Chapter 7 - THE MAN INSIDE MY COMPANYI didn’t meet Colin alone.
I let him think I did.
Rebecca and two investigators waited nearby while I entered a diner off Interstate 10 at 6:30 the next morning.
Colin sat in the last booth.
He looked twenty years older than he had a week earlier.
“Claire.”
“Where’s the money?”
No small talk.
He swallowed.
“You always were direct.”
“And you stole from me.”
“I approved invoices.”
“Fake invoices.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
His eyes filled with shame.
“My son.”
I said nothing.
Colin’s twenty-two-year-old son had gambling debts.
Kyle found out.
He offered Colin money.
At first, five thousand.
Then fifteen.
Then enough to clear the debt.
In return, Colin approved consulting invoices.
“I thought it was his money moving through your company.”
“You didn’t ask why?”
“I didn’t want the answer.”
Eventually Kyle began threatening him.
If Colin stopped, Kyle would expose everything.
“How much did you help him take?”
“Eight hundred forty thousand.”
We already knew that.
“What don’t we know?”
Colin slid a USB drive across the table.
“Kyle has a second ledger.”
“Where?”
“Cloud account.”
“Password?”
“On there.”
“What’s in the ledger?”
“Every investor.”
“How many?”
“Thirty-one.”
My stomach twisted.
“And the money?”
“Some is gone.”
“How much?”
“Maybe six million.”
“And the rest?”
Colin looked around.
“Kyle never intended to keep it in the U.S.”
“He moved it offshore.”
“Some.”
“Where’s the rest?”
“Cryptocurrency. Property. Art.”
Art?
I remembered Diane suddenly decorating her home with expensive paintings over the previous two years.
She claimed they were reproductions.
They weren’t.
Colin leaned closer.
“But the biggest amount is sitting in escrow.”
“How much?”
“Five million.”
“For what?”
“A resort purchase in Costa Rica.”
Kyle planned to leave.
“When?”
“Soon.”
“How soon?”
Colin’s face tightened.
“Maybe days.”
Investigators moved quickly.
The USB contained enough information to freeze several accounts.
But Kyle vanished before warrants could be executed.
His SUV was found at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.
No record showed him boarding a flight.
Trevor disappeared too.
Diane remained.
Her attorney insisted she knew nothing.
Then federal agents searched her home.
They removed computers, documents, artwork, and nearly $400,000 in cash hidden inside storage boxes labeled CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS.
Diane still denied everything.
Meanwhile, Vanessa discovered something terrifying.
Kyle had opened two credit cards in her name.
Total balance: $93,000.
The “engagement ring” he gave her?
Purchased with one of them.
She handed it to investigators.
“I don’t ever want to see this again.”
I almost felt sorry for the diamond.
Almost.
Three days passed.
No Kyle.
No Trevor.
Then Dad called me from the guesthouse.
“Claire, somebody’s outside.”
My stomach dropped.
“Lock the doors.”
“They’re knocking.”
“Don’t answer.”
I drove there while calling police.
When I arrived, officers surrounded a pickup truck.
The driver wasn’t Kyle.
It was Trevor.
He had come voluntarily.
Hands raised.
No lawyer.
No suitcase.
Just terror.
Trevor asked for a deal.
Kyle had abandoned him.
Apparently the brothers had planned to cross into Mexico separately.
Trevor drove south.
Kyle never arrived at the meeting location.
“Where is he?” investigators asked.
Trevor didn’t know.
But he knew why Kyle had changed plans.
“He wants leverage.”
“What leverage?”
Trevor looked at me.
“Against Claire.”
My blood went cold.
“What does that mean?”
Trevor swallowed.
“He said there was one person who could make Claire stop.”
I thought of Dad.
Security had been increased.
“He can’t reach my father.”
Trevor shook his head.
“Not Norman.”
“Then who?”
Trevor looked miserable.
“Your daughter.”
My daughter, Sophie, was nineteen.
A sophomore at Northwestern.
Eight hundred miles away.
I called her.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Third time.
Voicemail.
I called her roommate.
“Mrs. Mercer?”
“Where’s Sophie?”
“She left.”
“With who?”
“I don’t know. She said her dad surprised her.”
My knees nearly gave out.
“When?”
May you like
“About an hour ago.”
Kyle had my daughter.
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