Chapter 6 - THE MAN WHO KEPT THE FILESI didn’t sleep again.
At six the next morning, I showed Grandma the messages.
She read them twice.
“Do you know Daniel Reed?”
“No.”
“Nathan might.”
We found my brother in the kitchen making coffee.
He took one look at my face.
“What happened?”
I handed him the phone.
His expression shifted as he read.
“Daniel.”
“You know him?”
“He was an assistant controller.”
“Why did he leave?”
Nathan rubbed his jaw.
“Dad said performance issues.”
“Was that true?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
Grandma reached for her phone.
“We call Evelyn.”
By eight, Evelyn Price was sitting at the dining table again.
Daniel agreed to meet us at a diner in Pinehaven.
Evelyn insisted we not invite Dad.
Nathan looked conflicted.
Grandma did not.
“He’s the subject of the allegation. He doesn’t get advance notice.”
At ten, the three of us—Evelyn, Nathan, and I—walked into Carson’s Diner.
Daniel Reed sat in a booth near the back.
He looked about forty.
Thin.
Nervous.
He stood when we approached.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Nathan grimaced.
“Call me Nathan.”
Daniel nodded.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come.”
Evelyn sat across from him.
“What exactly did Robert ask you to delete?”
Daniel looked around.
“Vendor records.”
Nathan frowned.
“What vendor?”
“Great Lakes Consulting.”
He obviously expected recognition.
Nathan had none.
“What does Great Lakes Consulting do?”
“Nothing.”
My stomach tightened.
Daniel opened his laptop.
“It was created fourteen months ago. Payments began almost immediately.”
“How much?” Evelyn asked.
“Just over nine hundred thousand dollars.”
Nathan went pale.
“To who?”
“That’s why I got fired.”
Daniel turned the laptop toward us.
“I asked.”
He showed us invoices.
Consulting services.
Strategy advisory.
Site development analysis.
Generic descriptions.
Huge payments.
Fifty thousand.
Seventy-five thousand.
One hundred twenty thousand.
“Who owns the company?” I asked.
Daniel hesitated.
“A woman named Marissa Cole.”
Nathan stopped breathing.
I noticed.
“You know her?”
He stared at the screen.
“She’s Dad’s executive assistant.”
Oh.
Evelyn’s face remained neutral.
“Anything else?”
Daniel nodded.
“She bought a condo in Chicago eight months ago.”
“How do you know?” Nathan asked.
“I saw the wire transfer.”
“For the condo?”
“From Great Lakes Consulting.”
Nathan pushed away from the table.
“Jesus.”
He stood and walked toward the front windows.
I almost followed him.
Then Daniel said something worse.
“There’s another company.”
Nathan turned back.
“Another?”
“Northfield Holdings.”
Evelyn leaned forward.
“What did it receive?”
“Property.”
“Company property?”
Daniel nodded.
“Three parcels.”
Nathan returned to the booth.
“Which ones?”
Daniel listed them.
Nathan cursed after every name.
“They’re some of our best assets.”
“They were transferred below market value.”
“To Northfield?”
“Yes.”
“Who owns Northfield?”
Daniel swallowed.
“That’s harder.”
Evelyn looked at him.
“Try.”
“It traces through two LLCs.”
“And?”
“The beneficial owner appears to be Robert Mercer.”
Nobody spoke.
Dad wasn’t just hiding losses.
He appeared to be moving valuable assets away from the failing company.
Nathan looked physically ill.
“He stripped the company.”
Daniel nodded.
“That was my conclusion.”
“For himself.”
“Yes.”
“And left everyone else with the debt.”
“Yes.”
Nathan sat back down.
For a long time, he said nothing.
Evelyn asked Daniel to send the files directly to her law firm.
“Do not contact Robert,” she said.
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do you have original metadata?”
“Yes.”
“Emails?”
Daniel nodded.
“Some.”
Nathan looked at him.
“Why keep all of this?”
Daniel’s face tightened.
“My wife worked at Mercer Development too.”
“What department?”
“Human resources.”
“Worked?”
“She was laid off in October.”
Nathan looked ashamed.
Daniel continued.
“Robert told everyone the layoffs were necessary to save the company. Two weeks later I processed a sixty-thousand-dollar payment to Great Lakes Consulting.”
He looked at Nathan.
“I have two kids.”
“I’m sorry.”
Daniel nodded.
“I know you weren’t making the decisions.”
