Chapter 29 #2
I chewed my lip, memories flooding hard.
“I don’t think that’s true. I remember being in a room when they talked about it.
All four execs, the only one being different now is Sullivan, senior to junior.
It stuck in my mind because our grandfather sent me out, and he rarely did that. He wanted me to learn it all.”
Mila stared back.
Lovelyn cut in. “Mila, can you still access company files?”
“No. It’s all still under the control of the holding company until after the vote.”
I asked, “Not even Austin’s backups?”
Mila’s eyebrows dove together. “What are you talking about?”
“He kept copies of all the most important files. He’d definitely have accounts going back years.”
Lovelyn clutched her laptop, her eyes wide. “I’m no forensic accountant, but imma need that access right now.”
My sister sagged. “They won’t exist anymore. Primrose eviscerated his office, and paperwork got handed back. All that’s left is furniture.”
Lovelyn said, “What about the lake house? Kane said they searched the place for electronics. Heretic had some kind of tool that could detect technology.”
I took up my phone and texted Tyler.
Dixie: Did your men find any data sticks during the raid?
His reply was almost instant.
Tyler: Half a dozen, stashed in a false drawer in the desk. Encrypted and with a password, so we haven’t got into them yet. Need them?
Excitement crept through me. I clutched my phone. “Who fancies a treasure hunt?”
In ten minutes, the sticks were ours. In less, I’d guessed the password that opened them all.
My birth name and year. How tragic.
We hung over Lovelyn’s laptop, gazing in awe at the neatly organised files.
Mila swallowed. “Dixie, you’re amazing. It’s like looking in a time capsule.”
Pride mixed with the hit of nostalgia at another tiny piece of help I’d been able to give. “I hope it’s useful. It’s not as if there will be receipts from trafficking, surely.”
Lovelyn was already opening folders and tapping away. “No, but it’s a link we didn’t know existed, and one that was hidden from you. Where there’s a monetary dependence, there’s the potential to protect those interests.”
“Meaning…” I trailed off, catching her drift. “A motive to do bad things.”
Leaning on the wall by the window, Genevieve, who’d delivered the files from downstairs, snorted. “Such as take control of a business they see as about to fail because the owner is unreliable. Mila, sorry to be indelicate, but was your grandfather unwell in the months leading up to his death?”
“Thinking back on it, yes. His death was a surprise to me, but I feel like I’ve aged a decade in terms of maturity since then.
I saw him as healthy and well because he told me he was.
But the fact was he regularly saw doctors and ignored their advice.
I thought he was a rebel and they were overcautious.
His associates would’ve had more insight than me if he’d confided in them. ”
Lovelyn gave a little squeak of happiness. “This first stick contains detailed accounts from five to seven years ago. I have a good feeling about this. Let me cook.”
A knock came at the door, and Genevieve stepped to answer it. She let in Cassie who strolled in and dropped into a chair.
“Sorry I’m late. I couldn’t sleep last night. All wound up.”
I folded my hands in my lap. “What happened at Paul Debrock’s place?”
She recounted what I hadn’t wanted to hear. The fact she had planned to kill him, but someone else had got in there first.
“I don’t know if he’s dead,” she finished. “We bolted. There was too much of a racket to risk getting caught. Amateur hour was in the house and beat us to the prize.”
I hoped he wasn’t. I’d never liked the guy, but if he was no longer alive, that left only one. There was a pit in my stomach from even considering the implications of that devil’s detail.
Mila’s phone rang. “It’s the solicitors.
” She answered and listened. Her free hand shook, so she trapped it between her knees.
“I understand. Keep me updated with the decision.” She put the phone down and levelled a shocked gaze on us.
“They’ve been informed by the police that two bodies have been discovered this morning. ”
I already knew. She didn’t need to say. Mila did anyway.
“Paul Debrock and Oscar Sullivan.”
Everyone started talking at once, babbling over each other.
I sank into my corner of the couch. Tyler must’ve ordered Sullivan’s body dumped, and the man Cassie saw did the same with Debrock. The exact scenario I’d tried to avoid when I’d called off Cassie last night had happened anyway. I’d tried to contain the blood, instead I’d crowned a monster.
Denise Harford alone would get to use the vote I’d given up.
God, did that sting.
I touched Mila’s hand, mine shaking. “Come with me a sec?”
She stood and followed me to the brick-arched window.
I swallowed. Unlike with telling her about Sullivan, this story was far too raw. Voicing it last night to Tyler had opened the wound, and I couldn’t explain it. Not in the same way. “Denise Harford can’t use my vote. She can’t.”
Realisation rippled over her features as slow shock. “Denise?”
I managed a shaky nod.
Mila’s worried gaze searched mine. Whatever she saw stalled any questions. “Okay, I hear you. Do we have her taken out?”
I choked on nothing. “You say that with frightening calm.”
“I’ve been around Convict for long enough that it’s normal.” Her worry intensified. “Yet if we do that, then the vote can’t happen at all. The company can never fold.”
I couldn’t say a word. All I was sure about were bad outcomes and even worse people.
The easiest option to help my sister was one I couldn’t take. If I could walk into that meeting and not die from the stress, I would. But seeing my grandmother? Sitting across from her and staying calm? No.
The only solution was me. And I was running out of excuses.