Chapter 6: The Part Where They Try to Win It Back
Three days later, Elena sat in a small conference room on the fourth floor of a government building that smelled like recycled air and old carpet.
Across the table from her was a woman named Grace Alderton — Daniel's senior investigator — and beside Grace, a court-appointed recorder who had introduced herself and then become invisible.
"I need to walk you through the timeline one more time," Grace said.
"Just the six months between finding the ledger pages and last Tuesday.
In your own words."
Elena had already done this twice.
She did it again.
Grace listened without interrupting.
When Elena finished, Grace made two small marks on her notepad and looked up.
"Hargrove's legal team filed a motion this morning."
Elena waited.
"They're arguing that the investigation was triggered by material obtained without proper authorization.
They're calling the ledger photographs inadmissible and asking for a stay on the account freezes."
"Can they get it?"
"They can ask for it." Grace set her pen down.
"The photographs were taken by you, in a space you had legitimate access to, before any formal investigation existed.
You weren't acting as an agent of the state.
You were an employee who saw something wrong." She paused.
"Their argument has problems."
"But it's not finished."
"No.
It's not finished." Grace looked at her steadily.
"I want you to be prepared for the next few weeks to be uncomfortable.
Hargrove's team will try to reframe you.
They'll suggest you were placed in that house deliberately.
They'll suggest the photographs were staged."
"They weren't."
"I know that.
You know that.
The recorder knows that." Grace tapped the notepad.
"We need to make sure the court knows that in a way that doesn't leave room for interpretation."
Elena nodded.
"There's something else," Grace said.
She opened a folder and slid a single printed page across the table.
Elena looked at it.
It was a bank statement.
A name at the top that she recognized — not Hargrove, not Vanessa.
Someone else.
Someone she had seen in this house, briefly, once, in the corridor outside the east office.
"Who is this?" Elena asked.
"Hargrove's son," Grace said.
"From his first marriage.
He's been living in Portugal for four years.
Officially." She let that word sit.
"The account in that statement received transfers from the Meridian structure on six separate occasions.
The last one was nine days ago."
Elena set the page down.
"He's trying to move assets."
"He was trying to move assets," Grace said.
"Past tense.
The Portuguese authorities were notified yesterday." She closed the folder.
"But here's the problem.
Hargrove's legal team knows we found this.
And now they have a new offer."
Elena looked up.
"He'll give us full cooperation on the Meridian accounts, the Cyprus entities, and three additional names we don't currently have — in exchange for his son being excluded from prosecution."
The recorder's fingers paused on the keys for a fraction of a second.
Then resumed.
"That's not my decision," Elena said.
"No," Grace agreed.
"But Daniel wanted you to know before it was made." She paused.
"Because one of the three names Hargrove is offering — one of them has a connection to you.
To your family.
Before any of this started."
Elena's hands were flat on the table.
She didn't move them.
"What connection?" she said.
Grace looked at her with the careful expression of someone about to hand over something heavy.
"Your father's business," she said.
"Twelve years ago."
The recycled air in the room felt thinner suddenly.
"My father's business was legitimate," Elena said.
"Yes," Grace said.
"It was.
Right up until someone made sure it wasn't."
The recorder typed.
The fluorescent light above them hummed.
May you like
Elena stared at the closed folder on the table between them.
"Tell me the name," she said.
