Chapter 6 - Samuel’s Test
Nathan drove straight to Reed Harbor.
Security stopped him at the entrance.
“I’m suspended from Aurelia, not from breathing.”
The guard remained unmoved.
“Mr. Reed left instructions.”
Nathan’s anger rose automatically.
Then he caught himself.
“What instructions?”
“That if you came, you were to wait here.”
“For how long?”
The guard shrugged.
Nathan almost demanded a manager.
Instead he looked at the older security officer’s name badge.
“Mr. Bennett, please tell Samuel it concerns my daughter.”
The guard studied him, then made a call.
Five minutes later Nathan was escorted not to the superyacht but to a maintenance shed near Dock C.
Samuel was replacing a corroded hinge on a storage cabinet.
Nathan stopped at the doorway.
“You really do maintenance.”
Samuel kept working.
“I own a marina. Things break.”
“I thought the jacket was some kind of disguise.”
Samuel glanced at him.
“That says more about you than me.”
Nathan took out his phone.
“My daughter was photographed.”
Samuel’s expression changed immediately.
He looked at the image.
“Who sent it?”
“Unknown number.”
“What does Northstar mean?”
Nathan explained the payments.
His signatures.
Claire.
Victor.
Samuel listened without interruption.
When Nathan finished, Samuel washed grease from his hands.
“Have you called the police?”
Nathan hesitated.
Samuel’s eyes hardened.
“No.”
“I don’t know whether this is a real threat.”
“Someone photographed your child and ordered you to stop asking questions.”
“I didn’t want Ava dragged into—”
“She was dragged in when someone photographed her.”
Nathan looked away.
Another mistake.
Samuel handed the phone back.
“You still think controlling appearances is the same as controlling danger.”
Nathan bristled.
“I came here for help.”
“No. You came here because the man you struck has power you suddenly need.”
The words landed cleanly.
Nathan’s fists tightened.
He forced them open.
“You’re right.”
Samuel seemed surprised.
Nathan continued.
“I came because you have resources I don’t.”
“And because you believe Victor is involved?”
“Yes.”
Samuel studied him.
“I have suspected financial leakage inside Aurelia for almost a year.”
Nathan stared.
“You knew?”
“I knew expenses were rising faster than revenue.”
“Why didn’t you act?”
“I did.”
Samuel walked toward a locked cabinet.
“I asked Olivia for an internal audit.”
“And?”
“She told me nothing material had been found.”
Nathan frowned.
“You don’t believe her?”
“I believe numbers more than reassurances.”
Samuel removed a slim folder.
Inside were vendor summaries.
Northstar Marine Consulting appeared eleven times.
Total payments over eighteen months: $4.7 million.
Nathan felt sick.
“My approvals were only 1.8.”
“Correct.”
“Who approved the rest?”
Samuel tapped two initials.
VH.
Victor Hale.
Nathan looked up.
Samuel continued.
“Northstar billed Aurelia for client research, marina strategy, and executive introductions.”
“Did they perform anything?”
“I can find no employees, office, website, or meaningful operating history.”
Nathan rubbed his jaw.
“Then it’s a shell.”
“Possibly.”
“Why show me this?”
Samuel closed the folder.
“Because I want to see whether you tell me the truth.”
Nathan’s stomach tightened.
Samuel stared directly at him.
“Did you knowingly approve false expenses?”
Nathan hesitated.
There was the easy answer.
No.
But something stopped him.
“I knew some of the invoices were vague.”
Samuel’s expression did not change.
Nathan continued.
“Victor said confidentiality was necessary because certain intermediaries didn’t want names disclosed.”
“And you accepted that?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because the deals kept closing.”
Samuel nodded slowly.
“And your commissions kept increasing.”
Nathan looked down.
“Yes.”
Samuel walked toward him.
“You may not have invented this scheme, Nathan. But don’t confuse being useful to dishonest people with being innocent.”
Nathan swallowed.
“I’m starting to understand that.”
“Good.”
Samuel picked up his phone.
“We call the police about Ava’s photograph.”
Nathan nodded.
“And after that?”
“We find out who Northstar pays.”
Nathan looked surprised.
“You’re helping me?”
“No.”
Samuel’s voice was calm.
“I am protecting my company, my marina, and a sixteen-year-old girl who did nothing wrong.”
Nathan accepted the distinction.
Samuel dialed.
Before the call connected, Nathan said, “Why were you pushing a maintenance trolley yourself last night?”
Samuel looked at him.
“Because three dock employees complained that cleaning chemicals were being diluted to cut costs. Management told me they were exaggerating.”
“You came to inspect it?”
“Yes.”
Nathan thought of how Samuel had looked in the work jacket.
Invisible to him.
Samuel added, “You learn extraordinary things when people believe you don’t matter.”
The police took Nathan’s report.
An officer contacted Ava’s school.
Claire was furious that Nathan had waited even forty minutes.
By evening, Samuel’s private forensic accountant had traced one Northstar transfer.
$312,000 had gone to an entity called Meridian Vessel Services.
Nathan recognized the name.
It serviced executive-owned yachts.
Samuel asked, “Do you know anyone who uses them?”
Nathan stared at the payment record.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
Nathan felt the floor shift beneath him again.
“Victor.”
Samuel’s eyes narrowed.
Nathan enlarged the invoice.
The vessel identification number belonged to a 92-foot motor yacht named Asteria.
Nathan had been aboard it twice.
Victor had always claimed Asteria belonged to a wealthy client.
Nathan looked at Samuel.
“It’s Victor’s yacht.”
Samuel said, “A corporate shell appears to be paying for his private vessel.”
Nathan shook his head slowly.
“That’s embezzlement.”
“Maybe.”
Samuel tapped the screen.
“But look at the ownership registration.”
Nathan read the name.
Not Victor Hale.
Not a company.
CATHERINE HALE.
Victor’s wife.
Nathan looked up.
Samuel’s voice became quieter.
“Now ask yourself why a man secretly diverting company money into his wife’s yacht would risk everything to close Blue Meridian.”
Nathan stared toward the glowing marina.
May you like
Somewhere behind those lights was an answer worth far more than his three-million-dollar commission.
And someone had already shown they were willing to bring Ava into the fight to keep it hidden.
