Chapter 2 - The Flash Drive
Officer Grant locked the aft deck before Monica could leave.
“Take your hand out of your pocket.”
Monica stared at him.
“You cannot detain me.”
“I can prevent you from destroying evidence while we wait for Coast Guard law enforcement.”
“I’m Andrew Bennett’s fiancée.”
Grant glanced at Andrew.
“Not relevant.”
Monica looked at Andrew, expecting him to intervene.
He did not.
Lucas was still shaking against his chest.
A crew medic wrapped the baby in heated blankets and checked his breathing.
Andrew looked at Monica with an expression she had never seen from him.
Disgust.
“Give him the drive.”
Monica’s eyes filled with tears.
“Andrew, please.”
“You pushed my son into the ocean.”
“I didn’t mean for the stroller to go over.”
“You pushed it hard enough to cross twenty feet of deck.”
“It slipped.”
“We watched you.”
“Videos can look—”
“Stop.”
His voice was quiet.
That frightened her more than shouting.
“Give Officer Grant the drive.”
Monica reached into her coat.
Her hand emerged empty.
“I don’t have it.”
Grant’s expression changed.
“The video shows you putting it into your right pocket.”
Monica patted the pocket dramatically.
“It must have fallen out.”
Rachel was watching from a bench as paramedics warmed her.
Her lips were pale.
“It didn’t.”
Everyone turned.
Rachel pointed toward Monica’s sleeve.
“When she saw you opening the footage, she moved something up her coat.”
Monica snapped, “You lying bitch.”
Andrew’s face hardened.
“Do not speak to her like that.”
Monica froze.
Grant said, “Ma’am, I’m asking you voluntarily to remove anything hidden in your sleeve.”
“My attorney will—”
“Call one.”
Monica looked toward the cabin.
The ferry captain had already radioed ahead.
They were diverting to a Coast Guard station in Stamford.
Monica knew she was trapped.
Slowly, she reached inside her sleeve.
The silver flash drive appeared.
Andrew closed his eyes.
Grant placed it into an evidence envelope.
Nobody touched it again until Coast Guard investigators boarded.
Lucas and Rachel were transferred by ambulance to Stamford Hospital.
Andrew rode with his son.
Monica was detained for questioning.
At the emergency room, doctors treated Lucas for mild hypothermia.
Rachel’s body temperature had dropped dangerously low.
She had swallowed seawater and bruised her ribs climbing onto the rescue ladder.
Andrew stood outside Rachel’s treatment room for several minutes before entering.
She was wrapped in heated blankets.
An IV ran into her arm.
“You should be with Lucas,” she said.
“He’s asleep.”
“Good.”
Andrew sat.
“I owe you my son’s life.”
Rachel looked at him.
“You don’t owe me anything.”
“I almost believed her.”
“You were scared.”
“I looked at you like you had hurt him.”
Rachel’s face tightened.
“For about ten seconds.”
“That was ten seconds too long.”
She studied him.
Andrew Bennett had always intimidated employees.
He was not cruel.
But wealth had made him accustomed to rooms changing when he entered them.
Tonight he looked like any frightened father.
“There’s something you should know,” Rachel said.
“What?”
“I’ve seen Monica with Victor before.”
Andrew stiffened.
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“Pier Twelve.”
“That terminal was closed.”
“I know.”
Rachel worked as senior hospitality supervisor aboard Bennett Maritime’s premium routes. She had access to terminals after hours.
“I was checking catering inventory. Victor’s car was behind the administrative building.”
“And Monica?”
“She came out ten minutes later.”
“Together?”
“No. Separate.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Rachel hesitated.
“It wasn’t my business.”
“My fiancée meeting my brother secretly?”
“You and Victor are brothers.”
Andrew laughed bitterly.
“On paper.”
Their father, Harold Bennett, had died eleven months earlier.
His will left Andrew controlling forty-six percent of Bennett Maritime voting shares.
Victor received thirty-nine percent.
The remaining fifteen percent had been placed into a descendant trust for Andrew’s first child.
Lucas.
The arrangement had infuriated Victor.
Andrew stared at Rachel.
“Did Monica know about the trust?”
“Everyone in senior management knows Lucas changed the control structure.”
Andrew’s eyes narrowed.
“How?”
Rachel immediately understood.
With Lucas alive, Andrew controlled his own forty-six percent plus the fifteen percent held for Lucas under a trustee aligned with Andrew’s branch.
Sixty-one percent.
Without Lucas, the fifteen percent would revert under Harold’s trust terms into a family pool requiring a board vote.
Victor could potentially capture control.
Andrew stood.
“The trust.”
Rachel’s face went pale.
“You think she did this because of the company?”
“I don’t know.”
His phone rang.
Officer Grant.
“We opened the flash drive under investigator supervision.”
Andrew gripped the phone.
“What’s on it?”
“Accounting files.”
“About what?”
“Bennett Maritime.”
Andrew looked toward the glass wall separating him from the emergency department.
Grant continued.
“There are wire transfers totaling twenty-two million dollars.”
“To whom?”
“Companies I’ve never heard of.”
Andrew felt cold.
“And there’s a video.”
“What video?”
“Your father.”
Andrew stopped breathing.
“My father is dead.”
“I know.”
Grant’s voice became quieter.
“This was recorded four days before he died.”
Andrew leaned against the wall.
“What does he say?”
May you like
Grant hesitated.
“He says if you’re watching it, Victor has already tried to steal the company.”