Nathan looked at him.
“But I was standing beside the man who was.”
Nobody had an answer to that.
By noon, Evelyn had contacted specialists.
She explained that if the documents were authentic, Dad’s actions might involve fraudulent transfers, breach of fiduciary duty, and potentially criminal conduct.
I kept thinking about the man who taught me to balance a checkbook.
Dad used to inspect every restaurant bill.
He lectured me if I carried a credit card balance.
He once made me return a twenty-dollar bill I found in a grocery store parking lot.
Character, he said.
What you do when nobody sees you.
Apparently, my father had decided that lesson applied only to children.
When we returned to the lodge, he was waiting.
He knew.
I could tell immediately.
He stood beside the fireplace with his coat on.
Mom sat on the sofa.
“Where were you?” he asked.
Nathan answered.
“Meeting Daniel Reed.”
Dad’s face became completely still.
That confirmed more than words could.
Mom looked between them.
“Who is Daniel Reed?”
Dad ignored her.
“What did he tell you?”
Nathan laughed softly.
“So it’s true.”
“Whatever he told you is distorted.”
“Great Lakes Consulting?”
Mom frowned.
“What is that?”
Dad snapped, “Business.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“Marissa Cole.”
Mom’s face changed.
“Marissa?”
Dad turned toward him.
“Do not drag innocent people into this.”
Nathan laughed again.
“You paid your assistant nine hundred thousand dollars while laying off employees.”
Mom stood.
“What?”
Dad looked at her.
“It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like?”
“She provided legitimate services.”
“She’s your secretary.”
“Executive assistant.”
I actually closed my eyes.
Wrong correction.
Mom stared at him.
“Are you sleeping with her?”
Dad said nothing.
The silence answered.
Mom slapped him.
The sound cracked through the room.
Nobody moved.
Dad slowly touched his cheek.
Mom’s entire body shook.
“How long?”
“Denise.”
“How long?”
“Two years.”
She made a sound I had never heard from another human being.
Not quite a sob.
Not quite a scream.
Then she walked upstairs.
Grandma followed.
Dad turned toward Nathan.
“You had no right to tell her like that.”
Nathan stared at him.
“You’re worried about how she found out?”
Dad’s face hardened.
“I have made mistakes.”
“You robbed the company.”
“I protected assets.”
“For yourself.”
“For this family.”
“No.”
Nathan stepped closer.
“For you.”
Dad looked toward me.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
The accusation stunned me.
“What?”
“You’ve always resented me.”
I stared at him.
“Dad, your marriage is collapsing, your company is in default, and your former accountant apparently has evidence you moved assets into secret companies.”
I shook my head.
“Nobody has enough energy to enjoy all that.”
He glared at me.
“This family was fine until you came back last night.”
That sentence did something miraculous.
It removed the last remaining illusion I had about him.
I almost smiled.
“No, Dad.”
I stepped closer.
“This family was not fine.”
I pointed toward the door.
“I just happened to arrive before everyone could keep pretending.”
Evelyn walked in from the porch.
She had been making calls.
“Robert.”
He looked at her.
“The restructuring firm has agreed to take the engagement.”
“I never agreed.”
“You no longer need to.”
He frowned.
Evelyn held up her phone.
“Your partners voted twenty minutes ago.”
Dad’s face changed.
“What?”
“Two to one.”
He stared at her.
“You contacted Michael and Steve?”
“They contacted me after Nathan provided the default notice.”
Dad turned toward Nathan.
“You went behind my back.”
Nathan met his gaze.
“I went around the obstacle.”
Dad’s fists clenched.
“You’re fired.”
Nathan nodded.
“I expected that.”
“You have no place at Mercer Development.”
“Maybe not.”
Nathan removed his company key card from his wallet.
He set it on the mantle.
“But neither do you.”
Dad laughed.
“I founded that company.”
Evelyn spoke.
“And your partners just suspended you as managing member pending forensic review.”
The color drained from Dad’s face.
Evelyn continued.
“You are prohibited from accessing company accounts, systems, or facilities until further notice.”
For the first time in my life, my father had nothing to say.
Then headlights swept across the front windows.
Two dark sedans entered the driveway.
Dad looked toward them.
“Who is that?”
Evelyn glanced outside.
“Based on the timing?”
She closed her briefcase.
“Probably the forensic accountants.”
May you like
But when the first man stepped out of the car, he wasn’t carrying a calculator.
He wore a badge.
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