We need to close this before she contacts Richard.
Use the temporary credentials we discussed. Make sure the final transfer appears under her employee profile.
Once the investigation begins, she will not have access to the internal system.
Robert.
Richard read the message twice.
Then a third time.
His hands began to shake.
"Daniel."
"Yes, sir?"
"Is this authentic?"
"We haven't completed the forensic verification, but the archived email headers appear genuine."
Richard looked at the signature.
Robert Collins.
His closest business associate.
The man who had stood beside him at company celebrations, attended family dinners, and toasted their success.
The man who had convinced him that Margaret was a thief.
Richard pushed the document away.
For several moments, he could not speak.
Then he stood.
"Get me Robert."
"Sir, it's nearly midnight."
"I don't care."
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
"There's something else."
Richard turned.
"What?"
"The email refers to a conversation with someone else."
"Who?"
Daniel pointed toward the bottom of the document.
There was a second message attached.
It had been sent from Robert's private account.
The recipient's name was partially obscured, but the email address remained visible.
Richard recognized the domain.
It belonged to a company called Easton Advisory.
He had heard of it during the company's 2017 restructuring.
"Who runs Easton Advisory?"
"Jonathan Pierce was one of its consultants. But the company was registered to a different holding group."
"Find the owner."
Daniel nodded.
"I've already requested the corporate records."
Richard looked at the clock.
12:06 a.m.
"Tomorrow morning, I want an emergency board meeting."
Daniel hesitated.
"Should we inform the shareholders?"
"Not until we have verified the evidence."
"Understood."
"And Daniel?"
"Yes?"
Richard looked directly at him.
"You will cooperate fully with the investigation. You will disclose every document you kept, every conversation you remember, and every decision you made."
Daniel nodded.
"I will."
"If I discover that you've withheld anything else, I won't protect you."
"I understand."
Daniel closed the briefcase.
Before leaving, he stopped near the doorway.
"Mr. Whitmore?"
Richard looked up.
"Margaret once told me that she believed you could become the kind of leader people would be proud to work for."
Richard's expression softened slightly.
"She said that?"
"Yes."
Daniel paused.
"She also said that she hoped you would remember why you started the company."
Richard looked down at the documents.
"I wish I had listened."
Daniel left.
Richard remained in the study.
The rain continued falling.
He opened Margaret's letter again and placed it beside the financial ledger.
For the first time, the story was becoming clear.
Margaret had discovered the fraud.
Robert had tried to silence her.
Someone had manipulated the accounting records.
And Richard had accepted the false evidence because he had been too busy to ask the questions that mattered.
But one thing still troubled him.
Why had Robert been so confident that nobody would ever question the investigation?
What had made him believe he could steal millions, frame an innocent woman, and remain protected?
Richard looked at the Easton Advisory email address.
He had a feeling that the answer was much larger than Robert.
The following morning, Richard arrived at the headquarters before seven.
The executive floor was nearly empty.
He walked into his office, placed the documents on his desk, and called Daniel.
"Have you found anything about Easton Advisory?"
"Yes, sir."
"Tell me."
"The company was registered in Delaware in 2015. It received payments from several Whitmore subsidiaries between 2016 and 2018."
"How much?"
"Approximately eight million dollars."
Richard closed his eyes.
"Eight million?"
"Yes."
"Who received the money?"
"Most of the payments were categorized as consulting fees. But we haven't found evidence of actual consulting services."
Richard stood.
"Who signed the contracts?"
"Robert Collins."
"Who approved them?"
"Several executive committee members."
"Names."
Daniel read them aloud.
Richard recognized two of them immediately.
One was a former board director.
The other was Peter Lawson, the company's former chief operating officer.
Peter had retired in 2021.
Richard remembered him as a quiet man who rarely challenged Robert's decisions.
"Is Peter still alive?"
"Yes."
"Contact him."
"Should I tell him about the investigation?"
"No. Tell him I want to meet him privately."
Daniel paused.
"There's another issue."
Richard sighed.
"What now?"
"Robert has contacted several board members this morning."
"About what?"