Chapter 12 - The Name Victor Was Afraid To Say.
Ava leaned closer to the tablet.
"You expect me to believe you were protecting my mother now?"
Victor shook his head.
"No. I expect you to understand that I was not the highest person in the chain."
James folded his arms.
"Then name the person above you."
Victor remained silent.
Elena moved into view of the camera.
"Harold Vance."
Victor's expression told them she was close but not correct.
"Vance signed paperwork."
"Who ordered it?"
Victor looked toward the officer outside the patrol car.
"I want immunity."
The police commander almost laughed.
"You are negotiating with the wrong room."
Victor looked back at Ava.
"Your mother had proof involving a federal pension fund, defense contracts, and land purchases around military bases."
James's face hardened.
"Be precise."
"I can't on an unsecured call."
Elena's voice sharpened.
"You had fourteen years to discover courage, Victor."
He flinched at the word courage.
Ava watched him closely.
"Why are you afraid of Nolan?"
Victor hesitated.
"Because my son thinks the conspiracy belonged to me."
"Didn't it?"
"Partly."
Victor swallowed.
"But if he finds the original ledger, he will discover his grandfather created the scheme before I ever took over Price Holdings."
Celeste suddenly stood in the foyer.
"Turn that off."
The officer ordered her to sit.
She did not.
Victor heard her voice through the tablet.
"Celeste?"
Her face went white with fury.
"You coward."
Ava looked from Celeste to Victor.
"Her father?"
Elena closed her eyes.
The pieces clicked together for her first.
"Senator Malcolm Hale."
James stared at her.
Malcolm Hale had died six years earlier after serving three decades in public office.
His memorial foundation still funded military families, hospitals, scholarships, and half the political campaigns in the state.
Celeste was his only daughter.
Victor spoke quickly now.
"Hale used Price construction companies to move pension funds through fake infrastructure contracts."
Elena added the rest.
"My security patents exposed the transfers because the facilities did not exist where the invoices claimed they did."
Victor nodded.
"When Elena threatened to report it, Hale ordered me to stop her."
James's voice went flat.
"And you chose kidnapping."
"I chose containment."
Ava recoiled at the word.
Elena's eyes sharpened.
"You chose a locked hospital room and fourteen stolen years."
Victor looked ashamed for perhaps the first time.
"Yes."
Celeste shouted from behind them.
"My father protected this country."
James turned.
"He protected his accounts."
Celeste pointed at Elena.
"She would have destroyed everything he built."
"Then everything he built deserved to fall."
Ava heard herself say it before she realized the words were hers.
Celeste stared at her with naked contempt.
"You sound just like your mother."
Ava held her gaze.
"Thank you."
Elena's eyes filled.
The commander ended the video call after Victor agreed to speak formally with investigators.
Ava asked the question everyone had avoided.
"Where is the original ledger?"
Elena looked toward the archive drive.
"Not on the server."
Victor had mentioned it as though it still existed physically.
James scanned the mansion.
"Then it is probably here."
Celeste smiled suddenly.
That smile warned Ava before the words did.
"No."
Celeste looked toward the open patio doors.
"Nolan has it."
A phone rang somewhere in the room.
It was not Ava's.
It was not James's.
Elena reached slowly into her coat and removed a small burner phone she had never mentioned.
The screen displayed one incoming number.
She answered.
Nolan's voice came through immediately.
"Mom always said you were hard to kill."
Elena went still.
May you like
Nolan continued.
"Let's see how hard your daughter is to save."
