Chương 7
Victor looked tired.
"I thought I could fix it before it reached you."
Daniel looked at Marcus.
Marcus had been silent near the doorway.
His arms were crossed.
His face had the same confusion Daniel felt.
"You thought you could fix it."
Victor nodded.
"That was the mistake."
The admission was so simple that it almost made Daniel angrier.
People rarely admitted mistakes without trying to decorate them.
Victor did not.
He just placed the failure on the table.
"Who else knows?" Daniel asked.
Victor hesitated.
"About what?"
"Do not do that."
Victor looked at him.
"Do not answer a question with another question when you already know what I mean."
A faint movement crossed Victor's face.
Embarrassment.
Not guilt.
Daniel could not tell if that made things better or worse.
"Only a few people," Victor said.
"Names."
"Daniel."
"Names."
Victor opened the folder.
The first page was a list.
Not names.
Departments.
Accounting.
Purchasing.
Operations.
Human resources.
Daniel stared at the page.
"What is this?"
"Everyone who had access to certain records."
"That is half the company."
"Exactly."
A silence followed.
Marcus walked closer.
"Victor, if you knew there was a problem, why didn't you tell us before the bank froze the account?"
Victor looked at him.
"Because I did not have enough proof."
Marcus shook his head.
"You had eight months."
"I had suspicion."
"You had my best friend dead."
The room changed.
Victor looked down.
For a moment, he did not look like a financial officer.
He looked like someone remembering a conversation he wished had gone differently.
"Eli was not supposed to get involved."
Daniel felt his stomach tighten.
"What does that mean?"
Victor ran a hand over his face.
"It means he found something before I did."
"What?"
"Payments."
Daniel waited.
Victor tapped the folder.
"Small amounts."
"Small?"
"That is why nobody noticed."
Daniel looked at the papers again.
"How small?"
"Five thousand here."
"Ten thousand there."
"Sometimes less."
Marcus frowned.
"That is not enough to destroy a company."
"No."
Victor looked at him.
"Not by itself."
Daniel understood then.
Not because the answer was obvious.
Because it was the kind of answer Eli would have chased.
Small things.
Things people ignored because they were too small to fear.
"What were they for?" Daniel asked.
Victor pulled out another document.
"That is the problem."
He placed it on the desk.
"The payments were real."
Daniel frowned.
"What?"
"The companies receiving the money existed."
"Then what is wrong?"
Victor looked at him.
"The people behind them."
Daniel picked up the paper.
Several business names were listed.
He recognized two.
One had provided wood materials for years.
Another handled equipment repairs.
"They are legitimate."
"Yes."
"So?"
Victor pointed to the dates.
"Look closer."
Daniel did.
The dates meant nothing at first.
Then he saw it.
The ownership changes.
Three different companies had changed ownership within weeks of receiving larger payments.
The same address appeared on two of them.
The same registered agent appeared on another.
Daniel looked up.
"Shell companies."
Victor nodded.
"Probably."
"Probably?"
"I am not a detective."
"No."
Daniel put the paper down.
"You are the person who was supposed to protect the company's money."
Victor accepted the hit.
"I know."
The answer bothered Daniel more than an argument would have.
He wanted Victor to fight.
He wanted an excuse.
Something simple.
Someone to blame.
Instead, he had a man standing in front of him who looked like he had been carrying a heavy object alone for too long.
Daniel hated that he understood the feeling.
His phone buzzed again.
This time it was Lena.
He stared at the screen.
Marcus noticed.
"Officer Ortiz?"
Daniel nodded.
"Answer it."
Daniel stepped into the hallway.
The factory moved around him.
An employee carrying a stack of invoices nearly walked into him, apologized quickly, and kept going.
Nobody stopped.
Nobody asked what was happening.
That somehow made it worse.
The world did not pause because his life had changed.
He answered.
"Lena."
"Daniel."
Her voice was controlled.
Too controlled.
"What happened?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing."
Daniel leaned against the wall.
"Why?"
"Because someone accessed the investigation records."
His hand tightened around the phone.
"What records?"
"The ones connected to your case."
"When?"
"Last night."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"Who had access?"
"I am not giving out details over the phone."
"Then why call me?"
"Because whoever accessed them also looked at evidence related to your brother."
The hallway seemed colder.
"What evidence?"
A pause.
Not long.
But long enough.
"The photo you found."
Daniel looked back toward the office.
Victor was still inside.
"You know about the photo?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Because I found a copy in your brother's apartment after his death."
Daniel stopped.
The words did not fit together.
"Eli had another copy?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Lena was quiet.
"Because at the time, I did not know what it meant."
Daniel looked through the office window.
Victor was talking to Marcus.
Two men.
Two people who had known things Daniel did not.
"You keep saying that."
"I know."
"And I am supposed to believe you?"
"No."
The honesty surprised him.
Lena continued.
"You are supposed to decide what you do with the information you have."
Daniel looked down the hallway.
Employees moved around him.
People who had worked beside him for years.
People whose jobs depended on choices being made inside rooms they never entered.
"Did Eli trust you?"
The question came out before Daniel could stop it.
Lena did not answer immediately.
"I think he trusted that I would look."
That was not the same thing.
Daniel knew that.
Maybe Lena knew too.
"Daniel."
"Yeah?"
"Be careful who you accuse."
He looked back at Victor.
"Why?"
"Because if someone has been hiding this for eight months, they are not just protecting money."
"What are they protecting?"
Another pause.
"The reason your brother died."
Daniel said nothing.
The sentence stayed between them.
Heavy.
Impossible.
May you like
Lena spoke again.
"I did not say that because I know it is true."
