Lahat ng Kabanata ng Once Bitten, Twice Shy: Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

"Three resignations," Milo said, reading his phone as Nathaniel pulled out of the gate. "No, four. In the last forty minutes."I turned in the passenger seat. "Who?""The finance director. The regional head. Two vice presidents from the operations division." He scrolled. "All of them sent letters to the board secretary at the same time. Same wording. Personal reasons.""The finance director," I said slowly. "The one who signed the wires in my father's folder.""And the regional head." Milo looked up. "Every executive Harold used to move money has quit within the hour.""He's pulling his people out before anyone can question them," Nathaniel said. He kept both hands on the wheel, eyes on the road. "That's not panic. That's a plan."My phone buzzed. I looked down. A text from the board secretary: *Ridgeline Capital's website is offline. The company phone line is disconnected.*"Ridgeline's gone dark," I said."So is Whitmore," Milo said, scrolling. "The auditor Gideon hired. Their offic

"Forty million dollars," Marguerite said, her voice thin. "It left eight minutes ago.""Who authorized it?" I asked."I don't know. The system shows a standing instruction." She tapped the screen. "It says the authorization came from Alden Delaney."The room went silent."My father has been dead for eight years," I said."I know. But the code is still in the system. Someone used it.""His access code," Milo said from the door. He had gone white. "The one Gideon had in the forged documents. The one Harold used the night he died to get into his office.""That code should have died with him," I said."It did, on paper. But banks keep old standing instructions unless someone cancels them. Nobody ever canceled this one." Milo crossed the room in three strides. "Harold has had it the whole time.""Where did the money go?" Nathaniel asked, already leaning over Marguerite's shoulder."A company called Harrow Quay Trading. A wire to a correspondent bank, then on to an account overseas.""Harro

"Replacement," I said, and dropped the pages on the table. "Tell me what that means."Nathaniel and Milo stared at the loose sheets. We were in a small office on the fourteenth floor, borrowed from a vice president who had left in a hurry that morning. Outside the door, I could hear Marguerite's team working through the accounts.Nathaniel picked up the top page. "Where did you get these?""Foster. He kept the secretary's original board notes for eight years." I told them everything, fast. Harold at his house. The flowers for his wife. The school name. The phone calls. "Half the board got touched. Some got paid, some got promoted, some got threatened.""Foster," Milo said slowly. "I'd have bet my license he was clean.""He's not. But he handed me this, and he's willing to testify."Nathaniel spread the pages in a row and read down the margins. His finger stopped on the penciled word. "Every page.""Every page, next to Gideon's name. Beside every promotion. Every vote.""Whose handwrit

"Turn that off," Gideon said.I looked at the recorder on the table. The red light blinked, steady and small. "No.""It's a private thing.""It's evidence, Gideon. It stays on."He glanced at the glass wall. The investigator in the plain suit hadn't moved. Beyond him, I could see the edge of Milo's laptop and the back of Nathaniel's head. Gideon's jaw tightened. For a moment, I thought he would refuse to talk. Then he dropped into the chair and rubbed his face."Fine. Let it run.""What didn't you tell Harold?""The night your father died." He stared at the table. "After Renner left the room, after Harold went to deal with the cameras, I was alone in that office with the files.""Harold told you to take everything.""He told me to bring all of it to his car. And I did." He looked up. "Almost all of it."My hands pressed harder against the table. "What does that mean?""There was a folder on your father's desk, under the lamp. Thin. Green cover. I picked it up to put it in the box with

"It's a trap," Nathaniel said."I know." I watched the floor numbers climb. "He told us where to find him. Men like Harold don't give anything away for free.""Then why are we in this elevator?""Because he wrote 'the place where this started,' and I know what that means." The doors opened on the fourteenth floor. "And because he wants me to come."Milo shifted his bag on his shoulder. "The investigator is in the lobby with a tracing team. If Harold makes contact, they need time to find the signal.""Then we give them time," I said. "We keep him talking."Nathaniel caught my sleeve. "If this goes bad, we walk out. Agreed?""Agreed."I didn't mean it, and he knew. He let go anyway.My father's office sat at the end of the hall. His nameplate still hung on the door. I pushed it open, and the smell of cedar and old paper hit me first. Every book sat where he had left it.The screen on the far wall lit up before I reached the desk."Don't sit in that chair, Elise," Harold said. "It never