Chapter 11 - THE LAWYER’S LAST OFFER|
Dominic positioned himself beside the door while Adrian moved behind the cabinet. Lena remained near the workbench, the original report concealed beneath her coat.
“Open it,” Elias Shaw called. “I came alone.”
“That’s what people say when they want you to open a door,” Dominic replied.
A thin envelope slid beneath the threshold.
“Read the first page.”
Dominic waited until the footsteps retreated several yards before retrieving it. The envelope contained bank statements, a handwritten confession, and a list of payments made to officials involved in the original investigation.
At the bottom was a document signed by Dominic himself.
Lena’s stomach tightened.
“What is that?”
Dominic examined the page.
“A transfer authorization from two years ago.”
“Did you sign it?”
“Yes.”
“What did you authorize?”
“A payment to a waterfront contractor. I believed it was compensation for damaged equipment.”
The attached statement showed the money had been redirected through three companies before reaching an account controlled by Solin.
“You funded him,” Lena said.
“Unknowingly.”
“Your signature is there.”
“Because someone used my authorization to disguise the transfer.”
She looked at him.
“Can you prove that?”
“Not yet.”
The silence between them was worse than an argument.
Dominic had promised to help expose the truth even if it destroyed him. Now the evidence suggested his own organization had financed the man responsible for Lena’s family.
Adrian opened the door just enough to look outside.
Elias stood beneath the awning, empty-handed, his face pale with exhaustion.
“Let me in,” he said. “I’m seventy-two years old. If I wanted you dead, I would have sent someone younger.”
Dominic allowed him inside but kept his weapon visible.
Elias sat without being invited.
“I helped Edward conceal the operation,” he admitted. “I altered documents, paid witnesses, and arranged the legal transfer of assets. I told myself I was protecting the family from collapse.”
“You helped murder David Voss,” Lena said.
Elias looked at her.
“Yes.”
The direct admission made her feel sick.
“Why are you here now?”
“Because Marcus Solin intends to destroy the evidence and eliminate everyone who can identify him. I thought I could control the damage. I was wrong.”
“Who is he working for?” Dominic asked.
Elias hesitated.
“Someone who has been financing both sides of the conflict.”
“Name.”
“I don’t have the complete identity. The accounts are hidden behind a private investment company called Northstar Meridian.”
Lena recognized the name.
It appeared in the ledger as the ultimate recipient of several suspicious transfers.
“I thought Northstar was a shell company.”
“It is,” Elias said. “But the money originates from a legitimate fortune. Whoever owns it has been using the Reeve organization and Solin’s operation to acquire waterfront property, silence officials, and control shipping routes.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“Why tell us now?”
“Because the person behind Northstar has decided I’m no longer useful.”
Elias placed a flash drive on the table.
“Everything I could recover is here. Original emails, trust amendments, payment records, and a recording of Edward discussing the Voss family.”
Lena stared at the drive.
“Why should we believe you?”
“You shouldn’t. Verify every document.”
For the first time, Elias looked genuinely afraid.
“Your father was a good man, Miss Voss. I knew that when I signed the papers that made him look like a criminal. I have lived with it every day.”
“That doesn’t bring him back.”
“No,” Elias said. “It doesn’t.”
A phone rang inside his coat.
He glanced at the screen and went white.
Dominic snatched it from him.
The incoming message contained a photograph of a woman sitting in a parked car. Her face was turned toward the window, but Lena recognized her immediately.
Sophie Bell.
The message beneath the image read:
THANK YOU FOR GATHERING THE EVIDENCE.
Then a second line appeared.
NOW BRING IT TO ME.
Elias closed his eyes.
“He knows we’re together.”
Dominic looked toward the door.
“Who?”
Elias answered in a whisper.
“The only person who could have known every step of Edward’s plan.”
May you like
He lifted his head.
“Your mother.”
