offered $300,000.
Marcus asked about the fire ledger.
Charles replied:
I have it. Arthur kept too much. I’m fixing that.
Claire stopped the audio.
Edward looked sick.
“He admitted possession.”
“Yes.”
“And knowledge.”
“Yes.”
Victor stared at the waveform on screen.
“My father had this the whole time.”
Agnes said, “And still took the money.”
Victor nodded slowly.
“He recorded the truth and sold his silence anyway.”
Edward looked at him.
“People can be both.”
Victor almost laughed.
“That should be the Sterling family motto.”
Edward accepted the blow.
Outside counsel issued the recording to regulators under subpoena.
Charles’s lawyers called it illegally obtained.
Nevada’s consent laws and evidentiary issues would be argued later.
Its existence still mattered.
Then forensic accountants uncovered Charles’s current motive.
WM Legacy owed a private lender $61 million.
Charles had pledged most of his Sterling Crown interest.
The Orpheus deal would have solved the problem.
Without it, his lender could begin foreclosure in nineteen days.
Heritage distributions had been helping cover interest.
Charles had spent years preserving the old conspiracy partly to protect family history.
Now he was committing current crimes to protect his own fortune.
Edward stared at the numbers.
“He’s not protecting Sterling Crown.”
Claire shook her head.
“He’s protecting Charles Sterling.”
Agnes looked at Edward.
“That realization took Arthur too long.”
Edward nodded.
“Not me.”
He requested an emergency board meeting to remove Charles.
Charles moved first.
Using Edward’s prior Heritage approvals and delayed disclosure, he persuaded two directors that Edward should remain suspended until regulators finished reviewing both cousins.
The removal vote failed.
Charles remained interim chair.
Power stayed in the hands of the man destroying evidence.
That evening Grant Mercer disappeared.
His apartment was empty.
His company phone lay on the kitchen counter.
May you like
And on it investigators found one unsent draft message to Charles:
I did what you asked with the first boxes. I will not do it again.
