Chapter 9 - The Password
Police moved Sophie again.
This time even Laura did not know the safe-house address until they arrived.
Detective Torres took the threat seriously enough to assign two officers around the clock.
Daniel took it worse.
“This is my fault.”
Laura did not contradict him.
That hurt him.
Good, a small bitter part of her thought.
Then she hated herself for thinking it.
Sophie sat between them in the back seat of an unmarked police SUV.
“What password did Dad use?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Remember the game?”
“What game?”
“When you were little. I’d ask, ‘What do we count when we’re scared?’”
Sophie frowned.
Then answered.
“Things that are true.”
Laura looked at Daniel.
He continued.
“And what was your favorite thing that was true?”
Sophie smiled despite everything.
“Mom always comes back.”
Daniel nodded.
The phrase was the encryption clue.
Not the password itself.
The actual password combined the date Laura returned from a dangerous emergency appendectomy when Sophie was four with a phrase only Sophie and Daniel used.
Torres shook her head.
“Could anyone guess it?”
“No.”
“Could Celeste?”
Sophie whispered, “Maybe.”
Everyone looked at her.
“Aunt Celeste used to play the game too.”
Daniel’s face fell.
Another assumption.
Another hole.
At the same time, Naomi received subpoenaed bank records.
They met at the safe house that evening.
She spread transaction diagrams across the dining table.
“We can now show company money funded Northstar.”
Laura followed the arrows.
Wintermere received payments.
Wintermere transferred funds to Northstar.
Northstar paid Owen’s private note.
Northstar also funded Ashcroft.
“So Celeste borrowed from Owen,” Laura said.
“Yes.”
“And repaid him with money stolen from the company.”
“That’s what it appears.”
Daniel pointed to another line.
“What’s that?”
Naomi tapped the page.
“A seven-hundred-fifty-thousand-dollar payment from Ashcroft to an account in the Cayman Islands.”
Laura stared.
“Celeste?”
“We don’t know the beneficial owner.”
“Can we get it?”
“With time.”
Time was the one thing Celeste was using against them.
The company’s lender had nine days left before it could accelerate the credit facility.
Celeste, acting as interim CEO, announced she had found a “strategic rescue investor.”
The investor would inject twelve million dollars.
In exchange, Avery Heritage Properties would sell five of its most valuable buildings.
“To whom?” Laura asked Samuel.
“A company called Dominion Urban Partners.”
Naomi searched the name.
Ten minutes later she looked up.
“You’re not going to like this.”
“Who owns it?”
“A private fund.”
“Connected to Owen?”
“Not directly.”
“To Celeste?”
“Not directly.”
Laura slammed her palm onto the table.
“Then what are we missing?”
Daniel leaned over the ownership chart.
“Who formed it?”
Naomi checked.
“A law firm in Stamford.”
“Which lawyer?”
She clicked.
Her face changed.
“Owen Kessler’s former partner.”
There it was.
The rescue was another extraction.
Celeste had helped create the crisis.
Now she planned to “save” the company by selling its best assets into a friendly structure.
Power transferred quietly.
Money disappeared legally enough to require years of litigation.
Unless Laura stopped it.
Samuel sought another injunction.
The court scheduled an emergency hearing.
Celeste appeared in person.
Laura saw her sister for the first time since the greenhouse.
Celeste looked thinner.
She also looked composed.
They stood twenty feet apart in the courthouse corridor.
“Where’s Sophie?” Celeste asked.
Laura laughed softly.
“You don’t get to ask.”
“I would never hurt her.”
“You knew my husband was under the ground.”
“Owen—”
“Stop using his name like it absolves you.”
Celeste lowered her voice.
“You want the truth?”
“I’ve been asking for it.”
“Daniel was destroying everything Dad built.”
Laura stepped closer.
“Daniel found what you were doing.”
“He found pieces.”
“Four point six million pieces.”
Celeste’s jaw tightened.
“Do you know what Dad left me?”
“Forty-nine percent of a company worth tens of millions.”
“No. He left me the work.”
Laura stared.
Celeste continued.
“You got the title. The interviews. The client dinners. The praise.”
“You chose finance.”
“I chose the part that kept us alive.”
“You stole.”
“I moved money.”
“To yourself.”
“To control.”
“Of my shares.”
“To stop you selling us.”
There it was.
Not a denial.
A justification.
Laura’s heart pounded.
“Say that again.”
Celeste realized what she had done.
Her attorney approached quickly.
“We need to go.”
Laura said, “You used company money to buy control.”
Celeste’s face closed.
“I said nothing of the kind.”
“You just did.”
“No recording.”
Laura looked toward the courthouse security camera.
Celeste followed her gaze.
The camera had no audio.
A bitter smile touched Celeste’s lips.
“Still trusting what you think you heard?”
Laura wanted to hit her.
Instead she stepped back.
Inside the courtroom, Celeste’s lawyers argued that the Dominion sale was necessary to avoid loan default.
Samuel argued it was self-dealing.
The judge required Celeste to disclose Dominion’s beneficial ownership before any closing.
A partial victory.
Then Celeste’s lawyer introduced a new affidavit.
From Helen Burke, the company controller.
Helen swore Daniel had personally ordered her to process irregular transfers.
Daniel stared.
“That’s a lie.”
The judge continued reading.
Helen further claimed Laura knew about the transfers.
Laura whispered, “Why would Helen lie?”
Naomi’s phone buzzed.
She read a message.
Then another.
Her face drained.
“What?”
Naomi looked at Daniel.
“Federal agents are at our accounting firm.”
“For what?”
“They have a warrant.”
Daniel went still.
Naomi continued.
“They’re investigating the six-hundred-thousand-dollar transfer.”
May you like
Celeste watched from across the courtroom.
For the first time in days, she smiled.
