Chapter 7 - The CFO at Midnight
Daniel opened the door.
Emily stayed behind him.
Aaron Pike looked exhausted.
He carried no luggage, only a laptop bag.
“You have five minutes,” Daniel said.
Aaron laughed bitterly.
“You fired me after twenty-two years and now I get five minutes?”
“You lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“About my mother.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Aaron looked toward Emily.
“Because Robert asked me to.”
Daniel stiffened.
They moved into the study.
Aaron refused whiskey and asked for water.
Then he told them what had happened.
Six years earlier, Mercer Residential began making payments to MCS Consulting.
At first the amounts were small.
Twenty thousand.
Thirty-five thousand.
Then larger.
Robert assumed Margaret had negotiated consulting arrangements for marketing and design services.
Three years later, Aaron noticed duplicate invoices.
He asked Margaret.
She reminded him that she was an owner.
“She was only a board member then,” Daniel said.
“She was also your father’s wife.”
Aaron looked ashamed.
“I let that matter more than it should have.”
Robert eventually discovered the payments himself.
He ordered Aaron to trace them quietly.
MCS Consulting was controlled through an attorney nominee, but its bank account paid Margaret’s personal expenses.
Luxury travel.
Interior renovations.
Jewelry.
A condominium assessment.
Political donations.
Emily asked, “How much?”
“Two point four million we could document.”
Daniel stared at the floor.
“Why didn’t Dad call police?”
“He planned to confront her after securing the company.”
“What does that mean?”
Aaron opened his laptop.
Robert had been afraid Margaret would retaliate by creating a shareholder fight and triggering debt covenants.
So he drafted the temporary CEO transition.
He also began revising estate documents.
“Then he died,” Aaron said.
“And you helped her after,” Daniel replied.
Aaron’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because she had something on me.”
“What?”
Aaron looked at Emily again.
“Seven years ago, I approved payments on a land deal before all environmental disclosures were completed.”
Daniel’s expression changed.
“Willow Creek.”
Aaron nodded.
A failed development outside Naperville.
Mercer Residential had paid a civil settlement two years later.
“No criminal charges,” Aaron said. “But Margaret had emails showing I knew our report was incomplete when I authorized the first payment.”
“She blackmailed you.”
“She said she would send them to regulators and the board.”
Daniel paced.
“So you witnessed the stock transfer.”
“No.”
Everyone stopped.
Aaron pointed to the document Margaret had produced.
“That signature is not mine.”
Daniel stared.
“It says Aaron Pike.”
“It isn’t my handwriting.”
“Then why didn’t you say so immediately?”
“I didn’t know the document existed until her lawyer filed it.”
Aaron pulled a folder from his bag.
“And there’s more.”
He handed Daniel a copy of Robert’s original accounting review.
Unlike the burned pages, this version was complete.
Robert had stored a duplicate with Aaron.
“Why keep this hidden?”
“Cowardice.”
Aaron did not excuse himself.
“I kept telling myself I was protecting employees. Really, I was protecting myself.”
Emily looked at Daniel.
The words could have belonged to him too.
Daniel knew it.
His face showed it.
The report documented MCS.
The irregular lake-house transfer.
And unexplained electronic access to Robert’s corporate account after his death.
Daniel turned pages.
Then stopped.
Someone had logged into Robert’s account nineteen hours after he died.
From Daniel’s home computer.
Emily looked at him.
“Were you home?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I stayed at the lake house.”
Margaret had been there too.
“Who had access to your house?” Aaron asked.
Daniel’s face darkened.
“My mother had a key.”
Emily remembered Margaret wandering through rooms without permission.
Her desk.
Daniel’s office.
The old briefcase.
“Why use Daniel’s computer?” Emily asked.
Aaron answered.
“To make any later forensic review point toward him.”
Daniel sat down.
“She was preparing to blame me.”
Aaron nodded.
“For everything.”
The power reversal was brutal.
Margaret had not merely stolen.
She had created a trail leading to her son.
Daniel’s phone rang.
Margaret.
He answered on speaker.
“Where is Aaron?”
Daniel looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because that frightened little man has stolen company records.”
Aaron’s face went pale.
Margaret continued.
“If he came to you, send him away.”
“Or what?”
Her voice cooled.
“Or the company learns exactly what you signed after Robert died.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you talking about?”
“The indemnity agreement.”
Daniel went still.
Emily saw it.
Another secret.
Margaret laughed softly.
“You really haven’t told your wife anything, have you?”
Then she hung up.
Aaron whispered, “What indemnity agreement?”
Daniel did not answer.
Emily stood.
“What did you sign?”
Daniel looked at her.
Six months after Robert’s death, when he paid MCS $750,000, Margaret had demanded more than money.
She had demanded written protection.
Daniel had signed an agreement stating that he had reviewed MCS transactions and found them legitimate.
Emily felt the blood drain from her face.
“You certified the payments?”
“I was trying to end the dispute.”
“You signed that they were legitimate without investigating?”
“Yes.”
Aaron closed his eyes.
“That makes you part of the paper trail.”
Daniel stared at him.
Margaret had arranged everything.
If MCS collapsed under investigation, Daniel’s signature could make it appear he had knowingly ratified the fraud.
Emily’s phone buzzed.
This time the anonymous sender included no attachment.
Only five words.
NOW YOU UNDERSTAND HER PLAN.
Emily typed a reply for the first time.
Who are you?
May you like
The answer came within seconds.
Someone Robert trusted more than Daniel.
