Chapter 6 - PROJECT SEVEN
Alexander stopped in the storage hallway.
“You approved what?”
Ethan did not try to escape the question.
“A private recovery project.”
“Use English.”
“When I moved the forty-one million, I needed Grant to move physical equipment between three facilities without creating standard capital records.”
Samantha stared.
“You created an off-book system.”
“Yes.”
Alexander’s voice turned cold.
“You gave Grant a way to move company property without normal oversight.”
“Yes.”
“And called it Seven.”
“Yes.”
“Why Seven?”
Ethan looked miserable.
“The original transfer was supposed to last seven weeks.”
Alexander laughed once.
“Forty-one million dollars. Hidden transfers. Untracked equipment. What could possibly go wrong?”
“I know.”
“No. Apparently you did not.”
They went directly to Cole Meridian’s Queens fleet facility.
Grant Mercer was already there.
He was fifty-four.
Broad-shouldered.
Gray at the temples.
A wedding band on his left hand.
He wore an ordinary quarter-zip sweater, not the costume of a criminal.
That made Samantha uneasy.
Men who ruined lives rarely dressed for the role.
Grant saw Alexander.
Then Ethan.
Then Samantha.
His face changed when he saw the Mercer Marine watch in Alexander’s hand.
“Where did you get that?”
Alexander placed it on a workbench.
“You tell me.”
Grant stared.
“My father’s.”
“Claire had it.”
Grant’s mouth tightened.
“She stole it.”
Ethan spoke.
“You broke into her office.”
Grant looked at him.
“You don’t get to judge anyone in this room.”
That landed.
Alexander placed both service tags beside the watch.
Grant looked at them.
“What about them?”
“Your authorization.”
“My department.”
“Your initials.”
“My inspection stamp.”
“On both cars.”
Grant finally understood where the conversation was going.
“No.”
Alexander’s voice remained calm.
“Vehicle Seven. Nine months ago.”
“No.”
“Vehicle Twelve. Yesterday.”
“I didn’t service either one personally.”
Samantha watched him.
That was plausible.
Too plausible.
“Who did?”
“My technicians.”
“Names?”
“I can get them.”
“Later,” Alexander said.
Grant looked toward Samantha.
“Who is she?”
“The woman who prevented your latest inspection from killing three people.”
Grant went still.
“What?”
Alexander told him about the hose.
Grant’s shock looked real.
Samantha hated that.
Real shock complicated things.
“Carbon monoxide?”
“Yes.”
Grant shook his head.
“No.”
“You already used that answer.”
“I’m using it again.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“Seven-point-eight million disappeared through facilities codes.”
Grant turned.
“And forty-one million disappeared because you moved it.”
“I replaced it.”
“With company reserves.”
“Yes.”
“You buried the original transfer and left everyone under you holding the exposure.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
Grant pointed at him.
“You created Project Seven because you were terrified Alex would remove you.”
“I created it because nine hundred people were about to lose their jobs.”
“And when the money went missing?”
“I asked you.”
“You accused me.”
“Were you innocent?”
Grant looked away.
There.
Not entirely.
Alexander noticed.
“How much?”
Grant said nothing.
“Grant.”
“Two-point-three.”
Ethan frowned.
“What?”
“I moved two-point-three million.”
“To where?”
“My father’s shipyard.”
Alexander stared.
“Mercer Marine has been closed for twelve years.”
“The company closed. The pension obligations didn’t disappear.”
Grant’s voice changed.
For the first time there was something beneath the defensiveness.
Shame.
“My father died leaving one hundred eighty former employees with a fund that was collapsing. Men who had worked there forty years.”
“So you stole from us,” Alexander said.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
Just the word.
Samantha respected that more than denial.
“But not seven-point-eight,” Grant continued. “Two-point-three.”
“Where did the rest go?”
Grant looked at Ethan.
“Ask David Kline.”
The photograph.
Samantha folded her arms.
“Kline supplied Pier Fourteen.”
“Yes.”
“He was part of Project Seven?”
Grant laughed bitterly.
“Ethan needed equipment moved invisibly. Kline needed invoices paid quickly. I connected them.”
Ethan stared.
