Chapter 11 - THE WOMAN WHO HELD THE LEDGER|
Catherine read Celeste's note three times.
"I don't know where the money went."
The federal agent, Special Agent Rebecca Lawson, placed a second document on the table.
"Your father's records suggest otherwise."
Catherine's stomach tightened.
"My father is dead."
"His records are not."
Agent Lawson explained that Bennett Freight had maintained a separate ledger before its debt was absorbed by Mercer Logistics. The ledger documented transactions that did not appear in the company's official accounts. Some involved ordinary loans. Others involved payments to shell companies connected to Enzo.
The final pages had been removed.
But the accounting entries referenced a backup location.
Catherine recognized the code immediately.
"That's my mother's poetry book."
Matteo turned toward her.
"The one you keep at the penthouse?"
"Yes."
"You never told me it contained business records."
"Because I didn't know."
The book had been a gift from Catherine's mother, who had died when Catherine was twenty-two. Catherine had carried it through three apartments and two years of marriage, keeping it on the bedside table in the room across from Matteo's.
She had never opened the binding.
Agent Lawson arranged for a team to retrieve it under a warrant. Two hours later, the book arrived at the clinic in a sealed evidence box.
Inside the hollowed cover was a thin storage drive.
Catherine watched as a technician connected it to a secure computer.
Thousands of files appeared.
Invoices.
Audio recordings.
Photographs.
Bank transfers.
And one video dated the night her father died.
Catherine gripped the edge of the table.
The recording showed a private meeting in a parking garage. Her father stood beside his car, holding a folder. Enzo approached with another man.
Daniel Mercer.
Matteo's father.
The audio was imperfect, but several sentences were clear.
"You promised the money would be returned," Catherine's father said.
Daniel Mercer answered, "You were never supposed to see the final transfer."
"What happens to the company?"
"Your daughter will be protected."
"By whom?"
Enzo stepped closer.
"By the family."
Catherine's father shook his head.
"Your family destroys everyone it claims to protect."
The recording ended abruptly.
Catherine stared at the frozen image.
"Did they kill him?"
Agent Lawson spoke carefully.
"The footage proves they met him shortly before his death. It does not prove what happened afterward."
Matteo looked as though he had been struck.
"My father knew."
"Yes," Catherine said.
"And he let your father die."
"Possibly."
She turned away from the screen.
For four years, she had believed her marriage was an unfortunate arrangement that might eventually become something real. Now she understood that the arrangement had been part of a much larger structure built on secrets, money, and the assumption that the Bennett family could be controlled.
Matteo approached her but stopped before touching her shoulder.
"I am sorry."
Catherine looked at him.
"You keep apologizing for things you didn't do."
"I inherited the benefits."
"That doesn't make you responsible for every crime your father committed."
"No. But it makes me responsible for what I do now."
Agent Lawson cleared her throat.
"The ledger identifies the destination of the missing money. A private account connected to a charitable trust in Bermuda."
"Who controls it?" Matteo asked.
"The account holder is listed as a deceased woman."
Catherine leaned forward.
"Who?"
The agent turned the screen.
ROSE MERCER.
Matteo stared at his mother's name.
"That's impossible."
Agent Lawson opened the final document.
The account had been activated three days earlier.
A transfer of forty million dollars had been authorized under Rose's signature.
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Someone had used the identity of a dead woman to move the money.
And the authorization code belonged to Catherine.