“You told me his company was stable.”
“It was.”
“Then?”
“His waterfront subsidiary was drowning.”
Alexander looked between them.
“So Ethan created the hidden system. You used part of it to cover Mercer pensions. Kline used it to move another five-point-five million.”
Grant nodded.
“That’s what I believe.”
“And Claire found it.”
“Yes.”
“Then someone broke into her office.”
Grant’s expression changed.
“I did.”
Ethan stared.
Grant continued.
“I wanted the watch back.”
“Why did Claire have it?” Samantha asked.
“Because she took it off my desk after confronting me.”
“She stole it?”
Grant gave a tired nod.
“She said if I cared so much about what my father built, I should remember what his name meant before I stole from somebody else.”
Samantha looked at the engraved ship.
That sounded like the kind of object Claire would preserve.
Not proof of murder.
Proof of motive.
Alexander asked, “Did you sabotage my car?”
“No.”
“Did you see anyone near it?”
Grant hesitated.
Samantha saw it.
“So you did.”
Grant looked at Ethan.
“Tell him.”
Ethan’s face tightened.
“Tell me what?”
Grant stared at him.
“The night before the crash. You came to the garage.”
Alexander turned slowly.
Ethan shook his head.
“I came because you called me.”
“Yes.”
“Because you said Alex’s vehicle had been reassigned.”
Grant nodded.
Samantha frowned.
“Reassigned from what?”
“The next morning’s board route,” Grant said.
Alexander looked at Ethan.
“You changed my driver?”
Ethan answered.
“Yes.”
“Marcus called out sick.”
“I asked scheduling to give him the night off.”
Alexander stared.
“You lied to me.”
“I needed you driving yourself.”
“Why?”
Ethan looked sick.
“To delay you.”
Samantha’s eyes narrowed.
“How does driving himself delay him?”
“The board packet was in Marcus’s secure case. Without Marcus, Alex would have to stop at the office.”
Alexander’s jaw tightened.
“You were trying to buy yourself an hour before I told the board about the transfer.”
“Yes.”
Grant laughed without humor.
“And that hour nearly killed him.”
Ethan turned on him.
“I didn’t touch the car.”
“I never said you did.”
Alexander looked between them.
Grant’s expression had become grim.
“I saw someone near Vehicle Seven after Ethan left.”
“Who?”
“David Kline.”
Silence.
Alexander whispered, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Grant’s answer was ugly because it was understandable.
“Because if Kline was arrested, Project Seven came out.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Two powerful men.
Two different secrets.
One identical choice.
Protect the company.
Protect themselves.
Say nothing.
Samantha looked at Grant.
“And last night?”
“I did not touch Vehicle Twelve.”
“Who knew Alexander would be in it?”
Grant glanced toward Ethan.
Ethan’s head snapped up.
“Don’t.”
Grant shook his head.
“I’m not accusing you.”
“Then who?”
“Dispatch changed the assigned SUV at six-fifteen.”
Alexander frowned.
“Why?”
“Because Vehicle Nine had a tire-pressure warning.”
“Who authorized the replacement?”
Grant looked directly at him.
“Your executive office.”
Ethan went still.
“I authorized no change.”
Grant walked to a metal clipboard near the wall and removed a paper dispatch card.
He placed it on the workbench.
Vehicle 12.
Alexander Cole.
Override authorization.
E. VALE.
Ethan stared at his own name.
“That is not my signature.”
Grant said nothing.
Alexander did.
“No.”
He had known Ethan nineteen years.
He knew the signature.
“It isn’t.”
Samantha looked at Grant.
“Who has access to Ethan’s authorization stamp?”
Grant hesitated.
Then answered.
“David Kline had access during Project Seven.”
Alexander’s eyes hardened.
“Kline isn’t a Cole employee anymore.”
“No.”
“How did he get into the fleet facility yesterday?”
Grant looked toward the far service bay.
“He didn’t.”
Samantha frowned.
Grant continued.
“Somebody inside brought Vehicle Twelve to him.”
Alexander’s voice became quiet.
“Who?”
Grant looked at Ethan.
Then at Alexander.
May you like
“Your chief of security.”
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